This Isn’t Ye Olde Dark Horse Comic Book

Cover for Star Wars (2020) #1. Comic book cover by R.B. Silva & Guru-eFX.

Where to buy this comic book:

Credits:

Writer – Charles Soule

Artist – Jesús Saiz

Colorists – Jesús Saiz & Arif Prianto

Letterer – VC’s Clayton Cowles

Cover Artists – R.B. Silva & Guru-eFX

Variant Cover Artists – Arthur Adams, Jesus Aburtov, Jen Bartel, Adam Hughes, Mahmud Asrar, Matthew Wilson, Phil Noto, Chris Sprouse, Karl Story, & Nerraj Menon

Assistant Editor – Tom Groneman

Editor – Mark Paniccia

Editor-in-Chief – C.B. Cebulski

Senior Editor (Lucasfilm) – Robert Simpson

Creative Director (Lucasfilm) – Michael Siglain

Lucasfilm Story Group – Matt Martin, Pablo Hidalgo, & Emily Shkoukani

Lucasfilm Art Dept. – Phil Szostak

SPOILER-FREE ZONE

Star Wars (2020) #1 is my first foray into the new Marvel era of Star Wars comic books. When I was a kid, after Marvel had their first run, Dark Horse took the helm for Star Wars and really did it justice. Then Disney came along and bought the Star Wars franchise (and Marvel). Suddenly all of the Dark Horse comics and even the novels were no longer canon. I think this is a big reason why this issue gets a lot of hate. I honestly didn’t have any huge gripes with it. Do I wish they made a comic book version of Heir to the Empire instead of this? Honestly yes. But looking at it for what it is, the book isn’t really a failure in my eyes.

END OF SPOILER-FREE ZONE

You are now exiting the spoiler-free zone. Do yourself a favor and stop reading if you don’t want any spoilers.

This comic book takes place in-between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. To me, personally, Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire series should have remained canon. But instead we have Marvel’s best shot at an alternative. It’s not bad, really. I’m still a bit bitter over my cherished Dark Horse books not being canon any more. But I don’t want to take that out on all of the people working so hard at giving us a quality product.

One thing this series has going against it is its reliance on the movies. If you haven’t at least seen Star Wars and The Empire Strikes back, the characters and story won’t have as much of an impact on you. However if you haven’t been hibernating under a rock since the 1970’s, this does a good job at trying to fill the hole between the two movies.

The story starts off with Luke Skywalker having a flashback of when he loses his right hand and finds out that Darth Vader is his father. Luke, Leia, Lando, and the rest of the gang discuss things like Han Solo’s capture and how Lando betrayed them to the Empire. It’s interesting to actually see the interaction between Lando and everyone else after he did that. Then they turn their attention to a Rebel fleet that is currently trapped between an star and Commander Zahra’s imperial forces.

Luke is able to use the Force to take control of the tie-fighters attacking the Millenium Falcon. This gives the Falcon an opportunity to attack. Their successful attack leaves an opening for 90% of the Rebel fleet to escape via light speed. After the Empire falls back, Commander Zahra is scolded by Darth Vader. Princess Leia and the Rebels deduce that their communication codes have been cracked. Because of this, they don’t dare communicate with other ships in the fleet in fear of giving away their position. This also poses the question: Who else in the Rebel fleet could possibly survive without this knowledge.

The comic book ends with Luke having an existential crisis. I think this is one of the weaker parts of the story, but it also makes a lot of sense. At the end of The Empire Strikes Back, Luke is still a Jedi-in-training. By the time Return of the Jedi came out, he was already a full-fledged Jedi. So it makes sense that we will see his growing pains in-between. I know a lot of people hated on this book, but I liked it.