How about issue #1, page 10, when Darth Vader is reaching out for his floating cup of coffee (or steamed blue milk, or whatever he's drinking) while he's prattling on about the "the cosmic force"?

Long time reader of this thread, by the way. I completed a re-read of the entire classic Marvel Star Wars series last summer via the Dark Horse compilations, and found this board at about the same time. I have the original issues boxed up and in the garage. They were an important part of my childhood, and your reviews bring back lots of memories! I've agreed with just about all of your opinions... In fact, I can't think of one I've disagreed with... The Infantino issues, while exciting and fun, were always just a little off to me... The characters talk too much about things the other characters already know, to bring new readers up to speed (this was true, of course, for comic book characters as a whole at the time), and the artwork was a little wonky. But the Michelinie/Simonson issues, both story and art, are the greatest thing ever. In fact, for this reason I never got caught up in the EU (now "Legends") (not that I had anything against them! I was glad other Star Wars fans had their continuing adventures to enjoy, as I had had as a kid and teenager)... I already had my version of the extended-universe Star Wars, and it was composed mostly of these issues here.

Been meaning to chime in for a long time. Now to pick an avatar!

Yep, good catch, huladollar. I'd forgotten about that one. Thanks for the help.

So the answer, Roquefort Raider, is a resounding "yes"...in issue #1, no less.




Welcome to the forum! Glad you've been enjoying my reviews.

Unsurprisingly, I'm like you in that the original Marvel Comics' SW expanded universe is the only one I'm totally invested in emotionally. I have enjoyed a fair few of the later Dark Horse comics, particularly the Dark Empire saga, X-Wing Rogue Squadron, Empire, Rebellion, Dark Times and the adaptations of the Timothy Zahn trilogy. But the Dark Horse stuff never quite did it for me like the earlier Marvel stuff did.

Star Wars #62
Cover dated: August 1982
Issue title: Pariah!
Script: David Michelinie (plot, script)/Walter Simonson (plot)
Artwork: Walter Simonson (layouts)/Tom Palmer (finished art & inks)
Colours: Tom Palmer
Letters: Joe Rosen
Cover art: Walter Simonson
Overall rating: 10 out of 10




Plot summary: Luke Skywalker is stunned to learn that he has shot down and killed fellow Rebel pilot Shira Brie, while being led by the Force. Although Princess Leia sympathises with him, Shira was so popular around the base that she cannot publicly support Luke for fear that it might create dissension in the ranks of the Rebellion. Luke is stripped of his military commission and, as news of Shira's death spreads throughout the base, is treated coldly by his fellow warriors. Convinced that the Force wouldn't have lied to him, Luke resolves to get to the bottom of the matter and returns to Shira's homeworld of Shalyvane with Chewbacca in the Millennium Falcon.

Landing in the ruined capital of Chinshassa, the pair are soon attacked by the same horde of angry nomads that ambushed them when Luke was last there with Shira. Hiding inside a ruined building, Luke and Chewie encounter an elderly member of the nomad race named G'hinji. Probing the oldster for information, they learn that, contrary to what Shira said, the nomads were never in league with the Empire, Chinshassa had never been home to a Human settlement, and the Imperial forces destroyed the city fairly recently, rather than many years ago. As Luke reels from the realisation that Shira lied to him, G'hinji decides that the Rebels are no threat to his people and the nomads accept the pair as allies.

Luke decides to visit the ruined Circle of Kavaan, just as Shira did when they were last on Shalyvane, to see if he can learn more. Upon inspecting the ruined temple, he discovers an Imperial transmitter, but is unable to activate it. Remembering a blood-letting ritual that he saw Shira perform at the ruin, Luke cuts his palm with Chewbacca's knife and lets his blood fall onto the stone altar. After a short delay, there is a blinding flash of light as the imposing form of Darth Vader suddenly comes striding out from the ruins, shouting, "Luke, I've come for you!"


Comments: Star Wars #62 is just a fantastic issue and a definite candidate for best comic of the entire run. Right from the dramatically red-coloured cover, which is one of the most striking of the whole series, "Pariah!" is a gripping, balls-to-the-wall story, full of intrigue, surprises and action. Writer David Michelinie outdoes himself, with a perfectly paced script that is at turns emotionally charged, edge-of-your-seat thrilling, and laugh-out-loud funny. In short, this comic is a real page turner!

The underlying theme of the issue is concerned with Luke's mastery of the Force and how the events of Shira Brie's death make the would-be Jedi and those around him question that power. To many of his fellow Rebels, it's unclear whether Luke killed Shira deliberately or not. At one point, Luke becomes embroiled in a physical altercation with a fellow soldier named Milo, who accuses him of being a "sorcerer" and in league with Darth Vader, showing that not everyone in the Rebel Alliance is comfortable with the notion of the Force. Wracked by self-doubt, Luke beings to question all that he has learned in the ways of the Force, which is entirely understandable under the circumstances. Remember, Vader's revelation about his parentage in The Empire Strikes Back must've shaken Luke hard, so it's unsurprising that he momentarily questions the word of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda here, wondering if their teachings were all a sham.

Seeing Luke, the Rebel hero and all-round golden boy, suddenly treated like an outcast is a really fascinating change of pace. In one scene, Michelinie has Luke gloomily pondering his predicament, while he wistfully looks at the medal he received at the end of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, noting that it's become somewhat tarnished. The medal functions as a nice analogy for Luke's own tarnished reputation, while the scene as a whole reinforces just how far he's fallen. As if to underline how distracted and upset Luke is, Michelinie has C-3PO deliver news that the Rebel Alliance has a lead on Boba Fett during this sequence, but the young Rebel is so lost in his own thoughts that even the possibility of rescuing his friend Han Solo from the bounty hunter fails to grab his attention.

On top of all this mounting self-doubt, we also see Luke having to come to terms with the fact that much of what the girl he was rapidly falling for told him about the city of Chissassa and her life there was false. However, things take an even darker turn when an Imperial transmitter is found in the ruined temple that Shira visited back in issue #60. Yep, Michelinie sure does put Luke through the emotional wringer in this issue!

While we're on the subject of the transmitter, I find it interesting that it's able to recognise Luke's blood. It could be that it's programmed to recognise any blood with similar DNA to Vader's or maybe the Empire recovered Luke's severed hand from the bottom of the Cloud City exhaust shaft and obtained his DNA that way? That's all pure speculation on my part, but either way, this scene and the start of next issue give some pretty big clues to the fact that Vader is Luke's father (something which wasn't confirmed until the release of Return of the Jedi). Of course, readers at the time may have simply assumed that the Empire obtained the data about Luke's blood elsewhere or, if they were like me, they never even thought about it.

One of my favourite aspects of Star Wars #62 is the unusual pairing of Luke and Chewbacca. One of the benefits of having a large ensemble cast like the one in Star Wars is that it allows writers to throw together unusual combinations of characters like this and I, for one, have always found these odd character pairings really interesting. It's also really great to see that although most of the Rebel Alliance seems ready to condemn Luke, Lando and Chewie both stand by him in his moment of need.

While a lot of this issue is quite necessarily dark, Michelinie still manages to throw in some of his effortlessly humorous dialogue on occasion. In particular, the scene in which G'hinji tests Luke to see how strong his gods are, and Luke uses the Force to impress the ageing nomad, is genuinely funny...





Of course, Walt Simonson's kinetic and cinematic artwork really shouldn't be underestimated in how effectively Mitchelinie's scripting is delivered. Simonson contributes layouts to this issue, while it's left to inker extraordinaire Tom Palmer to embellish and ink the art. As ever, Palmer brings his signature slickness and exquisite detailing to proceedings, ensuring that all the Star Wars ships and pieces of tech look just right. Palmer can sometimes be quite an overbearing inker (and I mean that in the nicest and most positive way, since what he brings to the table is always excellent), but you can still very much see that this is Simonson's artwork. Palmer also does the colouring in this issue and his work is quite inventive in places.

While we're on the subject of inking, I should probably mention that in Marvel Age #10 there's a version of page 2 of this issue inked, not by Palmer, but by Kathy Orlando. The page accompanies a piece profiling Kathy as one of Marvel's newest recruits and noting that she's been inking backgrounds on then-current issues of Iron Man and the X-Men and Micronauts mini-series. Kathy never inked any issues of Star Wars, so it's possible that this was simply a sample page that she worked on for testing purposes. Whatever it's origin, it provides an interesting juxtaposition to Palmer's work on the same page and illustrates just what a difference an inker can make to the finished look of a comic book. That's Orlando's work on the left and Palmer's original on the right...




In closing, Star Wars #62 sees the already excellent Pariah storyline become even more gripping. This is without doubt one of my all-time favourite issues of Marvel's original Star Wars series. The plot is full of big revelations and shocking surprises, while the dialogue is natural-sounding and snappy, with Michelinie effortlessly capturing the "voices" of the central cast. There's also that beautiful and dynamic Simonson/Palmer artwork, a boldly striking front cover, and, for the second issue running, a jaw-droppingly kick-ass cliffhanger. Oh, and this issue also taught me a new word and sent me running for the Oxford English Dictionary as a kid, with its title of "pariah", meaning a social outcast. Yep, there's just so much to love about this comic book.

Continuity issues: None

Favourite panel:



Favourite quote: "Oh, come on! I've fought with you guys! Even saved some of your lives!" – Luke Skywalker tries in vain to counter the hostile reactions of his fellow Rebels following the death of Shira Brie.

Yeah, issues #61 and #62 really had us on the edge of our seats back when we were kids, didn't they? I was getting the UK Star Wars Monthly comic that reprinted the U.S. stories delivered to my door with our family newspapers at this time and I have vivid memories of being blown away how good the "Screams in the Void" and "Pariah!" issues were...not to mention "The Mind Spider!" from issue #63. The series was really cookin' at this point.

I can remember the next issue seemed to take forever to come out. I was so anxious to find out what was gonna happen that a month seemed like an eternity.

I totally agree with you here. I'm a big fan of Jaxxon (as you can see from my avatar) and the whole Star-Hoppers of Aduba-3 storyline for the self same reason. It reminds me of a more innocent time when Star Wars was just one film, with no nit-picky, hyper-critical fanbase and was all about spectacular, escapist fun. The first ever Star Wars comic I owned as a kid was the UK Star Wars Weekly #18 (which reprinted half of the American issue #9) and, while I think all of the early issues of SW are flawed to a greater or lesser degree (as you'll see if you read my reviews of issues #1 - #10), I love them just the same, for precisely the reasons you mention above. You've really hit the nail on the head as to what the appeal of those earliest issues of the series is.

Star Wars Annual #2
Cover dated: 1982 (actually issued on August 17th, 1982)
Issue title: Shadeshine!
Script: David Michelinie
Artwork: Carmine Infantino (pencils)/Ruby Nebres (inks)
Colours: George Roussos
Letters: Joe Rosen, Janice Chiang
Cover art: Carmine Infantino (pencils)/Ruby Nebres (inks)
Overall rating: 3½ out of 10




Plot summary: While on a mission to the planet Ventooine to recover a rumoured weapon of tremendous power called the Shadeshine, Luke Skywalker, Lando Calrissian and C-3PO are chased into a ruined temple by Imperial stormtroopers. As the Rebels enter the building, they are surprised to find a large golden statue of their friend Han Solo before them. A holy man named Vetter Piin appears from the shadows and explains that Solo is the saviour of Ventooine, having freed his people from a deadly reign and the curse of the Shadeshine. The Rebels are interested to know more and so Vetter activates a recording of Solo's voice, recounting the tale of how he saved the planet.

Solo explains that he and his Wookiee co-pilot Chewbacca visited Ventooine some years earlier, in order to deal in the rare and valuable spice, Sansanna. Solo managed to anger the locals by enquiring about the spice and during an ensuing chase, he inadvertently saved Tieress Chrysalla, who was consort to the Satab, the ruling monarch, from an assassination attempt. A grateful and smitten Chrysalla took Solo back to the Satab's palace, where he soon learned that the Satab was a cruel dictator, ruling the planet with the power of a magical stone known as the Shadeshine. He also learned that a new Satab was chosen every year because the power of the stone burned out a person's body. As a result, the old Satab needed to be placed in suspended animation within the Hall of Satabs, until such time that a cure for the effects of the Shadeshine could be found.

The Satab was determined that Solo should become the new monarch of Ventooine, even if it was against his will. Fortunately, Chrysalla saved the Corellian smuggler by voluntarily touching the magical stone herself, thus taking his place as the next monarch, but in doing so, becoming a slave to the Shadeshine herself. Solo fought with the Satab and, with Chrysalla's help, prevented him from entering the Hall of Satabs in time, causing him to burst into flames and die. Afterwards, Chrysalla elected to enter the chamber and be placed in suspended animation, thus ending the rule of the Shadeshine. Han, meanwhile, was declared a hero by the local populace and as he left the planet, destroyed the Shadeshine by placing it in the Millennium Falcon's thruster jets as the ship blasted off.

As Han's story ends, the pursuing stormtroopers finally locate the Rebels and enter the ruined temple. Luke tricks the Imperials into entering the Hall of Satabs and they swiftly becoming frozen in suspended animation. As the Rebels leave the planet, they take comfort in having heard Han's familiar voice once again, even though they were unable to recover the Shadeshine.


Comments: I'd really love to know the story behind the creation of Star Wars Annual #2. It features artwork by Carmine Infantino, who was the regular artist on the series between 1978 and 1981, but early in '81 Infantino left Star Wars and Marvel for a job at DC Comics. He never returned to the company, so "Shadeshine!" must consist of art that he produced while he was still working for Marvel. The puzzling thing is that the story was written by David Michelinie, who at this point was the series' current writer, but he didn't come on board Star Wars until mid-1981, some months after Infantino had left Marvel. So, I wonder if perhaps "Shadeshine!" was a story that Michelinie wrote for the series before he became the regular writer, while Infantino was still working on Star Wars, and which had sat gathering dust until the publication of this annual? Or was it maybe a case of Micheline taking some left over inventory artwork of Infantino's and fashioning a new story out of it, just as Chris Claremont had done in Star Wars #53 and #54?

To further confuse things, in an interview in Amazing Heroes #13 from 1982, Michelinie bemoaned the fact that he wasn't able to use Han Solo in his stories, since the character had been frozen in carbonite, noting "[Han] would quite possibly be my favorite character if I could write him." This is an intriguing statement because the interview was conducted in early 1982, leading me to believe that "Shadeshine!" was indeed written later that year. But then how was Infantino able to draw it, since, as I've already noted, he had been gone from Marvel for over a year by then? Unfortunately, none of the sources that I usually consult for my reviews has any real information on this issue and a Google search has also failed to turn up anything to illuminate the subject. I'm certain there's an interesting behind-the-scenes story here, but I don't know what it is.

Anyway, what I can say with confidence is that this is a pretty disappointing annual after the excellent Claremont-penned "The Long Hunt/A Duel of Eagles!" in Star Wars Annual #1. For one thing, Ruby Nebres's inks really don't gel very well with Infantino's pencils. As I've noted many times during the course of these reviews, Infantino's art on Star Wars is quite stylised and overly angular, and Nebres's inking simultaneously accentuates these annoying tendencies, while also making the art look a whole lot uglier. To my eyes, this paring of penciller and inker really does seem like a horrible mismatch.

The plot and scripting are also a far cry from Michelinie's brilliant work as the regular writer on Star Wars. The dialogue, in particular, is clunky and uninspired, which is very unusual for Michelinie. The early part of this story reads like a western in outer space, which is fine, in and of itself, since the original Star Wars movie was much like a western in places too, but, I don't know, it also seems a little out of whack with the tone of other recent issues. Michelinie even has Solo getting involved in a proper bar room brawl at one point. And seriously, what the hell is Han wearing here?? ...





There's no logical reason why Han needs to don a disguise while visiting Ventooine, since he's never been there before. Who does he think is gonna recognise him? He also unfortunately looks like a cross between Clint Eastwood's "man with no name" and the village idiot!

The structure of this story is somewhat similar to "The Crimson Forever!", which appeared in issue #50, insofar as it manages to include Han by means of a flashback sequence. While it's certainly nice to see everybody's favourite Corellian smuggler back in action, he seems to be written quite out of character here and his dialogue in cringe-inducing at times. Also, the moment when Michelinie has Han throw a spear with such precision and force that it shears off a stalactite seems more than a little far fetched.

Another issue that I have is that the supporting cast in this story are all really bland. The shaven-headed holy man, Vetter Piin, is just like a thousand other Buddhist-inspired comic book priests and his followers are also devoid of any memorable qualities. As for the Satab, the vaguely oriental-looking villain of the piece, he's little more than a cookie-cutter dictator and, in terms of series as a whole, is utterly forgettable. Much the same can be said for Cystella, who really only serves as eye-candy in a skimpy outfit and a romantic interest for Han. Actually, at one point, Cystella brazenly – and rather blatantly for an early '80s comic – invites Han to her room for a few hours (that's right, folks...hours!) of hanky-panky. Ooh er, missus!

This issue definitely feels like something of a throwback to an earlier point in the series, what with the western overtones, Han and Chewbacca together again on a smuggling caper, Cystella as the scantily-clad sci-fi damsel, and Infantino's instantly recognisable artwork. Han is also cast as a freewheeling, devil-may-care heartthrob here, much as he often was in the pre-Empire Strikes Back comics. I should probably note at this point that Star Wars Annual #2 was the last issue of the series that included any Infantino artwork, although his last issue as the regular penciller on the series had been Star Wars #48.

Overall, there really isn't too much to commend this issue. I kinda like the idea that the Shadeshine literally burns out whoever uses it and the idea of the Satabs retiring to a chamber, where they are held in suspended animation, is cool, I guess. Although, I'm not sure if waiting for someone to come up with a cure for the Shadeshine's effects is a particularly well thought out plan, but I like this story element nonetheless. Still, I can't shake the feeling that this is an utterly throwaway comic that's largely inconsequential to the reader and more than a little pointless for the Rebel characters themselves. I mean, what did they they get out of it, other than getting to hear Han's voice again? Yeah, this issue definitely isn't one of the better Star Wars comics that Marvel put out in the '80s.

Continuity issues:

• Luke Skywalker, Lando Calrissian and C-3PO all leave the planet Ventooine together in a Y-wing fighter, but this type of craft is only able to carry a maximum of two crew members.

Favourite panel:



Favourite quote: "In the meantime, my handsome rescuer and I will get to know each other better. A lot better." – Tieress Chrysalla lustily and brazenly announces in front of Han Solo that she intends to seduce him.