Written by: Jason Aaron
Art by: John Cassaday
Publisher: Marvel
We stand on the cusp of a new era in Star Wars comics (how’s that for some Star Warsian hyperbolic dialogue?). With Star Wars #1 the property comes back to Marvel, after over two decades at Dark Horse. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention a certain sadness at seeing Skywalker and the gang leaving the Dark Horse Stable. If this first issue is any indication, however, things are in good hands at Marvel.
Jason Aaron picks things up directly after the destruction of the first Death Star for this run, and, in this issue, our protagonists infiltrate an Imperial weapons manufacturing facility to follow up that huge rebel victory. Of course, as is par for the course with Star Wars, things aren’t quite that simple. With the publisher changeover I was expecting the creative team to kick things off with a story that made a point of this being a new beginning; the fact that they went the direction of focusing on continuity is actually refreshing. Going this route makes this issue feel more cinematic, and less a separate entity, which has tended to be the case with the comics in the past, even at their best. Aaron has been on a roll for a while, so it’s not surprising that he knocks the ball out of the park here. He does a commendable job keeping the characters feeling like their film counterparts without resorting to dialogue that simply retreads nostalgic ground. There are a couple references to moments from the films, but it all feels in line with the way that The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi had self referential moments.
From an art standpoint, the entire book feels near perfect. John Cassaday is using the visual language of the movies here. There are numerous panels in this issue that use angles that are immediately recognizable from the films, and the pacing and treatment of the book’s more kinetic moments add to this feeling even more. The design, with elements like the opening crawl and credits, really completes the picture.
In case it’s not obvious at this point, one of the book’s biggest strengths so far is that the creative team is really managing to make this feel like it’s on the level of the films. This does also highlight one of the biggest potential issues with the comics being in the hands of the same company that’s in control of the film rights: with the decision that canon in the comics starts “now,” Marvel is likely to be a bit more beholden to the continuity mandated by Marvel, rather than the free reign that Dark Horse seemed to have. This isn’t necessarily an issue, but it is something gives me slight pause, especially when I considered the time frame that they chose to kick things off with. I don’t want to think of what happens to the Star Wars comics if they’re left with nothing but the scrap elements that Disney doesn’t want to reserve for the films. Hopefully that won’t prove to be the case. While this was something on my mind, it didn’t stop me from enjoying the book immensely, obviously.
