This is exactly what I’ve been waiting for. I’m just four years late.
I have not been that enthralled by many of the new canon books that I have read. With few exceptions (Claudia Gray, Alexander Freed), most of the new canon books that I have read have been uninspiring and uninspired. Too many of them have read like publicity material solely meant to sell merchandise or be tie-ins to sell the movies. I get it: that’s what franchises like Disney, Marvel, and Lucasfilm are supposed to do. They just don’t have to make it so obvious.
Unfortunately, I’ve been looking in the wrong medium. I should have been reading the new Marvel “Star Wars” graphic novel series. I have read quite a few of the new Marvel Star Wars titles, and I have enjoyed most of them. The artwork, especially, has been amazing. I haven’t, however, been reading the main “Star Wars” title, a series which originally started in 2015 and has been running steadily since. I am roughly 60-plus issues behind.
Which is okay, since there are these wonderful things called compendium volumes. “Volume 1: Skywalker Strikes” collects the first six issues.
Holy crap, this series is awesome. Seriously, if you consider yourself a Star Wars fan and you haven’t picked these up yet, do so now. I think I understand the trepidation, too, because if you are like me, you were really devoted to the old canon and were not-so-secretly pissed off at the completely new “reboot” direction that directors J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson have taken the series. Not that they’re bad films---far from it---but they weren’t what many fans (especially fans of the literally hundreds of books in the old canon) were hoping to see.
Never mind all that. These new “Star Wars” comic books are as good as the original series. Seriously.
On the timeline, the series takes place soon after the events of the original film, “Episode IV: A New Hope”. The Rebels have struck a blow to the Empire with the destruction of the Death Star, but now they must find a new Rebel base of operations. The Empire, led by Darth Vader, is on the warpath. Vader, especially, is hunting the young pilot who destroyed the Death Star single-handedly. At first, he has every intentions of killing the young Rebel, but with every new piece of information, he begins to suspect that the boy is somehow intertwined with his own fate. Then, he learns the boy’s name...
Jason Aaron’s story is exciting from the beginning, coupled wonderfully by amazingly beautiful artwork by John Cassaday. Every panel is like a screen shot from a movie that has never been made.
The original gang is all here, as young and vibrant as they were in 1977. A part of me gets teary-eyed (happy tears, of course) seeing a young Carrie Fisher playing Princess Leia again, a doe-eyed Mark Hamill playing the annoyingly good Luke Skywalker, and the ruggedly handsome and rambunctious Harrison Ford playing Han Solo.
This is what it’s all about, folks. This series. This is what Star Wars fans have been waiting for...