May the Fourth Be With You - The Star Wars

[kamino_neko]

A bit late in the day, sorry, but...I felt it needed to be posted.



In 2013/2014, just before their license expired, Dark Horse did a rather interesting Star Wars series. The Star Wars - based on the original draft script that bore only the slightest resemblance to the final material.

Here's some scans from issue 1...I'll post more if there's interest.


We open on the Imperial world of Alderaan, where the Emperor is giving a speech...


While elsewhere...



We break from the narrative to make some commentary...this sequence is interesting design-wise. The Imperial troopers are clearly based on the canon Storm Troopers, yet also noticeably different. Ditto Vader. I think Bail rather resembles the guy used for Jabba the Hutt in the deleted scene between him and Han before the CGI Jabba was added (maybe that's just me, though)... This harkening back to the actual movies, while also skewing away from them is generally a strength, but it's also a weakness at points, as it encourages comparison in the way the characters and story don't...at least so I think. (The Stardestroyers cracked me the hell up when I saw them...) Anyway...back to the story!

Meanwhile, on Aquilaea, the king and his council are discussing the Empire's...let's call them overtures of peace...




Here, again, we may have a design based on the actual movies - the guy next to Sandage really brings Lobot to mind for me. Also...heh, Tarkin. Wonder if his title is Moff...

Also, is it me, or does Luke bear a strong resemblance to young George Lucas?

After this conversation - which is broken off as the king's eldest daughter, Princess Leia, is seen off, as she is returning to school for the semester - Luke heads back to his war room...



'It doesn't feel good.' Not sure if missed chance at reference, or deliberate aversion of reference...funny, anyway...

Anyway, at this point, Luke and his men are interrupted by two men barging into the war room - Luke's old friend Kane Starkiller, and his elder son, Annikin. (The younger son, Deak, who looked a LOT like canon!Luke, was killed by a Sith Knight early in the story.) Kane asks Luke to take Annikin on as his student...




And that's how Annikin Starkiller became Luke Skywalker's Padawan.

~6.5 pages out of 20.

Comments

[ozaline]

Some of the designs are clearly based around Maguire's original concept art,

Seen here in action figure form

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/g3ybG6AhH1E/maxresdefault.jpg

[kamino_neko]

Yeah, some of those designs are used wholesale, a few are used in modified form. Threepio is a somewhat simplified version, for instance.

[ozaline]

Gah not Maguire... his name was Ralph McQuarrie!!!

[crinos]

Linkara actually did an episode on this.

[jeyl]

And referenced a Doctor Who monster that I've been trying for years to forget.

[glprime]

This is actually pretty amazing AU. Thanks for sharing.

[kamino_neko]

It is pretty cool...I'd like to see a followup, but I'm not sure how Disnarvelucas intends to handle Legends stories.

[q99]

This one's even more unusual since it's not part of the general EU continuity.

It did fairly well sales wise, but I don't think I've seen any rumbling for a sequel... it's not exactly clear where it'd go next, and the universe isn't as broad as the main SW movies got.

[kamino_neko]

I wouldn't call canon all that broad before the actual sequels and EU came out, either. And as to direct sequels, there's a couple hooks seeded in the last couple issues - expand on the war, actually do the Saga of the Ophuchi, deal with how the Knights of the Sith deal with a resurgent Jedi order...the other couple ideas that come to mind are spoilery, so....

[q99]

Sure, but I mean, even just talking the movies, there's usually 2 locations per film plus hints at more.

Between a trilogy and a big screenplay, the trilogy still wins out.

Yea, granted, there's a few plot hooks in there, but a lot of it would have to be practically whole cloth. I mean, we only really know one Sith, and he didn't talk about their philosophy or order very much.

[kamino_neko]

Again, most of the stuff in the EU and the sequels of the canon universe, that wasn't taken from the draft that was adapted into this, was either ex nihilo, or from little things like that, too.

The canon universe is fully fleshed out, now, because it's had almost 40 years of EU stuff and sequels, but it didn't start out as anything but fertile but unfurrowed ground, just like this.

[q99]

But I mean, *just* the actual movies-movies have more stuff than The Star Wars. There's more to hang a story and other new bits on, we know the characters and wider universe better, even if you merely stepped out of the first showing of RotJ.

One 'movie' vs three, in short.

[q99]

I really do like this, and the fantastic art doesn't hurt.

Get to the Sith, I like the sith in the series :)

[kamino_neko]

Yeah, Valorum is cool. The canon Sith would be more interesting if they were like him.

[q99]

It's interesting how Vader had nadda to do with the Sith, Valorum's name eventually got reused as a politician, and the Sith apparently use gas weapons...

[kamino_neko]

It's interesting how Vader had nadda to do with the Sith

I love the interaction between Vader and Valorum, on that note. But, you know...spoilers.

[icon_uk]

As far as we poor movie centric people are concerned, there never were any Sith, making "Dark Lord of the Sith" THE most meaningless title imaginable.

[sagrada]

General Skywalker looks so much to me like an idealized version of old man Lucas that it's distracting.

And the rest, it's pretty clear how lucky we are that Star Wars arrived in its familiar form. This is like a kid's version of Dune(assuming kids don't read Dune anyway, which is ludicrous), where everything is ponderous and stately, grandiloquent and dramatic in a way that's totally antithetical to those ground-breaking action movies from the late Seventies and early Eighties.

(Also, in that first panel showing Vader I was super-excited that we'd get some kind of Evil Hottie Vader...and then we see the rest and it's all very disappointing.)

Please do continue posting scans of this! It's quite interesting to see the road not taken outlined and brought together.

[kamino_neko]

General Skywalker looks so much to me like an idealized version of old man Lucas that it's distracting.

It's amusing...I got used to it pretty quick, but for a lot of the first issue I kept pulling back and thinking 'wow, he looks Lucassy'...

I actually prefer this version to canon, myself. The 'ponderous and dramatic' just suits me more than the action serial nature of the original.

And I think Vader looks just fine, personally. The one panel is not a flattering angle on his haircut, but aside from that.

[lordultimus]

This issue was good, but it quickly descends into madness with ten plotlines happening at once. It's still enjoyable, but it makes me think that this treatment would have worked better as a tv show, or even a long running comic series like Rom Spaceknight.

On a side note, Vader does get his helmet here, but without the mask it's pretty underwhelming.