Star Wars - Episódio I: A Ameaça Fantasma

Star Wars Graphic Novelisations #1

by Henry Gilroy (Writer), Rodolfo Damaggio (Illustrator), Magda Lopes (Translator)

O primeiro capítulo da épica saga STAR WARS agora em quadrinhos!

Adaptado do roteiro original de George Lucas, Star Wars Episódio I – A Ameaça Fantasma revela a história e os eventos que serviram como fundação para a luta da Aliança Rebelde contra o Império conforme registrada na trilogia original de filmes da série STAR WARS.

Retratando personagens familiares como nunca visto antes e introduzindo novas figuras importantes destinadas a se tornar ícones de Star Wars, Episódio I – A Ameaça Fantasma é uma experiência cinematográfica que não deve deixar de ser vista, e esta adaptação para graphic novel não pode deixar de ser lida por todos os entusiastas de STAR WARS.

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

120 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Ozan · Rating 3 out of 5]

You will enjoy the comics more if you watch The Film before reading the comics because you will know the absent little scenes between The Panels and that will make you understand what's going on so much better since comics is not very succesful at doing that, thanks to artist who draw the adaptation... Especially it was not very good at totally interpret the action scenes like The Duel of the Fates, but if you watched The Film before reading The Comics, you can fill in the gaps between Panels and enjoy the comics alot more as i said before.

Jar jar... you know what... i realised i don't hate jar jar as much as i used to anymore. I hated Jar Jar very much when i watched The Film in theaters at 1999 when i was 15 year old. I realised reading the comics adaptation 18 years later, Now, if jar jar was a price i had to pay to see Yoda, Jabba The Hutt and Darth Sidius in action one more time and to see a villain as cool as Darth Maul, so be it. I believe that's not that big of a price to pay, it was a good bargain HA HA !!!!

[Dimitris Papastergiou · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in 32BBY

You know I didn't expect to like it, I was expecting a real quick-buck cheap adaptation as it always goes with that kind of comic, but it was surprisingly well done, I liked the artwork and the story was well.. what you'd expect if you've seen the film more than 10 times like myself.

“The ability to speak does not make you intelligent.” – Qui-Gon Jinn

[Neil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Graphic novel adaptations of films are only worthwhile if they add something extra, or show the film's story from a different perspective. This adaptation of The Phantom Menace actually reduces the movie's story rather than adding anything to it. The pod race, for example, is just a few panels and is incomprehensible unless you know what's going on from having watched the movie.

Still, though, there are quite a few parts of this story that work perhaps better in graphic novel form than in the movie. Much of the movie is utterly ridiculous as a movie--but in ways that don't feel as out of place in a more streamlined visual form.

[Matthew Ward · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. This is just about as middle of the road as an adaptation can feel.

[Jimmakos Gavagias · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 αστέρια για το στόρυ μιας και από εκεί ξεκίνησαν όλα χρονικά

5 αστέρια για τη 1η εμφάνιση του Darth Maul!

(μεγάλη εμφάνιση του Ray Park στη ταινία)

[Sean Carlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

A graphic-novel adaptation so faithful (in plot, dialogue, and visuals) to the movie upon which it is based, it starkly lays bare the (many) shortcomings of the source material: George Lucas' screenplay is an overcomplicated, boring mess, with byzantine political machinations, thin characterization, stagnant dialogue, and fortune-cookie mysticism masquerading as "infallible wisdom" (the more we learn about the Jedi Order, the less noble or functional it seems). And many of the movie's best features, its action sequences (the podrace, the Duel of the Fates), are reduced to a few brief panels here, so there's absolutely nothing kinetic about this particular iteration of The Phantom Menace to hold one's interest or attention.

Credit Lucas for at least trying something different (just as he did with his other prequel series, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles), but, much like Qui-Gon Jinn himself, his trusted instincts did not serve him well this time around; this ephemeral media tie-in stands as unfortunate testament to that.

[Judah Radd · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s a low bar, but this is a much better experience than the movie.

*no bad performances
*no long dragging scenes (lookin at you, pod race)

What you get here is just the story. Yes, there’s still some bad dialogue, but the damage is mostly mitigated by the medium.

I would say that if you’re ever planning a Star Wars chronologically marathon, you should considering reading this instead of watching it. You’ll spend less time on a better experience.

The art is better than serviceable, and it had far less cringe, bad special effects or boring parts.

[Beetle The Bard · Rating 2 out of 5]

The movie did not translate well into a graphic novel. And the gungans gave me a headache. And I love the movie, so I’m quite disappointed with this one, but at least I gave it a try and finished it, haha.

[Tanneke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nederlandse vertaling. Jar Jar klinkt zo mogelijk NOG irritanter.

[Renn]

I want that cover as a poster on my wall, please and thank you.

[☮ morgan ☮ · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Don't center on your anxiety, Obi-Wan. Keep your concentration here and now where it belongs."

loved.

[Jared · Rating 2 out of 5]

Star Wars Legends Project #68

Background: Episode I: The Phantom Menace was released in 4 issues during May 1999. The trade paperback was released the same month. It was ostensibly written by Henry Gilroy (though the story is credited to George Lucas, and the comic sticks almost line-for-line to the film, so it's unclear to me what he wrote) with art pencilled by Rodolfo Damaggio. Gilroy's other work includes a dozen or so prequel-era comics (including the adaptation of Episode II: Attack of the Clones), and he was head writer for the first season of the Clone Wars animated series and has written several episodes of the Rebels TV series. Outside of Star Wars, Gilroy has written for a variety (i.e. dozens) of other shows and projects, including the animated Batman, Taz-Mania, Lilo & Stitch, etc. Damaggio has also worked for show business, doing concept art and storyboards for movies like Jurassic Park III, Episode II, Iron Man, and Green Lantern. His other comics work includes quite a few Batman titles.

The Phantom Menace is, of course, the comic book adaptation of Episode I, set 32 years before the Battle of Yavin.

Summary: See also Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace (my review)

Review: I feel like Terry Brooks' novelization of The Phantom Menace is a good example of how to elevate a story that is decidedly subpar into something that is at least readable, and even enjoyable on some level. This comic seems like it went the other direction. If you like Episode I, you'll like this comic version of it . . . but really you should just rewatch the movie because this isn't going to give you that different of an experience. If you don't like Episode I, reading this may well be a form of torture.

There are a lot of different ways to do adaptation . . . The novel takes an approach that gets us inside the characters heads and expands on a few key scenes and situations that provide a lot more depth to what we see in the movie. The comic takes a much more slavishly literal approach, replicating virtually every line of dialogue from the film verbatim, and opting for very non-stylized, realistic visuals. It's not so much that this makes it bad or of low-quality, as it is just really, extremely boring.

Of course, I say that the comic is basically exactly like the film . . . But there are some key differences that seem to totally sacrifice narrative coherence for no apparent reason. Obviously there is no expectation that anyone would be reading this without having seen the film, but even so. I don't want to spend the next several paragraphs detailing every example of what I'm talking about, but basically, there are some bits of dialogue snipped out of the middle of conversations that leave an obvious hole and the action scenes are truncated and often incoherent.

In particular, the podrace scene is reduced to a mere four pages, and it's impossible to tell what's going on if you haven't seen the film. Several moments in the climactic final battle suffer the same fate (most notably the scene where Padme turns the tables on Viceroy Nute Gunray in the throne room). There are also some weird visual choices . . . For instance, the Gungan's blue energy balls here look like irregularly-shaped and slightly-radioactive pink hailstones ranging widely from bowling ball to exercise ball in size. Also, the laser walls that separate the lightsaber combatants in the final duel are rendered here as a couple of horizontal bars at about chest and head height, making it kind of unclear why Obi-Wan doesn't just duck slightly and walk under to join the other two. Also, during the funeral at the end, Obi-Wan informs Anakin that the council has approved his training, but on the next page Obi-Wan has the discussion with Yoda about what the council said. Kind of confusing.

Overall, this feels like so many of the other attempts to cash in with tie-in products to Episode I back in 1999. Purely redundant, there's nothing of any real interest about it.

D

[RdWd · Rating 2 out of 5]

For me, The Phantom Menace has always been a favourite. The world was far more impressive than anything prior in the Saga, the choreography was enticing, and the story introduced nine-year old me to the absurdity of bureaucracy.

This graphic novelisation doesn't really live up to the film, though, and I think the issue with Henry Gilroy and Al Williamson's treatment of The Phantom Menace is that both the dialogue and panels stick too closely to the film's script and frames. There are some great 'graphic novelisations' out there, comics that offer alternate angles on scenes and reinterpret dialogue or concepts, unfortunately, this isn't one of them.

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this review and more on my blog.

This graphic novelisation of The Phantom Menace was underwhelming.

My main problem with this graphic novel was the art style used, it just did not work. I am struggling as to how to describe the style used but the facial expressions were not given life that I saw on the screen.

I suspect that with this being only a 4 issue novelisation, the amount of information able to be put onto the page was comparatively small as to what is on the screen for a 2 hour movie. I kept feeling like I was missing some crucial piece of information that would have made me enjoy and understand what was going on. The tension was non-existent.

The duel of the fates fight (between Darth Maul, Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi) was very short and I felt like I did not care for what happened during it (I was almost crying in the movie the first time). This was a recurring theme throughout this entire graphic novel.

If you give this a miss, you will not be missing much but you may appreciate the movie more.

[Jill Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice art. Jar Jar Binks is so damn annoying in this that I almost we skipped his lines....but I wanted to read further into him since I believe in the whole "Darth Jar Jar" theory.

[Tony Romine · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Phantom Menace is the first in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, it was written some 15 years after the last movie in the original trilogy, which is widely considered a classic of the sci-fi genre. The prequel trilogy is not held in such high regard and in my reviews of these graphic novel adaptations, I'll briefly explain my own issues with them.

The Phantom Menace is a steaming pile of garbage. The plot, roughly, is about the Jedi Knights first coming into contact with Anakin Skywalker (who eventually becomes Darth Vader), Obi-Wan Kenobi's final training to become a Jedi Knight by his mentor Qui-Gon Jin, and Senator Palpatine (who eventually becomes Emperor Palpatine) laying the groundwork for what would become the Empire. I say roughly because on top of those three very simple premises, George Lucas lays an overwhelmingly boring story about political conflicts and trade embargoes with a generous helping of terrible characters and cheesy dialogue.

The graphic novel adaptation does a good job of conveying the mess of a story. You get a better understanding of what the hell the political arguments are about and see the machinations of Palpatine pretty clearly. While that is a good thing, it doesn't change the fact that none of this should have been in the movie in the first place. It's convoluted, boring, and is literally thrown out for us to figure out without any backstory as to why it's all happening in the first place. Once I figured out what was going on, I came to the realization that explaining the political climate of the Republic by showing arguments in the Senate and having people talking about it extensively on screen is probably the worst way to do it. A better way would have been to show actual situations within the massive universe that George created that conveyed what was going on politically. Not have a bunch of bad dialogue between a group of people just blatantly explaining it.

Moving on to the characters, here is another place in which the graphic novel succeeds where the movie failed. Almost none of the characters have discernible personalities with the exception of two very annoying characters whose personality is they are annoying. Qui-Gon Jinn is a terrible Jedi and a horrible character. He's extremely manipulative on a lot of levels and as bland as the plot points about the taxation of trade routes. Qui-Gon's sole purpose seems to be to find Anakin and then die like Obi-Wan in A New Hope (except his body doesn't disappear because apparently that really awesome plot point from the original trilogy got skipped over for the prequels). Speaking of Anakin, instead of an interesting, complex character we got a precocious child who has zero depth and would be the most annoying character except that this movie also has a tall, loudmouthed, squeaky voiced alien who talks like grown toddler. There's Padme and Obi-Wan, two characters who have a lot of potential, but are relegated to background noise.

I could honestly go on a lot longer about the flaws of the movie here, it's not just a bad Star Wars movie, it damaged the franchise heavily. It shifted the direction of the expanded universe from good storytelling into a bland wasteland of marketing possibilities. It did this for over 15 years until The Force Awakens would come out and try it's best to repair the damage. It spawned Attack of the Clones (maybe it's biggest sin).

This graphic novel has a few things going for it though. It's artwork is decent enough and it does a great job of conveying the story, something the film itself failed at. It's really a pretty enjoyable way to experience The Phantom Menace and I would recommend it over actually watching the movie itself.

[StrictlySequential · Rating 3 out of 5]

Obsessed with the first three I was.

Of course I stayed up through the night, a screwdriver within an enormous toolbox, on cold concrete to see this in our most prestigious theater. I entered with all the expectations of splendid sequels to come but left the entire movie franchise as I exited.

Now, all these years later, I've decided to get the adaptations of the second trilogy to get a more objective look. I realized that I barely recalled anything about this- the only one I saw in the theater. The following is all I remembered and I got the same impression upon re-examination:

The story is very solid but it was told too heavy-handed with two of the most absurd characters I've come across. If some subtlety had been employed in presentation, the grandiosity of the story would have spoken for itself just like the very first movie. That said- Binks would have poisoned the whole thing anyway and Maul was just stupid action-figure merchandising.

Maul, an apprentice, would never have that kind of appearance and would never have been able to hold his own with a master AND an apprentice. His look took AWAY from his intensity, making him a joke to me. Binks proved to me that Georgel was surrounded by "yes-men" because who thought he was actually a good idea? I was INSULTED by him. I don't want to elaborate because that could go on ad-nausea!

[MattBarnes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Its fucking Star Wars Episode 1. I loved that film when I was (checks date) 8. I thought it was the citizen caine of our time, though I don't think I watched citizen caine at this point. The jokes and action were mind blowing. I cherish that time.

So reading this book was just like re-living the film but watching it in stills. The illustrations are good for the most part (I'll give it that). BUT I KNOW HOW EVERY LINE WAS SPOKEN IN THAT FILM. So here I am basically acting out the film in my head. It took me longer to read this than most graphic novels (even the bad ones) because I had zero...ZERO interest in progressing the plot. The novel which I read when I was like 10, had extra scenes and more dialouge that made everything interesting. But damn. This was just like the film? Can't afford the VHS? Have this instead.

Qui-Gon is still the best character.

p.p.s I still, despite being an obsessive star wars fan am confused. SO, the jedi don't believe the sith are in the galaxy because the republic have had peace for so long or whatever. Then why do they want Anaken to bring balance to the force? Isn't that blindly saying he wants a darkside to turn up. Which is does?

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

The graphic novel adaptation of George Lucas' first Prequel.
A trade dispute widens into a conflict that sees the Jedi confront the Sith for the first time in a thousand years and which leads to the discovery of the Chosen One.

Adaptations often have the benefit of being able to show us visuals or scenes that, for various reasons, never actually appeared in the movie version. Here, however, quite the opposite is true and we actually get far less that you see onscreen. Episode I's strongest element was it's gorgeous visuals and so much of that is lost in this medium.
The artists do solid but far outstanding work and as such this isn't the sumptuous visual treat that, say, seeing the duel with Darth Maul was on the screen.

What we're left with, then, is a pared-down version of George Lucas' pretty dodgy script which will be unsatisfying to anyone who has already seen the movie.
There's still stuff to like here but, honestly, you'd be better off just watching the film version (or maybe even read Terry Brooks' novelisation instead, which does, at least, offer some new scenes).

* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *

[Rami Abuhamra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I sound like a broken record when I say this, but I love The Phantom Menace. After reading the Attack of the Clones comic adaptation, I decided to pick up The Phantom Menace comic adaptation. Similar to the novelization, this really doesn't add much.

This made me wonder, "Was there really anything wrong about The Phantom Menace movie?" That question stuck with me for a while until I finally realized that there wasn't. I just feel like people misunderstand it or just think because it's not the OT or something that Disney or that shoplifter, Dave Filoni, wrote. That's a shame.

I do enjoy the art style, as always, and appreciate some of the changes in the dialogue. However, I was quite disappointed that none of the deleted scenes were included in this comic. I'm not sure if this was intentional, but it would have been nice for the story to be fleshed out a bit more. As George Lucas mentioned, the novel and the comic are meant to be different experiences. I’m paraphrasing, but that's the essence of what he said.

Henry Gilroy does a good job, overall, but I feel like he vastly improves with the Attack of the Clones comic adaptation.

Rating: 3/4 stars.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a great graphic novel adaptation of both the film and the novelisation. The panels flowed effortlessly and it was easy to keep up with what was going on - although the fight scenes were stilted because it's a still-picture creation.

Unfortunately, some of the graphics were less than average and some characters blurred into unrecognisable blobs. Overall, however, it was an entertaining read and contribution to one of the most-loved franchises of all time.

[Kurt Lorenz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stupidly I thought the comic version of Episode I might be more engaging and worth while than a rewatch of the film because I would be able to focus more on dialogue. Instead I just realized how mediocre the dialogue is and had the most entertaining aspects of the movie (the pod race, lightsaber battle, etc.) Cut down into short visually unappealing segments. Next time I'll just put the movie on in the background while I clean or search the internet, like usual.

[Tajiri S · Rating 3 out of 5]

6/10
Me esperaba una experiencia complementaria a la película con un par de diferencias o añadidos, pero es literalmente lo mismo, o incluso menos en algunas partes. Incluso artísticamente intenta siempre ser la versión dibujada de la película, lo cual hace que algunos dibujos de rostros se vean algo feos.

Pero bueno, sigue siendo la historia de la Amenaza fantasma, Qui-Gonn personajazo, y algo cool de los recortes es que Jar Jar es menos desesperante en el cómic.

[Timo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Comic adaptations of movies are really hard to make and successful ones can be counted pretty much in two hands. Especially hard to success to make a good one is if the movie to start with ain't too good.
Star Wars Episode I was no good, but this comic had couple nice pictures. Everything that was wrong with movie is still wrong.

[Grada (BoekenTrol) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ab und zu mag ich ein Comicbuch lesen. Diesmal war's eins aus der Reihe Star Wars. Und auf deutsch 😁
Ich habe es mit viel Vergnügen gelesen. Ich weiß genug von Star Wars um die Charaktere zu erkennen, aber nicht genug um mich zu langweilen, weil diese Episode so weit vorne in der Zeit spielt.

[Chuy Ruiz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love the prequels, and I honestly don't feel like this graphic novel adaptation added much. It's even more choppy than the movie, and leaves out a lot. Not a huge fan of the art style either, though I know that's subjective.

[Elizabeth Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly I only remember bits and pieces of this story!! I always forget the political bits but this graphic novel did refresh my memory of a few things!! It was nice to see and I enjoyed the story line. I need to delve more into history for sure.

[Barry Quinn · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

Graphic adaptions of movies are great if they add to the source material and expand on key scenes and ideas… this one stayed too close for my liking, but it was a quick and enjoyable read nonetheless.

[kleinerpanda_ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Diese Comic Adaption ist gut, sie gibt den Film wieder. Aber mehr auch nicht. Es gibt keinerlei Zusatzinfo oder irgendwas ergänzendes. Also, wenn man den Film kennt, kann man sich das eigentlich sparen.
Die Zeichnungen sind teilweise etwas seltsam für meinen Geschmack.

[Alyce Caswell · Rating 2 out of 5]

An obviously rushed adaptation that excluded some things that should have been kept, while including other things that could have been dropped. I also found the clumsy (and at times completely missing) scene transitions quite jarring.