“Woah, how much did I drink last night?”
Classic Star Wars: Devilworlds #2
FINAL ISSUE
Dark Horse (September, 1996)
WRITER: Alan Moore COVER ARTIST: Christopher Moeller DESIGNER: Scott Tice EDITOR: Scott Allie “Rust Never Sleeps” ARTIST: Alan Davis COLORIST: Matt Webb LETTERER: Jenny O’Connor “The Pandora Effect” ARTIST: Adolfo Buylla COLORIST: Laura Allred LETTERER: Jenny O’Connor “Tilotny Throws A Shape” ARTIST: John Strokes COLORIST: Pamela Rambo LETTERER: Jerry ParisFor those of you who missed last week’s review, Devilworlds is a collection of comics from the UK’s Empire Strikes Back magazine. Alan Moore was the writer of all three stories ending this collection, and by the last tale you’ll wonder if Moore even heard of Star Wars much less saw it.
Our first story features Artoo Deetoo and See Threepio, who have journeyed to the planet Ronyards. Think of it as Junkion but with all droids. Over time, these barely functioning droids have merged into the planet and become a sort-of god, so that when the Imperials come to mine it the droid world is powerful enough to take out an entire Star Destroyer. It’s the closest to actually emulating the franchise that Moore will get to but it’s not so much an R2/3PO story as the droids being our perspective characters into Ronyards.
If our next tale was the most bizarre thing from that magazine I’d have been fine. Set before Empire, Han and Chewbacca are supposed to be escorting Leia but they stop off to smuggle some medical supplies, which upsets a local warlord. As our heroes make their escape both parties end up in a sort of Bermuda Triangle (complete with triangle) and end up prisoners of five people who worship evil, like Skeletor but with skin. They delight in torture and even Han is no match for them. However, they made the mistake of thinking Chewie was a dumb animal and he lets the other animals escape, including a “force creature” called Wutzek, a demon by their terms, who gets his revenge on the five and in a rare show of gratitude lets our trio leave while destroying the ship. As Han says, at least that thing was let loose in Imperial territory.
It’s our last story where things go over the line and keeps going like a pod racer. I don’t even know how to describe it. Leia’s ship is forced down and Stormtroopers are chasing her. She also twisted her ankle. Then she comes upon a group of beings who apparently aren’t used to physical form and start messing around with Leia and the Troopers. Tilotny is the name of one of the beings. It’s like Moore threw as much insanity as he could into this story and let’s just say Moore is no Bob Haney. It’s like he didn’t sleep for days before writing it.
Like the previous issue, getting these is more a curiosity than anything else. The story are so unlike the series, especially Alan Moore’s tales, that I can’t really recommend this even to most die-hard Star Wars fans…unless you want to see something really bizarre.
BW Media Spotlight 