IMO Lucas was trapped in falling into his own rabbit hole (giant green bunny sized) in feeling like he needed to "connect" all the characters and plots. If Star Wars is truly the middle chapter of a long cliff hanger serial as he intended, then there is so much more that could transpire and be told.

Leia should NOT be Luke's sister, she is part of the classic romantic triangle that has been in myth and stories forever like Arthur/Gwen/Lancelot.

Vader should NOT be Anakin, Luke's father but instead be the totally evil menace that has to be defeated before the Rebels can confront the ULTIMATE evil of the Emperor.

Han should remain the good hearted money seeking mercenary bad boy that has the curiosity of Leia's thoughts but it is Luke who is her true hero and has her heart.

Artoo/Threepio should remain comedic foils in the story essentially squires to Luke the Jedi in training helping but not connected as essential pieces to the ENTIRE plotline of prequels and sequels.

Kenobi is better off as the failed crazy mystical Merlin like hermit who failed in his entrusted duty to protect and train young Skywalker and gives up his life to redeem himself and pass his power to Luke than as a master of the Jedi council.

Leia should be the plucky, determined and skilled princess that leads the rebellion in eventually defeating the evil Empire.

Empire took a turn in changing ALL the possibilities and imaginations os the Star Wars concepts. Going from fun fantasy mythology to dark science fiction in an attempt to explain EVERYTHING. Lucas forgot he was essentially making a western or knights in outer space. In ye olden days it was as simple as the good guys versus the bad guys and the good guys win. He made things more complicated and convoluted than they need be.

...none of which changes the fact that his Star Wars art sure is goofy looking.

Obviously, all of this is subjective. Looking at the comments here on this board, it's clear that a majority of the commenters feel one way, to a greater or lesser degree, about Infantino's work, and one person feels very strongly the opposite way. Who knows if that reflects the Star Wars comic book readership at large some 40 years ago. Speaking personally, back in the day, I would have bought the Greater Los Angeles Area Residential Phone Book Directory if somebody slapped the words "Star Wars" on the cover, so the quality of the writing or the art of any particular published work wouldn't have made much difference to me. I do remember reading the Infantino era comics and thinking, "Too bad it's impossible for anyone to draw these characters like they look in the movies," and my proof of that (to my twelve-year-old self) was that the characters didn't look like they did in the movies, and if it were possible to do so, Marvel (and Lucasfilm behind them) would have hired someone who could. Then the Empire adaptation came out, and I thought, "Wow, you can draw these people just like the movies!" and the Simonson/Palmer era that started a few issues after the end of the adaptation just confirmed that. (Man, do I love the Simonson/Palmer era issues. Ron Frenz, too!)

So, whatever. I know, Confessor, you got sick of this topic the first time it was litigated here on this board. I'll just share that, in my humble opinion, sales numbers for a phenomena like Star Wars are not an actual gauge of the quality of the work; I would have preferred a different artist during the Archie Goodwin years; and I'm glad there are people who enjoy the work of whoever was doing whatever at the time. 

I had all the SW book-and-record sets as a kid and enjoyed listening to them well past the age they were intended for. I think I finally gave them away to the jumble when I was about 16 or 17.

No matter how you cut it, Star Wars at Marvel was a consistent purchase for me. From the very 1st issue to the very last, I was seeking out and finding EVERY new issue as they came out. It wasn't in a galaxy far enough away that prevented me from finding the issues. It came around at the perfect time for me being a teen with money always in my pocket from summer jobs and having quite a few options in buying from various stores.

Unlike these days with limited LCS and the speculator market which makes an ongoing comic a difficult find, Star Wars at the time was readily available and easy to find for us addicts. With just 1 series to focus upon featuring the main stars of the wars (hehehe) I always made certain to hold back a couple bucks every month for when the next issue was due. Other comics I might be willing to put off for another week or two but new Star Wars on the rack was going home with me that day.

Right, let's see what dbutler69 has to say about issue #47...


I know what you mean in terms of your second point. I don't recall feeling that it was an especially rushed climax, but if it was, maybe it's because part of it is located at the front of the comic? This issue throws us headlong into the action right from page one and then backtracks to bring the reader up to speed a few pages in. So, maybe it's a problem with the structure of the narrative that is bugging you? At least, in part.

I had all the SW book-and-record sets as a kid and enjoyed listening to them well past the age they were intended for. I think I finally gave them away to the jumble when I was about 16 or 17. They are absolutely a fundamental part of my childhood Star Wars memories though.

Star Wars #48
Cover dated: June 1981
Issue title: The Third Law
Script: Larry Hama
Artwork: Carmine Infantino (breakdowns)/Carlos Garzon (finished art & inks)
Colours: Glynis Wein
Letters: Rick Parker
Cover art: Carmine Infantino (pencils)/Bob Wiacek (inks)
Overall rating: 4½ out of 10




Plot summary: Princess Leia, R2-D2, C-3PO, and the Rebel Alliance's finance minister Viscount Tardi arrive on the neutral banking world of Aargau to complete a transaction for a new squadron of X-wing fighters for the Rebellion. However, Darth Vader is also on Aargau to carry out a diplomatic mission on behalf of the Emperor, though Leia suspects it is to prevent the Rebel's transaction from going through. Vader has with him an entourage of assassins who all specialise in unarmed combat, since it is forbidden by law for non-citizens to carry weapons on the planet.

The following day, Vader's assassins make several attempts on Tardi's life, but Leia manages to ingeniously thwart them at every turn, while eliminating the assassins one by one. As a result, Vader is eventually forced to get his hands dirty and he strikes Tardi down with his lightsaber. However, Leia reveals that Tardi actually died some weeks before and the Dark Lord has just cut down an android double of the Viscount. Leia needed the android to secure the necessary loan, using the Crown Jewels of Alderaan as collateral, but knowing that the authorities would discover the android when they passed through Aargau's security scanners as they were leaving the planet, it was necessary for Leia to manipulate Vader into destroying the duplicate. Leia also had R2 record the "murder" of Viscount Tardi and transmit the footage to C-3PO, who is waiting at police headquarters, to prevent Vader from exposing the Rebel's ruse to the authorities.

However, Vader had also been manipulating the princess. The Dark Lord had little or no interest in preventing the Rebellion's financial deal for the X-wings from going through and was instead focused on taking possession of the Crown Jewels of Alderaan. As such, he bribed an officer at the local customs station and succeeded in acquiring the jewels. Vader only played along with Leia's plan in order to ensure that he could leave the planet without the jewels being missed by the authorities.


Comments: Issue #48 of Star Wars is a weird one. I don't mean weird as in, spooky or strange, but weird as in unusual or odd. It's written by Larry Hama, who is probably best known for writing Marvel's highly successful G.I. Joe comic throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. Interestingly, Hama would also go on to create Bucky O'Hare, who, as the note below my profile avatar suggests, looks more than a little reminiscent of the green space-rabbit Jaxxon from the Marvel Star Wars series.

The story that Hama delivers here has got to be one of the most convoluted stories of the entire series. It's a stand alone, one-shot adventure that sees Princess Leia and Darth Vader playing a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse with galactic finance, and on the plus side, it has more plot twists than you can shake a stick at. Unfortunately it also feels more like an espionage or fraud drama than it does a Star Wars story.

It's not just that the plot line is overly convoluted either. I'm not convinced it really even makes that much sense. For example, it's revealed at the story's close that the sole purpose of Vader's visit to Aargau is to take possession of the Crown Jewels of Alderaan, but did Vader really need to go through all the trouble of attempting to assassinate Viscount Tardi to do that? And Leia's plan to allow Vader to kill the fake Tardi android, in order that his death looked "natural" and that her deception therefore wouldn't be discovered by the Aargau medical scans when leaving the planet seems totally nonsensical. Surely trained medical professionals would examine Tardi's body and realise that it wasn't a human being? Besides, there was circuitry and wires hanging out of the android's head, which would be a bit of a giveaway.

Also, the way in which Leia is able to thwart the assassination attempts on Tardi smacks of severe deus ex machina. For example, it's a bit too convenient for my tastes that Leia just happens to have a gravitational field disruptor in her diplomatic case to deal with the first assassin. And since when has R2-D2 been able to project a life-like hologram? A flickering, fuzzy, blue hologram, yes, but one that is lifelike enough to fool a telekinetic assassin into directing a missile toward it, believing it to be the real Viscount Tardi? Hmmmm...I don't think so. I remember thinking as a kid that the way in which Leia thwarts all of these assassination attempts was pretty cool, but as an adult reader, it's all a bit too contrived and apt to induce eye rolling incredulity. And another thing: how the hell does Leia even have the Crown Jewels of Alderaan in her possession? Surely they would've been with the Royal Family on Alderaan at the time of the planet's destruction and therefore would've been vaporised along with the planet?

Something else that is slightly problematic is that this story represents the first time that Leia has come face to face with Vader since Han Solo was frozen in carbonite on Cloud City in The Empire Strikes Back. As such, I'm amazed at Leia's restraint and diplomacy when confronting the man who not only destroyed her homeworld, but also recently gave her lover to a bounty hunter. On the other hand, surely Vader would've been much more concerned with capturing a high profile and influential Rebel leader like Leia than he appears to be in this story? And on Leia's part, surely she would've made attempts to kill an Imperial figurehead like Vader, regardless of the planet Aargau's laws against off-worlders carrying weapons? Yeah, a lot of this story seems like a real nonsensical mess to me.

On the upside, Vader's dialogue here is very in character and you can really hear James Earl Jones speaking the Dark Lord's lines as you read them. In particular, I like how he taunts the princess about the Empire's destruction of her homeworld of Alderaan. That's a really evil touch and very in character. I also enjoy how sassy Leia is to Vader throughout this comic and there's some great one-liners from the princess too.

On the art front, we get the series' regular artist Carmine Infantino providing pencil breakdowns here, with inker Carlos Garzon – who did such an amazing job on the adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back with Al Williamson – doing the finished art and inking. Garzon does a good job of reigning in the worst of Infantino's overly-angular art style here, but he doesn't overwhelm the artist's pencils in the same way as Tom Palmer did in issue #46. You can still very much see that this is Infantino's work. Incidentally, this would be Infantino's last issue as the regular artist on Star Wars, since he had received a lucrative job offer from DC comics, prompting him to leave Marvel. I probably should note, however, that some of Infantino's unpublished art from the John Carter: Warlord of Mars series would be re-used in Star Wars #53 and #54.

Overall, I'm a bit undecided on the merits of this issue. Yes, the plot is needlessly convoluted and in places nonsensical, which means that in many respects it's kind of badly written. And yes, there's something distinctly un-Star Wars-y about this story. But on the other hand, there's a shed load of plot twists that keep the reader guessing right until the end and as a result, this issue is actually kind of a fun read. I also like that the tale ends with something of a stalemate between Vader and Leia, although they both ultimately get what they wanted from their visit to Aargau.

Speaking of Aargau, I understand from what I've read on the Wookiepedia website that the planet is used again, or at least referenced, in later expanded universe Star Wars stories, as a major galactic banking world. So, I guess that this issue has been fairly influential, in spite of its faults. I used to like this story quite a bit as a kid, but time and my own changing tastes as I've matured have not been kind to it. Way too much of this story seems contrived, pointless or simply doesn't make sense for this to be considered anything more than a mediocre issue of Star Wars.

Continuity issues: None.

Favourite panel:



Favourite quote: "Lord Vader, I've made such a mess. Could you be a dear and... Lord Vader?" – Princess Leia cheekily taunts an unamused Darth Vader, after casually squashing his shape-shifting assassin under her foot.