“Yesterday’s” Comic> Star Wars #23

Channeling his inner Dark Helmet.

Star Wars #23

Marvel (May, 1979)

Coming in on the tail end of this arc here’s what I can surmise: For whatever reason our band of Rebels ended up on a space station casino called The Wheel. There Rebels are being framed for stealing the take from the station, but it turns out that the Empire, via Commander Strom, have been framing the Rebellion for their own theft. Senator Greyshade, who had been working with him, agreed to expose the Empire in exchange for Princess Leia to go with him, which she agrees to when Chewbacca is forced to kill Han in a zero-g combat arena.

Luke isn’t happy about losing his girlfriend (we’ll come back to that later) or seeing his best friend die but he has no choice but to go along with Leia’s decision, which has him mad. However, Strom had been drugged at some point by somebody and blames the Rebels, declaring marital law and ordering our heroes and Greyshade killed. Master Com, the droid computer who runs the station, is loyal to Greyshade and helps R2 broadcast proof that the Wheel guards, under Strom’s orders, were the real source of the thefts and the gamblers, used to the Wheel being a sanctuary, riot. In the confusion Han (who survived Chewie’s blaster by hiding a ray shield under his shirt) and Chewbacca are forced to leave their winnings behind to reach the Millennium Falcon, while Luke and Threepio are forced back to Greyshade’s yacht to escape. Greyshade, deciding two men risking their lives for the Princess is something he can’t compete with, stays behind with Master Com to cover their escape, sacrificing themselves to stop Strom, Greyshade finally learning the meaning of friendship thanks to his droid companion. Waiting outside, however, is Darth Vader, but all of Luke’s rage bursts out at once, being picked up by Vader searching for the would-be Jedi he has only sensed at this point but never actually met. This allows both ships to escape Vader once again.

Instead of the usual formula, and since this the only comic I have written before The Empire Strikes Back, I want to go over some interesting things about this story in hindsight. I will say the art is good, although Chewbacca seems to be having a bad fur day. You would have thought they would have fixed his design by this stage. The obvious think is Luke & Leia’s relationship. When the original Star Wars was first released they didn’t think there would BE any sequels, so they followed what they expected, the hero saves the day and romances the girl. We know now that Lucas planned to hook Leia and HAN up and Luke was to be a secret sibling to protect them from their father. Back then, however, the comics and novels all assumed the usual cliche rather than the one they went with (the bickering couple falls in love) and that’s what we got, and where people get the gag about unintentional incest. As I’ve said in the past, that wasn’t the movies’ doing, but the Expanded Universe.

Also interesting in light of what we know about Jedi and Sith is that Luke is really shown to be angry, and it’s that anger that actually allows the Rebels to escape (from a certain point of view and yes I had to say that). This would, in theory, be leading him down the path to becoming Sith rather than Jedi and in hindsight is rather interesting.

The story itself is quite good as a finale and I want to see the rest of the story. I also want to see the next issue, which the teaser claims will be a story of Ben Kenobi during the Clone Wars. Based on what we know about that and Anakin Skywalker that we didn’t when this comic came out I want to see it even more, to see what Goodwin (or whomever wrote that issue) came up with and how he depicted Obi-Wan and possibly Anakin back then as well as how the Clone Wars worked (I always assumed the heroes fought the clones, not worked beside them until the secret Sith Lord turned them against the Jedi.) So I do recommend this issue not only because it is a good story but to compare how characters were written back then versus what has happened in the movie since and what’s coming from Disney/Lucasfilm in the future.