I also think you have to bear in mind too that, with the best will in the world, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda are both quite manipulative towards Luke in the original trilogy. They are often economical with the truth and also fairly calculated in what they tell him and when they it to him. There are a number of examples in the OT where what they say to him earlier turns out to be not entirely true or only true "from a certain point of view."

I am planning a proper reply to you BTW wildfire2099, in response to your most recent musings on these issues. But I've been doing painting and decorating the last day or two, so haven't had time to properly respond. Stay tuned for transmission, Red 5.

Well said; its the reason so many fans criticized the introduction of Midichlorians in The Phantom Menace, as it was seen as a convoluted attempt to "Star Trek-ize" the Force (i.e. apply a scientific explanation), when all that was known from the OT had its understanding and access as a spiritual / psychological process.

I've always chalked it up to Qui-Gonn Jinn being the Jedi equivalent of a flat-Earther, Obi-Won internally rolling his eyes at the whole thing.

OK, more catching up with replies...




Yeah, "statesman-like" probably wasn't the right term for what I meant. I think I mean that Lando is slightly more measured or image concious than Han, which I attribute to his having run Cloud City prior to joining the Rebellion. For example, in the scene you mention, in which he lets Luke "steal" the Falcon, I think that the fact that Lando didn't offer to go with Luke is telling and was partly motivated by a desire to protect himself and his image within the Rebellion. It gave him plausible deniability: "Hey, how was I to know Luke would steal the Falcon?"

I think Han would've gone along with Luke and Chewie and consequences be damned! That, to me, is an example of how Lando is written differently to Han in the Marvel run.




Yeah, this is a great issue and a fantastic finale to the Pariah story arc. I agree that the sequences in the Imperial data facility are brilliantly done.




I think that's a wholly plausible explanation, actually.




Yeah, prior to issue #60 is where I have it placed this issue in my Marvel Star Wars chronology timeline. It's just a shame that it was published out of sequence, right before the epilogue of the Pariah arc, as it breaks up the momentum of that excellent story a tad.




I like this story much more than I did as a kid. I hated it when it came out. But these days I can see its merits a bit more. I just find it a bit underwhelming and unmemorable, and lacking in the art department. It's also one of those "Arthurian fairy tale in space" style stories that we got dropped into the SW series from time to time. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh giving it a 4. If you got me drunk I might revise that to a 5, but no way would I give it a 6 or 7!




Ah, I see. Gotcha. I certainly hope they carry on with it because I enjoy your comments on each issue.




Agreed. As I think I said in my last reply, I love that Michelinie gives random Rebel footsoldiers individual character voices like that. It adds real flavour to the comic.




Yeah, I agree. This is a great little "done-in-one" issue, that is also slightly tied into current continuity. Though it's not an "amazing" issue, it's still a very well written story, with a gripping plot and a nice conclusion. The Simonson/Palmer artwork is great too.




Who says he did? Luke's X-Wing wasn't completely crippled: it just had a damaged hyperdrive. In the final panel, we see Luke's ship flying away from Beheboth, but there's no indication in the comic that the hyperdrive is fixed. Maybe Luke managed to get a message to the Rebellion and the issue finishes with Luke flying up from the surface of the planet to rendezvous with Rebel rescue craft? Beheboth can't be far from Golrath, seeing as though Luke limped there in a ship without a hyperdrive, so it's likely that the Rebellion would have sent a search party back to look for him, once it became clear that he hadn't come through hyperspace with the others.




Urrgghhh...yeah, not a great issue. A real letdown.




Hey, what now?! No way would I call "The Darker" a stinker. I mean, sure, it's not the most significant or exciting story in the run, but there's a lot of humour in it and, overall, I think it's a fun issue. Teaming Chewie up with Plif and the Droids is a nice touch too because it's an unusual blend of characters and I always enjoyed it whenever the Marvel SW comic did that kind of thing.

As for the entire Rebellion looking for Han, I do take your point. It is a bit strange. However, it's clear from Leia's dialogue that the whole briefing wasn't just taken up with talk of rescuing Han. That was just one part of it, albeit the most important part from the looks of it.

I guess that with an important Rebel figurehead like the Princess, a General like Lando, and a famous Commander and Rebel hero like Luke Skywalker all looking for Han -- who is himself a well known hero of the Rebellion -- it's likely that significant personnel resources might be re-directed to help with the search, which would make it relevant news to the assembled Rebels. But it might just as easily have been a morale boosting announcement. As I say, Han had to have been pretty famous within the Rebellion by this time, so the news that the Rebels might be getting one of the original heroes of the Battle of Yavin back among their ranks certainly wouldn't have hurt morale.

That was another issue; early on in this series (e.g. the solid Infantino/Goodwin era), Han was portrayed a bit closer to his screen source--more of a true rogue and not "dumb" as you observe about his characterization in this annual. You would think after several years and two movies to refer to, that characters would be tight mirrors of their film counterparts, but Michelinie was simply off.

About an older post:



After the events of TESB, I doubt Vader would give an order for any random person to kill him, since Luke was not only his son and overall legacy, but he was essentially THE prize Vader & the Emperor wanted to use toward the goal of ultimate domination. After all he (and Palpatine) invested in trying to capture and personally turn Luke, the only way Vader would allow any harm to come to Luke is from his own hand--if Luke continued to resist, as seen early in the Death Star 2 duel in Return of the Jedi, so Vader's order is out of character with the movie source.




Characters acting out of character was not an uncommon issue with Marvel's Star Wars, as the Vader "dead or alive" order exemplified. Yes, despite Han's service to the Alliance, he was not going to be some urgent mission for a group waging a civil war and almost always on the run. This is the reason his rescue in ROTJ made sense in that it was--ultimately--a personal matter that did not warrant a fugitive alliance exposing themselves or committing their limited resources toward in any way.

Finished the epic volume today....


#68 (The Search begins) and #69 (Death in the city of bone)-

So many issues here. On the face, it's a good story.. if you take it at face value. If you don't know about RoTJ, or anything else. Granted, they know Han is going to Jabba, and Luke knows about Jabba, but... well, but what? Why not work that angle first? That's my main sticking point with the issue. There's no particular reason to think Jabba's not already in possession of Han, or that Han is even alive, until they check. Talking to the other bounty hunters isn't going to tell them that.

As Confessor pointed out in his review... they already had a plan to go to Tatooine, so what was this escapade even accomplishing?

That's my main plot issue. The contradictions of Mandalore's history (which is now quite extensive thanks for Clone Wars and Rebels) obviously didn't exist yet, so that's just one of those things. Even the saying he new Leia during the Clone Wars thing.... it wasn't established yet that the Clone Wars were a generation before.

I also question that they could actually build an entire Star Wars tech fortress in a skeleton.. the interior shots don't really make sense. And why did Fenn save her when she conned him with a kiss and stole his captive? I get that she's the good guy, but I'm not sure anyone is that forgiving that fast.

Then there's the fact that the guy in charge is some random alien. While I like having random aliens, having one in charge of an Imperial facility is not what should happen... they are famously against non-humans, after all, and that guy didn't exactly radiate confidence like Thrawn.

That all said, it was a great story to just sit and read and not think about too much.

#70-72 (Stenax saga)

# 70 was very fill-inish to me, and I hate Kerry Gammill's art. I do really like Jo Duffy's Lando though, he feels much more like Lando and not Han-substitute in this story, which amused me greatly. I would like to know why Bossk and IG-88 were randomly hanging out together though, that's not clear, other than having an excuse to follow up on that fill in. I did really like the Stenax... too bad we didn't get more about them (especially how Chewie convinced them to help). I mean, grabbing that guys leg did it? Ric was interesting.. sort like a dark mirror image of Han, but I don't really need him and Dani to be recurring characters. Then there's the fact that there's no reason at all for them to have a Carbonite chamber.. there didn't seem to be any mining operations going on (the usual use of Carbonite). Then there's Leia happening to know that governor guy from the Senate... based on the fact that the Senate was HUGE, it seems unlikely she would know a random guy that was not of her political views. I guess maybe what she was saying is she was famous enough to be known? That would be alot more logical.

#73 Lashbane

OK, so let me get this straight... the LEADER of the rebellion, and arguably your top two pilots, get detours to pick up a random x-wing guy's flight logs? Really? I guess that makes it feel better than they called in everyone to search for Han, and I get it was 'on the way', but geez.

Other than that, and that we get another cutesy alien race (who apparently turn into big giant guys), this was a pretty good story.. the contrast of Leia and Dani was really good.


Hopefully at some point I'll be able to get the rest of the run, but this set of issues (Michelinie's run, really) is definitely my the best of the lot, so I'm glad I got to them