Star Wars The Rise of a Hero

by Louise Simonson, Walter Simonson (Illustrator), Tom Palmer (Illustrator)

Blast into hyperspace and relive Luke Skywalker's exciting adventure as he goes from being a farm boy on the dusty desert planet of Tatooine to the rebel pilot and hero who destroys the Empire's most powerful weapon--the Death Star!
Star Wars: The Rise of a Hero reunites legendary Star Wars comic book creators Louise Simonson, Walter Simonson, and Tom Palmer, along with Laura Martin, they deliver an all-new, action-packed retelling of A New Hope just in time to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of that landmark science fantasy epic.
May the Force be with you!

Genres: Star Wars, Graphic Novels

47 pages, Hardcover

Published May 30, 2017

About the author

Louise Simonson (born Mary Louise Alexander and formerly credited as Louise Jones, when married to artist Jeff Jones) is an American comic book writer and editor. She is best known for her work on comic book titles such as Power Pack, X-Factor, New Mutants, Superman, and Steel. She is sometimes referred to by the nickname "Weezie".

Since 1980 she is married to comic book writer and artist Walter Simonson

Reviews

[Khurram · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't care if it is nostalgia or favoritism I love Star Wars in all it's forms. This is a great short read of the original movie. Told as an overview of Luke Skywalker's perspective. Unlike most comics there are no speech bubbles. Great whole page art with tweet sized paragraphs for the narration of the story. I was not too keen in the art when I first saw it but now I really like it. As this is Luke's perspective, things like Leia's capture or the actual destruction of Alderaan are not in the book. Yes it is a short read and more picture book, but who cares am I going to read it again and again, hell yeah!!!

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

A retelling of A New Hope entirely from Luke's point of view, charting his journey from Tatooine to the Rebellion. This is a picture book that emulates a comic book in size and lettering style. The prose is in large blocks of text rather than word balloons and there's usually only one illustration per page.

The story excludes anything that Luke was not present for and is very simplified. It's fine for what it is, I guess? I think it would work for young readers who can fill in what they know from the film, or fill in their own completely new stories around the edges.

The art was not to my taste. I felt like it was deliberately trying to evoke the 70s/80s original Marvel comics artwork which seems a very odd choice for a 40th anniversary book. It was also uneven and the character likenesses weren't very good. I would rate this much higher if the artwork had been better.

By contrast, the production of the book is lovely. The cover images and the fabric spine are very nice.

[Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

You know the story, I really just grabbed it to check out the artwork. Please now that everything is shut down across the state I wanted to read something...

The story narrative are fine, it is missing Han and Greedo, which is disappointing.

The artwork is good, really good at times, but it does look like pages were done by different people and some were not good. Page 24 and 25 Leia looks terrible. Page 46 the people don't look right. The last page 48, Luke and Leia's smile is creepy... The other pages are solid though and thus it gets rated a 3.

[Raul Fernandez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for just about any retelling of the first Star Wars film. This one is excellent. The story unfolds from Luke's POV. The artwork is excellent, and it looks like a 70's/80's era comic book, although it reads more like a short story. Obviously, this is geared toward young readers, and I wish I had owned it when my little padawan was in pre-K, we could have read it over and over.

My rating: 4 Stars

[b.andherbooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great illustrations, but still the same exact story we already know and love about Luke Skywalker, especially focused on Episode IV: A New Hope. No new territory here so avid fans will be bored. I guess this is marketed to children, so they may enjoy it better.

[Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

A retelling of Star Wars, focused on Luke's perspective.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very good adaptation of the original story. This would be perfect for a child just getting into Star Wars. The illustrations are fantastic. The force will be with us, always.

[David Edmonds · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very simplistic retelling of Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope told entirely around Luke Skywalker's actions in the movie, Star Wars: The Rise of a Hero is an extremely quick read and one that I think most adult readers will probably skip, only because it is so simplistic. However, for early readers who are fans of Star Wars, I think this would be perfect. Since the story is not bogged down by all the myriad details of the movie and is written in such a way as to make everything easy to understand, and is only told from one character's perspective, beginning/early readers should find this volume extremely accessible. And while from an adult reader's POV, I found the story a little too streamlined and the art a little too basic (I know Walt Simonson's art is generally very straightforward and linear, this is even more pronounced here and not up to his usual levels of detail, IMO), I know I'm not the target audience and know for the right reader, this will be a perfect reading experience.