Star Wars #93
Cover dated: March 1985
Issue title: Catspaw
Script: Mary Jo Duffy
Artwork: Sal Buscema (pencils)/Tom Palmer (inks)
Colours: Petra Scotese
Letters: Rick Parker
Cover art: Cynthia Martin
Overall rating: 6½ out of 10




Plot summary: While on a diplomatic mission to the planet Saijo, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia spot a battle damaged X-wing being pursued across the skies by three Y-wing fighters. Rushing to the Millennium Falcon, they take off and engage the Y-wings in combat, since Han has decided that three against one isn't fair odds, even though both types of ship are used by the Alliance. With the Y-wings destroyed, Han, Luke and Leia land the Falcon and pull the X-wing pilot from her wrecked craft.

Back at the medical centre of the nearest Alliance base, the Cantrosian pilot, who is named Minka, tells Han, Luke and Leia that the Y-wings were Imperial ships and her base in the Cantros system has been under continuous assault from the Empire. The three assure Minka that this is impossible, partly because the Empire has now been defeated, but also because captured Imperial intelligence proves that there was no Imperial presence in the Cantros system. Nevertheless, they decide to investigate Minka's claim and head back to Cantros 7. Once there, Han, Luke and Leia meet with other Rebels who maintain that they are engaged in an ongoing fight with the Empire, prompting the trio, with Minka and her comrade Sami in tow, to travel to the Imperial base in the Falcon.

After coming under attack and making an emergency landing, Luke, Han and Sami are apprehended by a group Cantrosians, while Leia and Minka evade capture. The three prisoners are taken back to a base, where they are surprised to learn that their captors are also part of the Rebellion. Suddenly, they see Durne – a member of the same group of Rebels that they had met earlier – instructing their captors to torture them. It quickly becomes apparent that Durne has been manipulating both groups of Rebels and playing each side off against the other. Leia and Minka appear to rescue their friends and, in the ensuing firefight, Luke saves the life of the Cantrosian leader who captured him, convincing the other Rebels at this location that he and his friends are not with the Imperials. The Cantrosians turn on Durne and take him prisoner, as Luke ponders who the scheming Rebel was working for and what has really been happening in the galaxy recently.


Comments: Star Wars #93 is drawn by Sal Buscema, who is probably most famous for his work on Marvel's toy tie-in comic ROM and for a 10-year run on The Incredible Hulk. This is one of only two contributions that Buscema made to the Star Wars series (the other being issue #102), which is a real shame because his ability to tell a story with sequential art is marvellous, with some really interesting panel composition and clever "camera angels" on display here. Take this panel, for example...




I love how we have our heroes' confiscated weapons in the foreground and we, the readers, are sort of peering around that rock at the scene unfolding beyond. It's only a little thing, but as a compositional choice it accentuates the tension of the scene and this could almost be Princess Leia and Minka's view of their friends, as they plan their rescue attempt.

Regular inker Tom Palmer brings his usual high quality draftsmanship to the issue, although, like his work on issue #91, some of the pages here look much more polished than others. Cynthia Martin again handles the cover art – which is pretty unspectacular – and she will take over as the series' new regular artist from next month.

Jo Duffy's plot and script is solid, as we've come to expect from her, and, actually, this issue works as something of a mystery story, with the reader trying to figure out what's going on and who the "Imperials" that the Cantrosians are fighting really are. In that respect, this is a real page turner. Speaking of the Cantrosians, they are the second feline-inspired race we've seen in the Star Wars comic recently, what with the Imperial adjutant Ssssk!, who appeared back in issue #84, and, just like Ssssk!, I'm afraid that they look a little too much like bipedal housecats for my tastes.

Something that I find interesting about this issue is that we begin to see that Han Solo, Luke Skywalker and Leia are being lionised as legendary heroes of the Rebellion by the peoples of the newly liberated galaxy. At one point, Leia says that the further away from the galactic centre planets are, the more distorted the stories will become, with the result that the three of them will become living legends. This is perfectly in keeping with what we saw many years later in Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, when Rey asks Han about the stories that she's heard concerning what happened during the Galactic Civil War, what with the Dark Side and the Jedi, and Han tells her it's true – all of it.

On a related note, I like that Luke shows concern that he and his friend's "legend" doesn't become too big and diminish the sacrifices made by other Rebels. As he says, "everyone who's willing to risk his life for freedom is a hero, no matter who gets talked about." Knowing that it's impossible for the Rebels on Cantros 7 to the have been fighting the Empire, Luke clearly doesn't want them to feel as if they've been fighting for nothing – although, of course, they essentially have. This humility suits Luke well and is a testament to how clearly Duffy understands the essence of Skywalker's character.

On the down side, the fact that the traitor Durne is so surprised to see Han and Luke at the so-called "Imperial base" makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Durne was there only a handful of pages earlier when our heroes clearly stated that they were leaving to travel to the base, so why would he not be expecting them to have been there? I mean, OK, maybe he didn't know that the other Cantrosians had captured Han and Luke, but he definitely shouldn't have been as surprised as he was to see them there.

Still, I like the fact that it's revealed that Durne was working for someone else, which ties in nicely with the hints about a shadowy power working behind the scenes that Knife was making, back in issue #91. It also ties this otherwise stand-alone story into the larger Nagai invasion a little later on in the series. The Wookieepedia website tells me that it was actually later retconned to have been Knife that Durne was working for in Rich Handley and Joseph Bongiorno's article "The University of Sanbra Guide to Intelligent Life: The Marvel Series" from Star Wars Gamer magazine.

Something that doesn't sit well with me is Han's decision to attack and destroy the three Rebel Y-wing fighters that we see chasing Minka's X-wing at the start of the story. Han says, "when I see three against one, I draw my own conclusions about who the good guys and bad guys are", but that makes no sense at all, especially when all four ships sport Rebel markings. Simply destroying the three Y-wings because they outnumber the X-wing doesn't seem like a very good idea at all. On top of that, Luke and Leia go along with the Corellian's flawed logic, resulting in them killing other Rebels, as is pointed out later.

Anyway, overall this is an enjoyable issue, with a pretty gripping plot. It was something of a favourite of mine as a kid, but these days I can see that, despite its engaging script, it's actually quite flawed in some respects. Nonetheless, this is a decent enough issue, with some rather nice Buscema art.


Continuity issues: None

Favourite panel:


Favourite quote: "Sami, everyone who's willing to risk his life for freedom is a hero, no matter who gets talked about." – Luke Skywalker states his belief that all those who serve in the Rebel Alliance are heroes.