Star Wars #44
Cover dated: February 1981
Issue title: Duel a Dark Lord!
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: 10 out of 10




Plot summary: As Luke Skywalker and R2-D2 arrive at Cloud City to rescue their friends, Darth Vader hands the frozen body of Han Solo over to the bounty hunter Boba Fett for transportation to Jabba the Hutt. Vader then instructs his men to make arrangements for a permanent garrison to be set up in Cloud City, so that Princess Leia and Chewbacca can be held there, under Lando Calrissian's care. Lando objects, insisting that this was never part of the deal he made with the Empire, but Vader threateningly tells him that he is altering that deal.

As Imperial troops escort Leia, Chewbacca and C-3PO from the carbon freezing facility, a firefight breaks out, as Luke attempts in vain to rescue his friends. Feeling guilty about having betrayed Han, Lando frees the princess and her comrades, before leading them to the landing platform where Boba Fett's ship is docked. Arriving too late to save Han, Lando then leads the Rebels back to the Millennium Falcon, through fierce resistance from Imperial stormtroopers, and they leave Cloud City in the Corellian freighter.

Meanwhile, Luke encounters Vader in the carbon freezing facility. Igniting their lightsabers, the pair begin a ferocious duel, as Vader encourages the youngster to join him in the dark side of the Force. Their fight eventually takes them along a gantry, high above one of the city's exhaust shafts. Vader slices Luke's right hand with his saber, as he backs the wounded Rebel onto the end of the gantry. Luke accuses Vader of killing his father, but Vader shockingly replies that, in fact, he is Luke's father. Distraught and disbelieving of this revelation, Luke throws himself off of the gantry, plunging down into the exhaust shaft and eventually catching hold of a weathervane beneath Cloud City, where he precariously hangs. Calling out through the Force, Luke communicates with Leia on board the Falcon and the princess turns the ship around, rescuing Luke and escaping from the Empire.

Some time later, on aboard a Rebel medical frigate, Luke's hand is replaced with a cybernetic extremity, as Lando and Chewbacca leave in the Falcon to begin their search for Han.


Comments: So, the comic adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back comes to a close with Star Wars #44, and what a fantastic finish it is. The excitement and pace of this issue just doesn't let up from the first page to the last, as our heroes are hounded and hemmed in by the Empire, narrowly escaping with their lives. As with the other parts of this adaptation, Al Williamson and Carlos Garzon absolutely knock it out of the park with their artwork and it's worth noting that Page 18 of this issue is unique to this comic and not presented in any of the previously published versions of the adaptation. Just like issues #40, #41 and #42, letterer Rick Veitch lends a hand with pencilling here, this time drawing background tech during Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader's lightsaber fight. There's also a five page pin-up section at the end of this issue featuring art by Walt Simonson, Joe Jusko, Fred Hembeck, Bob Layton and Marshall Rogers.

Archie Goodwin's scripting is just as strong and tight as it has been all through this arc. Among the differences to the film found in this issue, perhaps the most interesting is that Goodwin has Vader order his men to set up a permanent garrison on Cloud City, so that Princess Leia and Chewbacca can be imprisoned there under Lando Calrissian's stewardship...




This is different to the film, in which Vader merely threatens to leave a garrison on Cloud City unless Lando co-operates. This is not something that Goodwin got from the film's shooting script either, which is pretty much identical to the finished movie at this point, it's his own plot change. I kind of like this addition actually because it gives Lando much more motivation to rebel against Vader and then free Leia and Chewbacca. It's also interesting that Lando suggests heading for the Millennium Falcon in order to pursue Boba Fett's ship, once the Rebels realise that Fett has escaped with the frozen Han Solo. Again, this is Goodwin's addition, since in the film and screenplay the Rebels only race towards the Falcon in an attempt to escape from the Empire's stormtroopers.

Another quite noticeable difference between the events of the film and this instalment of the comic adaptation is that Luke doesn't have his hand chopped off by Vader. Goodwin's narration simply says that Luke's hand "will never grasp anything again." Likewise, Williamson's artwork shows Luke's lightsaber falling away, but his severed hand is not clasping onto it, as it is in the film...




It's tempting to assume that this was something that Marvel insisted on, perhaps feeling that having the hero's hand severed was too violent for their comics. However, a look at the film's shooting script shows that Luke's hand is not severed there either, and instead the exposition describes Vader's lightsaber coming "down across Luke's forearm, cutting it", but not entirely removing it. Obviously having Luke's hand chopped off by Vader was a change that was made on the set by director Irving Kirshner, while the comic, being based on the shooting script, doesn't included this change.

Goodwin has said that he always regretted not having Williamson draw a shot of the huge Rebel Escort Frigate from the end of the film and, indeed, it is tempting to see the adaptation's conclusion as being somewhat rushed. Once the Millennium Falcon has escaped the Empire, the movie's closing scene is told in just three panels. But you know what? I've never thought that it feels rushed at all. The story winds down to a very satisfying conclusion and to do that in just three panels is surely testament to the creative team of Goodwin, Williamson and Garzon.

As far as Goodwin is concerned, I think it would be fair to call the Empire adaptation a fitting climax to his time as writer and editor on Marvel's Star Wars comic. I say climax because there's a message from Goodwin on the letters page of this issue, announcing that it is to be his last as editor of Marvel's Star Wars comic. He also announces that he will gradually be leaving the book as a writer too, although he still has a few stories yet to be published (these would be "Death Probe!", "Droid World!" and the double-size special "The Crimson Forever!" in issues #45, #47 and #50 respectively). The reason for his departure is due to his new job as editorial director on Marvel's Epic Illustrated magazine, which has been demanding too much of his time to continue to edit Star Wars as well. Louise Jones will be taking over full editorial duties from the next issue onwards, with help from assistant editor Danny Fingeroth.

As amazing as this adaptation of Empire has been, I would say that the original issues of the Star Wars comic aren't necessarily the best place to read it. For one thing, there's a weird issue with the reproduction of the artwork in these six issues that isn't present in any other version. Some of the line work in these comics is squiggly or wobbly, as if seen through a heat haze or something. There are some comparison examples of what I mean below, with the "wobbly" lines circled in red...





I've no idea what caused this effect, but it's clearly an error of some kind. Maybe some of the more knowledgable comic fans out there in the forum can help out and explain what caused this.

EDIT: The CCF's very own comic historian extraordinaire, Cei-U! has kindly provided an explanation of this "wobbly line" phenomena below. Just scroll down to read his comments on the subject.

The other thing that I want to say about Star Wars #39 – 44 is that, unfortunately, a lot of the adaptation looks quite murky, when compared to the treasury and magazine-sized publications of the same material. I think that the highly detailed art, which shone so spectacularly in the pages of those other versions – no doubt because of the better quality paper and higher production values – looks muddy when transferred to newsprint. Without doubt the best looking edition of this adaptation – at least among its initial releases – would definitely be the version found in the treasury-sized Marvel Special Edition Featuring Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back #2. The larger treasury size really allows Williamson and Garzon's artwork to shine at its glorious best.

Overall, this is another excellent issue of Star Wars that I simply have to give full marks to. It's really tough to find anything to criticise with the contents of a comic like this. In next month's issue we'll be getting back to all new, original stories from the post-Empire era.

Continuity issues: None

Favourite panel:



Favourite quote: "No, Luke, I am your father!" – Darth Vader reveals to a shocked Luke Skywalker that the young Rebel's parentage is not as he was led to believe.

Brilliant! Thanks for that information, Cei-U! I'm not surprised in the slightest that you knew the answer to this. You are a wonder!

So, to be clear, are you saying that some copies of the comic book would not exhibit this kind of "wobbly line" thing, if they happened to be from the beginning of the print run?

I only ask because all six issues of the ESB adaptation that I own are afflicted with this phenomenon. Obviously the treasury and magazine-sized versions were printed a while before the comic books and they're both fine. But is it possible that the damage or wear to the plastic plates occurred between the magazine/treasury printings and the printing of the six issues of the comic book, meaning that all of the floppies have this problem?

Welcome to the forum, rebeljedi! I think that actually this is a colouring mistake, rather than an artwork one. Carmine Infantino and Gene Day have drawn Han on page 1 with his right eye closed. Look at the upturned corner of his mouth...he's grimacing, with one eye closed and peering round that outcrop of rock, with only his left eye open. However, Glynis Wein hasn't realised this and has coloured his right eye as if it's still open. If you look closely at the inking work and ignore the colouring for a moment, I think you should be able to see that Infantino or Day have drawn him with one eye closed. It sounds as if later collected editions featuring the story have copied Wein's mistake.

I admit that it does look kinda freaky though.

Well, actually only the first SW Illustrated Book was in colour. The World of Fire one was in black & white, just like that story was in the UK. All of the Marvel UK stories were originally in B&W (because that's just how comics were over here back in the day), but in the 1990s Dark Horse Comics colourised almost all of the ones published between Empire and Jedi. When Dark Horse recently collected these stories in their Wild Space Vol. 1 trade paperback, they kept the Dark Horse colouring, but published the stories from the two Illustrated Books in their original black & white. It would be preferable if the Omnibus Vol. 3 collects all the Marvel UK stories in their original B&W, but I think that may be unlikely.

It's also worth noting that the stories that appeared in the U.S. in the two Illustrated Books had much of their artwork cropped and in some cases redrawn, in order to make it more legible in the smaller paperback size. As such, it would definitely be better if Marvel reprinted those stories using the undoctored art from the original issues of Star Wars Weekly, rather than the messed about with artwork that appeared in America.

I am on the fence regarding the new hardback editions. Maybe if they had included the letter columns.

This is the new Marvel Omnibuses we're talking about, yes? I only have 3 or 4 Marvel omnibuses and they all have the letters pages reproduced in them. Mind you, they are all quite old Omnibuses...maybe it's something they've stopped doing in the more recent volumes.

I tell you what I really do not like though, is the new computer generated colouring that Marvel have done the movie adaptations in. It totally overwhelms the original art and the colours chosen make it all look rather bland IMO. I can't help but see a parallel between this newly remastered, computer coloured versions of Marvel's adaptations and the 1997 original trilogy Special Editions. There was simply no need to update these comic adaptations in this way and the finished results only detract from what was good about them in the first place. Personally, I'll stick with the original colouring -- or at least, pretty faithful colouring, as found in the original issues, the Dark Horse reprints and the new Marvel omnibuses.

Actually, the Marvel UK stories were mostly from The Empire Strikes Back monthly (same book, but it had undergone a title and frequency change by then). I've been rereading them just recently, for the first time in years. Death Masque was about the best, I think.