I didn't know that, but the Warren thing kinda makes sense because Lucas's first choice to draw the comic was Al Williamson. Lucas, who was a fan of Williamson's art from the old EC sci-fi comics and Flash Gordon, apparently approached the artist as early as 1975 in connection with the project, but Williamson declined because he had too much work on at the time.

Williamson returned to working for Warren in 1976, so it might've been a case of Lucas approaching the company in the hopes that they'd asign Williamson to the book. I'm only surmising, of course, but it seems possible, if not likely.

Of course, Lucas finally got his wish when Williamson did the comic adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back, the SW newspaper strip and ROTJ.

DC though?! That would've been weird.

Star Wars #97
Cover dated: July 1985
Issue title: Escape
Script: Mary Jo Duffy
Artwork: Cynthia Martin (pencils)/Art Nichols (inks)
Colours: Petra Scotese
Letters: Rick Parker
Cover art: Cynthia Martin (pencils)/Art Nichols (inks)
Overall rating: 5 out of 10




Plot summary: A Nagai invasion fleet, intent on conquering the galaxy, has arrived at the remote world of Kinooine. Landing on the planet, the starships disgorge Nagai warriors and renegade Imperial troops onto the surrounding landscape, as they get to work setting up base. Watching from a nearby trench, Luke Skywalker and Kiro take their prisoner, Lumiya, the Dark Lady of the Sith, back to their ship and tie her to its landing support, before leaving to rescue their friend Dani, who has been taken prisoner by the Nagai warrior Den Siva.

Elsewhere, Dani is undergoing excruciating torture at Den's hands, as her Zeltron physiology is probed by analysis beams, which do not inflict psychical wounds, but which do generate tremendous pain. Though the process leaves her weakened and emotionally scarred, Den begins to become fascinated by his captive's inner strength and beauty.

Meanwhile, back at the Alliance base on Endor, a gathering including Han Solo, Princess Leia, Lando Calrissian, Chewbacca, and the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO, listen to Admiral Ackbar and Mon Mothma, as they relay the news that the Nagai have declared war on the galaxy. Realising that Luke, Kiro and Dani are in danger, Han volunteers to travel to Kinooine and rescue his friends, but is forbidden from doing so by Ackbar. The Admiral explains that the Alliance has more important concerns regarding the invasion than rescuing Skywalker, which is ultimately a personal matter. This angers Solo to the point where he storms out of the briefing, vowing to leave the Alliance.

Back on Kinooine, Kiro manages to rescue Dani from her cell, while Luke steals important data about the Nagai from the computers in the complex. After escaping onto a high, rocky pathway, Kiro and Dani come face to face with Den, who threatens them with a knife. Kiro leaps at the Nagai warrior, engaging him in a vicious fight, but as the pair wrestle, they topple into a river below. While Dani watches anxiously from above, she is joined by Luke, just in time to see blood beginning to spread upon the water's surface. Unsure of whether Kiro has survived the fight or not, Luke and the distraught Zeltron return to their ship, where they find Lumiya gone, having been rescued by Knife, who has evidently survived his clash with Kiro.


Comments: As well as being the culmination of the "Dark Lady" story arc, Star Wars #97 has particular significance for me because it was the last story of the series that I read as a kid. I decided to stop buying Return of the Jedi Weekly in July 1985, with issue #107 being my last...




I stopped buying the British comic, after years of being an avid reader, because I felt that the stories were deteriorating; I really disliked Cynthia Martin's artwork; I hated the Power Pack backup strip, and the magazine was becoming full of reprints of older Star Wars stories (stories that I already had in my collection), with barely 4 pages of new content per issue. So, the publication really wasn't providing great value for money to someone who was on just £1.50's worth of pocket money per week. In some ways, it's a shame that I chose this particular issue to stop buying the comic because a new Al Williamson drawn story began the very next week, and he has always been my favourite Star Wars artist. Ah well...

Anyway, I didn't get to read the remaining ten issues of Star Wars until the mid-1990's, when I completed a collection of the original U.S. issues. But I digress...

This is really the point in the series where the Nagai invasion begins in earnest. Having an alien race coming from outside of the known Star Wars galaxy to conquer the newly formed Alliance of Free Planets is a pretty cool idea of Jo Duffy's, I think. It's also a concept that subsequent expanded universe writers have used for themselves, and I'm specifically thinking of Kathy Tyers' The Truce at Bakura here, with its invading Ssi-Ruuk race. Clearly Duffy's intention with the Nagai was to create a credible threat to the Alliance, which is something that had been sorely missing from the book since the fall of the Empire. Of course, the Nagai aren't anywhere near as big of a threat as the Empire was, but nonetheless, the invasion does inject a renewed sense of urgency and story impetus into proceedings.

In this issue, the Nagai warrior Den Siva is revealed to be a real nasty piece of work. He's cruel, callous and cold. In other words, he's a great villain! The way that he cruelly tortures Dani, in order to satisfy his scientific curiosity – regarding her as little more than an insect in a Petri dish – is very sinister. Especially as it's made clear that his probing with the analysis beams will leave the Zeltron psychologically scarred.

We also see the beginning of Den's obsessive, quasi-romantic fascination with Dani, which will have ramifications later on in the series. It's a fascinating development for the Nagai warrior, which sheds light on the wider nature of his race. At one point, Den finds a beautiful flower outside his base and Duffy takes the opportunity to make an analogy between the plant's ability to survive on a harsh planet like Kinooine and Dani's own inner strength and outward beauty. As a Nagai, Den has been raised to respect strength, logical efficiency and elegance, rather than fragility, but in the flower – and, by extension, Dani herself – he sees that not everything that is fragile is necessarily weak.

Duffy also gives us an excellent cliffhanger at the close of this issue, by showing Lumiya and Den still at large, while Kiro is seemingly dead. Lumiya has really come into her own in this arc, after that rather lacklustre debut in issue #88. Unfortunately, the promise of the character will go largely unfulfilled in the Marvel Comics run. She will only make two further appearances in the series (in issues #100 and #107), and it would be down to later expanded universe authors to use the character to her fullest potential.

Something that I think is great in this issue, is that we see Luke Skywalker using the Jedi mind trick. It's a Jedi skill that, outside of the movie adaptation issues, is seldom utilised in the comic. I'm guessing the reason for that is because it makes it too easy for Luke to get out of tight situations. Anyway, it's nice to see the young Jedi using that power here.

Duffy also has Luke using the same distraction trick that Obi-Wan Kenobi used when he was deactivating the tractor beam on board the Death Star, by using the Force to create a low, rumbling noise, as a diversion...




Other things of note in the script are how Pilf hints at a connection between Han Solo and Knife, which is something that will be explored a little later on in the series. We also glimpse the ramifications of Han, Luke, Princess Leia etc not being allowed to sit on the Alliance of Free Planets' ruling council, following their having missed the inaugural council meeting, back in issue #90. Personally, I have a hard time understanding Admiral Ackbar and Mon Mothma's reluctance regarding Han going off to rescue Luke. That seems more than a little short-sighted, since Luke is not only the last remaining Jedi Knight in the Alliance, but also one of its most important figureheads and greatest warriors.

On the artistic front, I really, really do not like the combination of Cynthia Martin's pencils and Art Nichols' inking. The combination produces some horribly angular art, while simultaneously accentuating the worst of Martin's cartoon-ish qualities. In particular, the Imperial stormtroopers look, in their own way, just as angular, stylised and dissimilar to their cinematic counterparts as they did during Carmine Infantino's tenure on the book. However, I find this curious variation of stormtrooper armour on the opening page pretty interesting...




What is this supposed to be? A Vader-trooper?!

Anyway, Martin and Nichols' art really turned me off as a kid and it continues to turn me off as an adult. Four issues into her term as the series' regular artist and Martin's style is still proving to be a very jarring change from the polished, cinema-authentic work of earlier artists, such as Ron Frenz, Walt Simonson and Tom Palmer. The front cover of this issue is every bit as ugly as the interior art too, unfortunately.

However, I do think that Martin's design for the various Nagai spaceships look suitably alien and un-Star Wars-y – which is exactly how they should look, given that they have come from outside of the galaxy. There's also some nice background detailing on occasion in this comic, but overall, the art still is really unsatisfactory to me.

Star Wars #97 ends promising us an episode entitled "Far, Far Away" but, in fact, we will get a fill-in story next issue. The promised episode, which directly follows on from this issue, won't appear until Star Wars #101 – even though it's set before issue #99. Confused? To quote Yoda, "you will be."

All in all, the "Dark Lady" story arc is an important one. It provides us with the only real clash between Luke and Lumiya that we will see in the series and it also kicks off the Nagai invasion proper. Unfortunately, for me, this is the story arc in which the regular cast of Han, Luke, Leia etc, begin to feel like they're being squeezed out of the picture and pushed a little bit from centre stage by all the new Nagai characters and the return of Lumiya. Unfortunately, this impression of the main cast becoming somewhat sidelined in their own book will only intensify as the series progresses and the likes of the Hiromi, the Tofs and various Zeltrons flood the comic.

Nevertheless, this concluding part of the "Dark Lady" storyline is, just like earlier instalments, a gripping read, with plenty of action and intrigue. It's just a pity that the art lets things down and does such a disservice to the story.


Continuity issues: None

Favourite panel:


Favourite quote: "You can trust me, Luke. Trust me to stick a knife in your back if you ever turn it on me." – Lumiya rages defiantly at Luke Skywalker, as he ties her up in order to prevent her escaping.

Sorry for the late reply to this, wildfire2099. I was kind of busy and then I sort of forgot.




I don't think it's a case of Roy Thomas having seen Star Wars when this issue was written. While it's true that Thomas, Chaykin and Leialoha were all in attendance at the legendary February 1977 rough cut screening of the film -- which featured WW2 dogfight footage, rather tha the ILM effects shots -- that was only a month prior to SW #1 hitting stands and 3 months prior to this issue being published. Even then, how much movie-accurate dialogue could Thomas have picked up from one screening? If you look at the film's shooting script, it's more of a case of there having been less alterations made on the set in this portion of the film, than in earlier parts.




That's right, he tells Chewbacca instead.




Yeah, I think this is just the limitations of -- or perhaps "conventions of" -- the comic book medium in general and mid-'70s Marvel in particular. It's the same as when Spider-Man utters several paragraphs of dialogue in a panel that clearly occurs in a split second.




Yeah, I made mention of that panel of Kenobi being struck down in my review. I think it looks ludicrous, rather than shocking or action packeed. I think overall the artwork takes a definite turn for the worse again with issue #4. There's also the bad depiction of Chewbacca here which will last for a fair way into the series before anybody draws the Wookiee right. Looking back, I described Chewie in this issue as looking like a "well groomed Bigfoot, crossed with and an extra from Planet of the Apes."

I'm gonna add a mention in my review of issue #4 that it isn't made clear that Kenobi heroically sacrificed himself during his duel with Vader. As you say, that's a major omission.




I don't want to speak for shaxper, but I seem to remember that his daughter quickly lost interest, as kids often do at that age.

You would be correct, much to my sadness

There's actually a lot to love in those earlier, pre-ESB issues. I mean, in general the series really hit it's stride with the ESB adaptation and carried on being pretty strong until a year or so after ROTJ. But many of the earlier Roy Thomas or Archie Goodwin stories are well worth reading too. Two of my favourite story arcs from that period are "The Star-Hoppers of Aduba-3" (SW #8-10) and the "Omega Frost" story (SW #31-34). Check 'em out.

As for the Iskalonian arc (SW #74-76), which I think is what you are referring to when you talk about fish aliens, is actually one of the series' best and darkest arcs. That's well worth checking out.

Agree with all of this. I loved the Frenz/Simonson/Palmer years, and the switch to this angular cartoony style was pretty jarring. I remember that when the Empire Strikes Back adaptation began (actually it was the Marvel paperback book release, with the funny-looking purple Yoda, that came out before the monthly issues) with the Al Williamson artwork, I said to my brother, "Man, this comic just got good." We had a run of several great years, artistic-wise, after that. (I always enjoyed the stories, to be clear.)

This "ugly" cover, by the way, was reproduced for the cover of the fifth and final volume of Dark Horse's "A Long Time Ago..." original Marvel series collection, which featured issues 86-107. So apparently someone didn't agree with you... Or else they were trying to warn prospective buyers about what they would find inside? 

On a more positive note: am I correct that these issues of Star Wars, the ones you're currently reviewing, were the first time a comic book series was written, drawn, colored and edited by women? I think I remember an interview with Mary Jo Duffy in which she points that out. I'm not enough of a comics historian to know if that's true, but if so, I guess that would start back in issue 94, Martin's first issue, with the Ewok on the cover. A small blow in favor of representation, maybe, but worth mentioning!

Great reviews as always, Confessor, and as I've said the last few times I've posted, I'm sad these are coming to their inevitable end. But all good things, I suppose...

Edit: Just took a closer look, and I'm wrong: the cover of "A Long Time Ago..." Volume 5 reproduces the first page of this issue and not the cover, as I wrote above. Well, they're similar enough that it's easy to get confused... Unless you actually look at the two of them, which I apparently didn't do... 

Gotta give a quick shout-out to the "Wheel" arc, issues 18-23. What's not to love... our heroes reunited, outer space battles, imperial intrigue, and, finally, the long-awaited return of Darth Vader!


I think urrutiap might be conflating the Iskalonian story with that of the Waterworld of Drexel/Dragon Lords story from #12-15. No fish aliens in helmets, but a lot of precious comic book time spent on a water world that could maybe have been spent fighting stormtroopers on that Wheel I mentioned above!