Are You Reading This? – Brian Wood’s Star Wars

Reader warning: the following article will contain minor spoilers to discuss the developments of Dark Horse’s new, stellar run (pun intended) in the worlds created by George Lucas. Consider yourself warned, padawans.

May the Force be with you. Always.

Once the Death Star exploded in those final minutes of the first Star Wars flick ever filmed, we all knew that the Empire was not just going to pack up, take its ball, and go home. No, we trusted that there were plenty of nefarious characters – admirals, Moffs, Grand Moffs, etc., not to mention bounty hunters – who couldn’t wait for the chance to strike back at our rebels. As a consequence, George Lucas, Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Fox gave us The Empire Strikes Back a mere three years later.

But the question remained: what happened in-between?

In 1978, novelist Alan Dean Foster delivered the pretty solid Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, a respectable adventure meant to fill-in-the-gap. It saw Luke, Leia, and their faithful droids looking for planets to join the Alliance when a strong disturbance in the Force points the former resident of Tatooine to the Kaiburr crystal, a gem that magically enhances one’s Force abilities. Luke knows such a treasure will inevitably draw the attention of a certain Sith Lord – which it does – and that pits the two of them in a grand showdown that (to my tastes) stretched credibility just a wee bit.

(For purists, Dark Horse did adapt Splinter into an equally solid comics mini-series — with some tweaks — in 1996.)

A few months back, I had the chance to read the new Dark Horse Comic – Star Wars: In The Shadow of Yavin – so I did. The book promised to better explore what happened after A New Hope faded to black. It did to great critical and commercial acclaim – it’s currently in its F-O-U-R-T-H printing, people. After I read it, I encouraged folks to read it.

This week, Issue 5 hit newsstands, and I thought I’d put in another plug. Seriously, if you’re not reading this title, you’re missing a terrific return to that era a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away …

Of course, Yavin was only the beginning.

What developed in the natural progression from the ‘Shadow of Yavin’ storyline (with this issue, it looks like they’ve finally dropped that subtitle) is proving to be nothing short of epic. As I’ve said in my ongoing reviews of Wood’s work (elsewhere on the Web), I grew up – as did many – in this Original Trilogy (OT) era, and Wood’s story along with artwork by Carlos D’Anda has been exciting, refreshing, and rewarding. They’ve managed to recapture the magic of our Rebel heroes – Solo’s righteously smug again; Leia’s got a big stick up her butt; Luke can’t quite figure out his place in the expanding universe; and Chewie’s always ready with a growling quip or a full-throated howl.

To its credit, Issue 5 is a bit of a departure from what’s come before, as Issues 1-4 were largely dedicated to re-establishing this timeframe, re-acquainting readers with the who’s and what’s and where’s, and raising the stakes with more threats, characters, and situations. What we learned in those multiple issues was that Luke was still struggling to understand what his Jedi powers were going to mean for his destiny; Princess Leia was tapped by Mon Mothma to locate a planet for a new base of operations; and the captain of the Millenium Falcon and his first mate couldn’t help finding trouble wherever it waited. In the meantime, Vader’s career appears to be in demise as Emperor Palpatine still hasn’t forgiven him for the loss of his fully-operational battle station.

And, yes, even Threepio and Artoo make the obligatory appearance.

But – with Issue 5 – Wood pulls out all of the stops to deliver a bang-up space battle that pits Leia’s secret Gray Squadron (you have to read the book, I won’t spoil it) against some elite, experimental TIE Fighters. It isn’t a complete standalone departure from what’s come before – in fact, one could argue that reading the first four issues is requisite in order to fully understand the risks at play in this chapter – but it’s likely as close as we’re going to get until the Rebellion finds a new home or the Empire closes up its oppression business and starts selling doughnuts.

Seriously, I can’t heap enough praise on what Wood is accomplishing here. Largely, that’s because there’s nothing like it in the Star Wars universe available right now.

Those of us who follow the developments know that the televised Clone Wars have ended, though there’s some promised new content coming at some point in the future. Timothy Zahn’s latest book, Scoundrels, I found to be a bit undercooked, mostly because all of the great characters featured prominently on the cover (Solo, Chewbacca, Calrissian) end up sharing ‘screen time’ with a bunch of other crooks who aren’t nearly as scandalous, interesting, or palatable. The new film – Episode 7, to be directed by JJ Abrams – is still a few years off … so the only way to get your appetite sated is with Dark Horse’s colorful pages.

Taking advantage of this spotlight, Wood is successfully dishing out exactly the kind of story fans like me have been waiting for: adventure and intrigue at a time when that’s all the Rebel Fleet could offer. Also, D’Anda’s artwork is nothing short of incredible. His lines breathe life once more into the heroes of our youth (well, MY youth, anyway). Gabe Eltaeb’s colors and Michael Heisler’s lettering are simply icing on the proverbial cake.

Pick it up. Today. I dare you. No, I double-dare you.

It’s a lean, mean 24 pages that taps into the established premise and delivers a hit outta-the-park. It dishes out two cliffhangers that’ll no doubt leave its audience breathless for the next thirty days.

The Force remains strong with this crew. Let’s hope they can deliver an even stronger finish.