“Yesterday’s” Comic: The Phantom Menace adaptation

“Okay, everyone. Group photo.”

Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace

Dark Horse (May, 1999)

If you’re on this site I’m going to assume you already know the plot to the first of the Star Wars prequels. This also took a while to read so I want to speed things up as I have a lot to get done today. So pardon me for breaking format. Besides, you just want to know how this stands as an adaptation and the answer is perfectly. When it comes to adaptations this is one to judge others by.

Originally released as four issues, the comic takes time to properly tell the story, leaving nothing behind that can work in a comic format…at least until the end, where there are moments of captioning and exposition but at this point there wouldn’t be enough to make five issues. Of course it also means they left some parts of the movie people don’t like, such as the midi-chlorian discussion, a missed opportunity to tone Jar Jar down a bit, and the part about Anakin being conceived by the Force/midi-chlorians itself/themselves. That said, when the problems with the adaptation are only the problems you had with the movie, they did something right.

The artwork is beautiful with one exception, the facial expressions. Rarely do characters show emotion (except for Jar Jar and the occasional smile) and most of the time people’s mouths are barely open if at all when they talk. Otherwise the artwork is fantastic.

Of course the movie is recommended over the comic adaptation but if you do want a complete Star Wars comic library this is a great addition, depending on your thoughts about the movie.