Star Wars #78Cover dated: December 1983
Issue title:
Hoth Stuff!Script: Bob Layton (plot, script)/David Michelinie (plot, script)
Artwork: Luke McDonnell (pencils)/Bob Layton (inks)
Colours: Glynis Wein
Letters: Joe Rosen
Cover art: Bob Layton
Overall rating: 2½ out of 10
Plot summary: Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Barlon Hightower investigate a derelict transport ship that has been discovered on a trajectory suggesting that it came from the direction of the planet Hoth. Luke hopes that his old childhood friend from Tatooine, Wedge Antilles – who has been missing in action since the Empire overran the Rebel base on Hoth – might be on the ship. After boarding the cruiser and finding it deserted, the Rebels decide to listen to the ship's log and discover a recording of Wedge recounting what has happened to him since the Rebel Alliance evacuated their base.
Wedge describes how he and his co-pilot Janson were left stranded on Hoth for months, following the Imperial assault on the Rebel base. Setting up camp in the base's Ion Cannon turret, Wedge was forced to hunt in order to supplement the meagre rations that the Rebellion had left behind, while fending off Wampas that were marauding within the base. One particular day, after returning from a hunting expedition, Wedge discovered that a group of space scavengers had arrived to strip the battlefield of anything of value and, upon discovering the wounded Janson, had killed him in cold blood. Wedge was able to avenge Janson by stealing the scavengers' transport and leading the ships that they launched in pursuit into a squadron of Imperial TIE fighters that were patrolling the planet. The recording comes to an end with Wedge noting that the vessel's engines have failed and, with little food on board, it's only a matter of time before he starves to death.
As Luke and the other Rebels frantically wonder how old the recording is, Wedge suddenly appears floating outside one of the transport's windows in a space suit. He was busy making repairs on the outside of the ship when Luke and the others arrived and had only just managed to work his way around the cruiser's hull to let them know he was there. With Luke and Wedge reunited, the Rebels head back towards the planet Arbra, where there will be a big celebration.
Comments: Wow! What a mess this issue is! "Hoth Stuff!" (and what an awful, groan-inducing title that is too!) is a stand-alone fill-in issue that Marvel had been promising to publish for a number of months. From comments made by writer Bob Layton in 2002 on the official
Star Wars website, it appears as if the initial idea, basic plot line and much of the scripting of this story was his. David Michelinie, who had been the regular writer on the series in 1981 and 1982, also helped out with plotting and scripting chores.
Most of the story is told via a flashback sequence, using the narrative device of having Luke Skywalker and the other Rebels listen to Wedge Antilles recount his adventures via the ship's log. Undoubtedly the most glaring problem with this issue is that clearly Layton or Michelinie (or both!) have confused Wedge Antilles with Biggs Darklighter. In this story, it states that Wedge and Luke grew up together as best friends on Tatooine, but that back story was actually Biggs's, as detailed in the novelization, comic adaptation and radio play of
Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. I guess the confusion arose because both Biggs and Wedge were Luke's wingmen in the Battle of Yavin at the end of the original
Star Wars film. However, Biggs was killed in that battle, while Wedge survived and would go on to appear in both
The Empire Strikes Back and
Return of the Jedi.
In the aforementioned starwars.com interview, Layton recalled why he decided to write a story focusing on Wedge: "
I got the impression that Wedge represented the 'everyman' in the Star Wars epic. Also, we didn't have to worry about continuity or stepping on anyone's toes at Lucasfilm with a Wedge story. It just made sense at the time." Layton's comments are revealing – especially the part about not having to worry about continuity. What's remarkable is that Michelinie, a writer who had always written stories which complimented
Star Wars continuity so well, could allow such a glaring goof as mixing Wedge up with Biggs to go uncorrected. My guess is that the mistake was Layton's initially, but Michelinie should have definitely spotted it before the comic saw print, and so should editor Louise Jones!
Another continuity problem arises when Layton kills off Wedge's friend and co-pilot Janson. Although his death doesn't matter within the Marvel Comics' continuity, in the subsequent expanded universe canon Janson survives the Battle of Hoth and is a major character in the various
Rogue Squadron comics and novels. Janson was also shown as having escaped from Hoth in the radio adaptation of
The Empire Strikes Back, which predates this comic.
There are a couple of other minor continuity problems in this issue: Luke, Princess Leia and Barlon Hightower are all travelling in a Y-wing fighter, which should only be able to carry two people; and Wedge mentions at one point that both of Hoth's suns are out, but Hoth isn't a binary system and only has one sun.
Talking of Barlon, what is he even doing here? From a plot perspective, he's totally surplus to requirements and this is his one and only appearance in the
Star Wars comic. Somebody else who's utterly surplus to requirements is the leader of the scavengers, Arns Grimraker. He's such an unmemorable, underdeveloped villain and does so little within the story that it just seems rather pointless for Layton or Michelinie to have even bothered mentioning him.
Something else I don't like about this issue is that the characterisation for Luke, Leia and Wedge seems a little off. In the case of the latter, Layton and Michelinie give him a weird hillbilly accent or maybe it's supposed to be Scottish or Irish? Denis Lawson, the actor who portrayed Wedge in the
Star Wars films, is indeed Scottish, but he doesn't use a Scots accent when playing the character. I wonder if Layton and/or Michelinie knew that Lawson was Scottish and just assumed that Wedge would therefore talk like this? Having said that, I'm not entirely sure what accent Wedge is supposed to have here, so I may well be wrong about that.
One other thing that bugs me a bit is how could the Empire have left a squadron of TIE fighters orbiting Hoth, when they're not deep space craft? TIEs are short-range fighters and would need a base ship, like a Star Destroyer, in order to refuel or for their pilots to rest.
I'm also not a fan of Luke McDonnell's artwork, which looks kind of ugly and blocky, with Layton's own inks only accentuating these undesirable qualities. There's a pleasing amount of detail in the art though, but, honestly, I'm struggling to find much to say that's nice about this issue.
On the plus side, Glynis Wein's colouring is really good and it's kind of interesting to see the aftermath of the Battle of Hoth. The story of Wedge and Janson's time stranded on the ice planet isn't really that bad, I guess, although it's not that thrilling either. I do get a kick out of seeing an MLC-3 Mobile Laser Cannon making an appearance though. This self-propelled light artillery weapon was produced by the Kenner toy company as part of their range of
Star Wars mini-rigs in 1981, but this is the first and only time that it appeared in Marvel's
Star Wars comic...
Overall,
Star Wars #78 isn't a terrible comic in and of itself, but because it contradicts established continuity so badly, has such butt-ugly art and features such a lacklustre story, it's pretty much the poster child for those who claim that Marvel's original
Star Wars comic was substandard and not in keeping with George Lucas's vision. The fact that we also get such a radically different writer and artist in this issue, after an exceptionally good run from the Jo Duffy/Ron Frenz/Tom Palmer team, makes this comic more than a little jarring. I wasn't at all fond of this issue as a kid and my opinion of it hasn't really changed in the intervening years.
Continuity issues:
- Biggs Darklighter's back story of growing up on Tatooine as Luke Skywalker's best friend is accidentally grafted onto Wedge Antilles, who is actually from the planet Corellia.
- Wes Janson is murdered by scavengers on Hoth, but he is shown as having escaped from the planet in the various Rogue Squadron books and comics, as well as in the radio dramatisation of The Empire Strikes Back.
- The Y-wing fighter that Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Barlon Hightower are in should not be able to accommodate all three of them, since it is a two man craft.
- Wedge refers to the planet Hoth as having two suns, but in established canon it only has one.
- Wedge has a colloquial accent here, rather like a hillbilly or perhaps it's Scottish or Irish, but in the Star Wars films, actor Denis Lawson exhibits no such accent.
- The Empire couldn't have left a squadron of TIE fighters orbiting Hoth for months on end because they are short-range fighters and would have needed a base ship to refuel in or for their pilots to rest.
Favourite panel:
Favourite quote: "Scavengers! The scum of the galaxy, misfits who follow the paths of battle, stealin' anything they can sell. Makin' a profit from the pain of war. Heck, most'd shoot their own mothers for a second-hand droid motivator!" – Wedge Antilles reflects on the nature of the war profiteers who killed his friend Wes Janson.
My Welsh ancestors (my last name is "Evans") are looking down on me from somewhere and frowning.
No, I think I'll be taking a break from Star Wars reviews when I'm done here. I think I'll be resurrecting my old, long lost Tintin review thread next.