I was pretty excited when I found out that Dark Horse Comics was going to do a comic based on George Lucas’ 1974 rough draft Star Wars screenplay. Your friendly neighborhood jman is a big fan of Star Wars (the original trilogy, thank you very much). Big fan. To be honest, though, over the years my interest in Star Wars has waned a bit. I think we’ve all suffered a bit of Star Wars abuse the last decade or so. And it’s left me a bit “meh” about most things Star Wars.
But, with Disney taking ownership of Star Wars, and with what seems to be their approach of less emphasis on the new trilogy, the Force is beginning to feel…balanced.
Which brings us to the Star Wars #1. Dark Horse adapting Lucas’s rough draft is a fairly clever move on their part. Getting a jump on the re-invigorated interest in the original trilogy is a great plan. Especially since it appears much of the original trilogy will be infused in the next phase of Star Wars movieness.
Now, as much of a fan as I am of the original trilogy, I really don’t know much about this 1974 original screenplay. Yea, it’s been out on the internets forever. It’s probably one of the first documents Al Gore uploaded to the world wide web when he invented the internets (don’t quote me on that, though). But, I still haven’t had much of a desire to see what it’s about. I guess I’m just content with how the original trilogy came to be.
Because of that, I also don’t know how much of the material contained in the comic book was “adapted” and how much of it is true to the 1974 screenplay. So, my commentary will be based on the assumption that it’s about as true to the screenplay as it gets.
One more caveat, reading something like the Star Wars, it’s hard to stay objective. It’s hard to read this without tainted eyes. I went back and re-read the comic a few times before writing this, because I spent way too much time looking for parallels the first couple times. Which, there are plenty of…and not just in the original trilogy, either. But, the new one as well.
So…my overall impression? The story is ok. I guess there’s a reason why this particular version of Star Wars didn’t get made into a movie. It’s a bit…boring. There are a lot of words. A LOT. I’m not a big fan of wordy comic books. My eyes tend to glaze over. If I wanted a lot of words, I’d read a book (or in this case, the screenplay).
There are some things that I find…well, silly. The outfits the Jedi wear are a bit ridiculous. What’s with the high pony tails and the head gear? I guess this is where what we’ve come to love taints what we’re trying to see objectively. We’re used to Jedis a bit more…understated.
And what is it with Lucas and cutting beings in half?!?!?
Nitpicking aside, there are definite positives. The artwork is more than adequate, at times it’s even stellar. And, contrary to what I’ve already said, it is kinda neat seeing the beginnings of all the characters. The personalities in the different characters, trying to figure out how this one evolved into that one, as much as it takes away from reading this book as an original story, seeing the beginnings of the Star Wars evolution is cool.
Of course, I’m going to see this one through. It’s a no brainer. No matter how bad it gets, Dark Horse has me on the $3.99/issue hook for all 8 issues. In fact, I’m so much a Stepford, I’ll probably even buy the trade cause it’s bound to have some other goodies not included in the individual comics.
There’s a new episode of your friendly neighborhood jman almost internet famous internet show coming soon! You don’t want to miss out, do ya?!?!?
Newsdesk