I love that the art here isn't a shot by shot re-creation from the film, the choices that Williamson makes are much more suitable for a comic than the choices that Kershner made for the film. And that's not to take away from the film, Kershner shot a great picture, but to tell a story with static images requires different skills.

It's something I found when I recently read through the collected edition of all the adaptations. The ones that were overly slavish to the films were slightly boring while A New Hope and Empire which were allowed to be their own animals were much better.

Yeah, that special edition version of A New Hope was the one included in the omnibus I got, and the art was pretty good but it was such a slavish reproduction of the film that they might as well have just used stills from the film itself. And I agree that it's probably one of the best adaptations ever, and that's probably why it never received a "special edition" from Dark Horse like A New Hope did.

Star Wars #42
Cover dated: December 1980
Issue title: To Be a Jedi!
Script: Archie Goodwin
Artwork: Al Williamson (pencils & inks)/Carlos Garzon (pencils & inks)/Rick Veitch (pencils - uncredited)
Colours: Glynis Wein
Letters: Rick Veitch
Cover art: Al Williamson (pencils & inks)/Carlos Garzon (pencils & inks)
Overall rating: 9½ out of 10




Plot summary: As Luke Skywalker sets up camp on the swamp planet of Dagobah, he encounters a strange and diminutive bipedal creature who reveals that he knows the whereabouts of Yoda, the Jedi Master that Luke has come in search of. Returning to the small creature's dwelling, Luke soon learns that the tiny alien is, in fact, Yoda himself. However, the Jedi Master is convinced that Luke is too old and reckless to be trained, until the disembodied voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi's Force ghost encourages Yoda to begin the boy's Jedi education. Yoda begins Luke's training with a punishing series of physical and mental exercises that push him to his limit, while expanding his knowledge and use of the Force.

Elsewhere, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Princess Leia and C-3PO are all on board the Millennium Falcon, hidden from Darth Vader's fleet of Star Destroyers inside a cave on the surface of an asteroid. However, it soon becomes apparent that the cave isn't the safe haven that Solo thought it was, and the Falcon is actually in the mouth of a giant space slug. Han guns the ship's engines to life and races out of the creature's rapidly collapsing maw just in time, as the Rebels once again encounter the Star Destroyers. Han turns the Falcon around and flies straight towards the perusing ships, cleverly swerving off at the last moment and landing on the hull of one of the Imperial craft.

Meanwhile, during a private communiqué with the galactic Emperor, Vader suggests that Luke could be coerced to join the pair and embrace the dark side of the Force, instead of being killed by Vader. The Emperor agrees and preparations are made to capture Skywalker alive.

Later, Vader hires a group of galactic bounty hunters, including the notorious Boba Fett, to track down and capture the Millennium Falcon. As the Imperial fleet disperses, with Vader believing that the Falcon has escaped him, Han detaches his freighter from the hull on which it is hidden and sets course for the planet Bespin, where an old friend of Solo's named Lando Calrissian lives. Unseen by the Rebels, Boba Fett's ship Slave 1 begins to follow the Falcon as it moves away.


Comments: Part four of The Empire Strikes Back comic adaptation is another visual treat, with Al Williamson particularly excelling at depicting the tangled undergrowth and gnarled trees of the swamp planet of Dagobah. After years of working on EC's sci-fi comics and on Flash Gordon, Williamson was an expert at creating living, breathing alien ecosystems that looked simultaneously weird and unearthly, yet totally believable. He captures the dense, rain-soaked flora and misty murkiness of Dagobah perfectly, while adding in some of his trademark alien mushrooms and toadstools – and believe me, nobody draws mushrooms like Williamson does! This "set dressing" is so lovely that you can easily get lost in the details and find yourself wondering, "what's behind those creepers over there?" or "what's to the right of those tangled tree roots?" To be perfectly honest, Williamson's Dagobah comes close to overshadowing Luke and Yoda as the star of those scenes set on the swamp world.

Still, that's not to say that Williamson's Dagobah sequences are perfect. There are some pretty serious scale or size problems with the artist's depictions of Yoda at times. I've spoken in my earlier review of The Marvel Comics Illustrated Version of The Empire Strikes Back about the redrawn version of Yoda that appears in this comic, but quite apart from that, Yoda's size seems to fluctuate considerably from panel to panel (this is also true of the earlier paperback-sized version). Sometimes Yoda appears to be about the right size for the Frank Oz puppet that we saw in the film (around 65cm), but at other times he appears to be absolutely tiny – about the size of a Mego action figure! While I wouldn't say that these size discrepancies detract from my enjoyment of the comic too much, they are a bit annoying and it's clear that Williamson had little or no idea of just how big or small he was supposed to be drawing the Jedi Master. Take a look at these panels to see what I mean...







On the plus side, we do get some extended or alternate Jedi training scenes that were missing from the movie, like Yoda tossing a metal bar into the air for Luke to hit with his lightsaber (which he initially fails to do). Like some of the other scenes that we've seen in this adaptation that were not in the movie, this extra training scene was in the shooting script, on which the adaptation was based. There's also a lovely training montage that Williamson draws (see my favourite panel below), in which we see Luke dueling with spherical, electronic training "remotes", just like he did on board the Millennium Falcon in Episode IV – A New Hope.

Something that's missing from this issue, however, is a depiction of the giant space slug that almost devours the Millennium Falcon. This omission is a result of George Lucas himself requesting that Archie Goodwin instruct Williamson and Carlos Garzon not to show the space slug in the comic, in order to preserve the surprise for cinema goers.

According to his personal blog, letterer Rick Veitch helps out again on the artwork in this issue by penciling the miscellaneous pieces of trash being dumping out of the Star Destroyers. Incidentally, on page 21 of this issue, there's an entirely new, full-page splash of the Imperial fleet dumping their garbage before jumping to hyperspace that's exclusive to this comic and not found in any of the earlier paperback or treasury-sized versions of the adaptation.

Goodwin's scripting is on point again, although he has spoken in interviews of always regretting not managing to include more of the comedy involving R2-D2 on Dagobah. Nonetheless, he does an excellent job of adapting the screenplay for the comics page. Interestingly, in the scene where Darth Vader meets with the bounty hunters, Goodwin has Vader imply that 4-LOM, Zuckuss, Dengar, Bossk and IG-88, all work for Fett, by having the Dark Lord say, "you and your band are highly regarded in your particular trade, Boba Fett." This is interesting because that's not something that Goodwin got from the shooting script. It was his own idea. It's also something that was never supported by other expanded universe continuity.

As a bonus feature, this issue includes a gallery of some of the different covers that had recently graced the front of the newly re-named The Empire Strikes Back Weekly in the UK. There's also a Star-Words letters page full of high praise for Williamson and Garzon's work on Star Wars #39.

Overall, this issue is another kick-ass instalment of this fantastic adaptation. Unfortunately, I'm gonna have to dock it a ½ point for the scale issues that Williamson has with his depictions of Yoda, and because the tempo of the story has lulled momentarily here, just before we accelerate towards the exciting conclusion of the film. Nevertheless, this comic is still an absolute classic and an utter joy to read.

Continuity issues:

• On the front cover and inside the issue, Bossk's flight suit is incorrectly coloured purple, when it should be orange, and his skin is orange instead of green. However, his flight suit and skin are the correct colours in the Carl Gafford coloured paperback-sized version of the adaptation.

Favourite panel:



Favourite quote: "He will join us, my master, or die!" – Darth Vader vows to the Emperor that Luke Skywalker will join them in the dark side of the Force.

Hmmm...that's certainly a unique take on it. Whatever makes the story work for you, I guess.

Hmmm. They knew Gentle Giant would produce a jumbo Yoda decades later!