Star Wars: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus, Vol. 2

Star Wars: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus

by Archie Goodwin, David Michelinie, Jo Duffy

The very first Star Wars comic-book series continues! After the events of Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back, loveable rogue Han Solo is lost, frozen in carbonite. But as the search for Solo begins, Imperial Forces and other troubles keep getting in the way. Princess Leia clashes with Darth Vader! Luke Skywalker goes on trial for treason! C-3PO and R2-D2 face danger on a droid moon! Lando Calrissian finds Cloud City deserted! If the Crimson Forever doesn't get the Rebels, maybe the new Imperial super-weapon will! And a new member joins the gang, with a crush on a certain handsome Jedi! Meanwhile, the discovery of a gold statue of Han reveals a hidden story from his and Chewbacca's past. And who are the Hoojibs? It's Star Wars in the Mighty Marvel Manner!

Genres: Star Wars, Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics

841 pages, Hardcover

First published May 19, 2015

About the author

Archie Goodwin was an American comic book writer, editor, and artist. He worked on a number of comic strips in addition to comic books, and is best known for his Warren and Marvel Comics work. For Warren he was chief writer and editor of landmark horror anthology titles Creepy and Eerie, and for Marvel he set up the creator-owned Epic Comics as well as adapting Star Wars into both comics and newspaper strips. He is regularly cited as the "best-loved comic book editor, ever."

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though I'm giving this book the same average rating as the previous volume, this is the point at which the Marvel Star Wars series started to decline for me. Archie Goodwin, whom I feel was the writer who "understood" the property the best, finishes off his run, and the rest (apart from a few fill-in stories, some of which are very good) is by David Michelinie and Jo Duffy--both very good writers whose other work I have enjoyed very much, but they take the book in a more lighthearted and humorous direction, and the tonal shift is not for the better. Cute aliens, jokey dialogue, wacky action. The writing is good enough but the book turns into something exclusively for kids, rather than having a broader appeal for all ages. Fortunately the art remains strong throughout.

The other aspect is not the fault of the Marvel writers; they were limited as to how far they could progress the plot before the next film. Basically, Han Solo could not be found, and since the characters spend a lot of time looking for him here, the book feels like it is spinning its wheels. We know they're going to fail. (If you're reading the book without any knowledge of the films, this may not be an issue.) That lovable rogue does appear, however, in a couple stories that take place in the past.

[Thurm · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a delight to read. I didn't even know that there were Star Wars comics from the time of the original movies when I got this omnibus. The writers had so little to go off back then that the various stories come across as incredibly outlandish and usually really campy, but that's exactly what I was anticipating and I loved nearly every minute of it. There were some issues that got a little boring, but all-in-all if you're willing to put up with this being a product of its time, there is a great deal of enjoyment to be had from these comics. At the very least the art is beyond fantastic. Every time I picked this omnibus up I'd feel like a little kid again, which is exactly how I want Star Wars to make me feel.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is more of the same when compared to the first volume, so if you liked that one you'll probably enjoy this as well. The quality of the book itself in terms of color and artwork are still top-notch. I'd recommend this book to fans of comics who are also fans of Star Wars as well as fans of Star Wars who are interested in seeing the very beginning of the EU. I wouldn't start with the comics, but it is interesting to see where they went.

The big difference for me in this book is the authors were more constrained than they were in the first volume. The attraction of the first volume to me was how crazy their ideas were because the majority of the volume they only had ANH to go off of and they were told a few things they couldn't do, a few things they couldn't touch, and the rest was fair game. That's why we got the insanity of characters like a human sized rabbit that knows martial arts. Now that there were two Star Wars movies out, they had a whole lot more universe to box them in. They also had to deal with one of the three main characters being out of commission since Han was in carbonite until ROTJ. So in terms of storylines, I think these authors were crippled from the beginning.

Still, the authors took some chances that worked out, even if they ended up being missed opportunities (unless they get resolved in the next volume). My favorite was Shira.
This is what they should've made the focus of much more of their storytelling. Shira becomes the love interest of Luke. I liked that; it seemed weird that he wouldn't ever show interest at all in anyone other than Leia. It was also great that Shira was a traitor and working for Vader. It was set up nicely where you follow some of her storyline and you only find out later that you didn't know the whole story. This was best done when she would try to get the coordinates for the secret rebel base. You're made to think that she wants this so she can return after she visits her home planet, and it is a weak reason for the author's to include Luke in her mission. But really she was just trying to get the coordinates. So it was really nice to see them setting up payoffs multiple issues in advance. I also thought it was cool that Luke shot her down by trusting the Force without knowing it was her. Unfortunately, that's where this best storyline went off the rails. The rebellion completely turns on Luke and bring charges against him because, in the heat of battle, he shot down a ship (they were in TIE fighters too) without knowing his supposed ally was inside.
Anyone fighting in a war would have a firm understanding of friendly fire. As long as it wasn't negligence that led to it, everyone would obviously move on. This leads to a multiple issue redemption story for Luke that just seems dumb since the instigator for the plot was so contrived.
The second missed opportunity was to have Shira be a traitor. Once Luke killer her, I was very impressed. I thought this was going to tackle a main character facing a serious crisis where he accidentally killed his ally and someone he cared for as more than a friend. This would be the motivating factor for his character development and probably lead him towards the dark side.
Having Shira be a traitor gives him a very convenient out where he doesn't have to grapple with any of that anymore. Now, he's back to the all around good guy who always fights for justice.
Much more boring. The only saving grace of this would be if she came back and was a recurring villain. She survived the explosion, which was a bit much, but it seemed alright because she was trained by Vader in healing and I guess she has the Force to some degree. But then she just disappears and doesn't return. I hope she comes back in the next volume..

The author's portrayal of Leia wasn't great. Maybe they felt they had to do something to create tension, but her character is far from the post ESB Leia. She is constantly flirting with Luke, almost kissing Luke, and getting jealous if he talks to other girls. She kind of starts having a thing for some king who saves her. Stuff like that keeps happening and then they'd go back to Leia pining after Han and being desperate to save him.

I read some other reviews about how the stories were much more for children in this book, and I mostly disagree. There are a handful of comics and recurring characters that an adult rolls their eyes at, but for the majority I would say this was more adult. There isn't graphic sex at all, but there are repeated references to it throughout. An imperial officer wants to sleep with Luke to further her cause and says things like, "...And I'd be grateful for your help...in any number of ways!". There's an entire species called Zeltrons that are sex-driven maniacs who desperately want to sleep with Luke, one of whom is a recurring character who follows him around. We see Chewbacca snap a stormtrooper's neck.




Some other things that stood out:
- It is pretty cool to see the very early stages of things that got fleshed out in great detail later. Even from this early start, they've introduced Mandalore and Fenn Shysa. Throughout these first two volumes, I remember multiple times (but no specifics) of reading some offhand comment or location in the comic that was obviously taken up by some author or coordinator much later in time and included in the EU.
- In one scene, Lando uses a roll of film and a film canister to make a slingshot. He uses that to shoot an imperial speeder, which destroys it.
- Another ridiculous silly moment is when Leia is getting attacked by Gundarks and two of them try to get her with their tongues, which get hopelessly intertwined and allow her to escape. Most of these moments happen early on and really made me question if I would get anything out of the volume.
-There are way too many gravity defying scenes that effect the plot. Characters very often will lift up something very heavy, and then toss it up in the air high enough to hit spacecraft, causing them to crash. And I'm not talking landspeeders hovering off the ground. I'm talking ships a couple hundred feet in the air.
- There are cutesy little creatures that keep popping up and they kind of look like porgs and they annoy Chewie like porgs did...so that brought back my PTSD from the Last Jedi.
-Some of the silliness wasn't good, but also wasn't a detriment and got a chuckle out of me. One of the storylines for a couple of issues was the rebellion hiding their fleet literally inside of a sun where they had some kind of special shielding. It was insane and over the top, but I enjoy that in these comics.
- Another over-the-top aspect I wish they had more of was the descriptions. I find them kind of funny. There's one where the characters are in a bazaar and the headline says something like, "...and they discover the only deal of the day appears to be...DEATH AT BARGAIN PRICES!" That kind of thing makes me chuckle.
- There is one issue where Luke and Lando are being chased by, in some frames, looks like a giant pink penis creature.
- Every so often there is a story breaking stupid decision by a character that just takes you out of it. The one that pops into mind is near the end when Luke and Leia are trying to find a rebel spy and recover his droid. They sneak into a banquet to find him where they weren't invited.
Leia is a pretty recognizable figure, but she walks in and tells the host that they are newly arrived from Arbra, which is the planet where the rebellion has their secret base. I was wondering what the heck was happening. Half the freakin book is about searching for a safe and secret base and then Leia and the rebellion working so hard to get it set up and going to great lengths to keep it hidden.
Then she goes to a planet controlled by the Empire, walks into a banquet of the ruling elite, and tells them what planet she came from with the assumption nobody will recognize her? Why take the risk? I'm sure it was something written off-hand by the author and not thought about, but this was something that just goes against the entire character and plot.
- One of the more confusing aspects of the story is near the end when Wedge Antilles is revealed to be...Luke's best friend from Tatooine. It was obvious they got confused with Biggs, although I don't know how that would happen, especially since the writers were all big fans of Star Wars. It is a big part of the climactic scene in ANH when Biggs is killed during the battle of Yavin. I'm really at a loss to how a fan of Star Wars could get that mixed up and then have nobody else catch the mistake. The only other options is that Wedge was also from Tatooine, and Luke/Wedge just happened to never mention it, talk about their previous friendship, and it was never shown in the comics that referenced this time period. This would still be a major annoyance to me because then I'd be wondering why the Rebellion didn't just take all the guys from Tatooine as their pilots because apparently that is the best hub of talent in the entire galaxy. Does Luke have any friends left?

[OmniBen · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Zero spoiler review)
It took me quite a while to work through this one. It sat there, sometimes for a week or more at a time without me reading so much as a single issue. I couldn't really pinpoint the exact reason, having read worse books at a faster rate, but there was just something about the somewhat dated nature of these stories that had me struggling to crack it open and push through it. You could pretty much cut and paste my issues from omnibus number one over to this one, though the creative upgrade was certainly appreciated, with Walt Simonson's pencils and David Michalinie's stories being generally more enjoyable than the majority of what came before.
The main issue here is, this just didn't quite feel like Star Wars, as far as I, an armchair fan could discern. You could blame it on the fact that the IP was in its infancy, and the extended universe hadn't been fleshed out in any way shape or form, and the comics writers were somewhat flying blind as to what Star Wars would ultimate end up being, but the cheesiness of some of these stories could give a lactose intolerant person issues simply by staring at the pages. There are some gems here and there, but god help me there are some absolute turkeys here as well. That said, I'd take the worst on offer here over Disney Star Wars any day of the week and twice on Sunday. 3/5


OmniBen.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can I say? This was one of my favourite series when I was a kid (for obvious reasons), so it gets a bunch of stars for the sake of nostalgia alone. The stories are still great, I'm always a fan of the art of both Walt Simonson and Ron Frenz, and these comics were a lot of fun to revisit.

[Gary Varga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun.

Oh the artistry varies and some of it is definitely of the era quality. The same could be said about some of the writing. Yes, some of the characters are a little stereotypical and occasionally the main characters do not quite match up to what we consider them to be after decades of retrospection.

But it is fun.

If you are going to read this then you must consider that this was written in the early 80s. As a comic. Mainly aimed at kids and adults who knew it was only supposed to be a bit of fun. This was one of the few things that Lucasfilm, to some degree, let run riot with their IP.

The fun of a scoundrels, friendship, and fire fights.

Having said all that, it is full of strong female characters, there are attempts at diversity (not only by having aliens), and attempts to tackle some real human issues.

But mainly it is fun.

The above is just an adjusted copy of what I wrote for volume 1. It remains true with the second volume as well.

[Artur Coelho · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mais uma dose - a roçar a overdose, de aventuras Star Wars clássicas. No seguimento do filme original, sem as complicações posteriores da família Skywalker, apenas aventureiros em luta contra o império numa vasta e exótica galáxia. Histórias divertidas, se bem que algo datadas, o que não surpreende. O que surpreende é rever a saga nos seus primórdios, antes do amadurecimento de anos de filmes e ficções transmedia. O mais flagrante aqui é a personagem Jabba The Hut, apenas mencionada de revés na versão original do primeiro filme, que nestes comics é um saurópode bípede, bem longe da personagem vermiforme imortalizada em Return of the Jedi.

[DC · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly fun stories that are mostly but not entirely compatible with the EU continuity that started about a decade later. Some of the art was great, and some of it was like "I guess this is Leia because she has brown hair braided on her head."

[Timo · Rating 3 out of 5]

These tend to be a bit too cute and silly with some high drama included here and there. Solid art almost all the way through but I think I'm getting too old for this amount of cuteness.

[John Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

The continued adventures in the original expanded universe. Great classic stories. I can’t wait to read Volume 3!

[Alain del Risco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fools Bounty!!! Amazing.

[Peter DiCicco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only for die hard Star Wars and comics fan, this collection of the Marvel Comics run of Star Wars from the early 80's is certainly fun, though definitely shows the style of the times. Some of the stories are silly but still entertaining, and the art is sometimes rough and dated looking but mostly really great.

[Bas · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of fun comics in this collection. Some were more Bronze Age (wordy, over explaining) but this is a must read for die-hard SW fans!