I've gotten back to reading the original 70's/80's Marvel run of Star Wars. I'm reading the Dark Horse reprint omnibuses. I've commented before on other stories, but, goodness, this damn book keeps getting better and better.
The writers capture the feel and wonder of the original trilogy like no other books I've read. It's damn good stuff, and I'm addicted.
For those who don't know, Marvel started the comic shortly after the first film came out. I remember seeing it as a kid. I read comics for a few years back in my teens (about three years), then I grew up and left comics behind me.
Life is so weird because a buddy got me re-interested in comics over the last five years or so. Now, I'm a grown man, at middle age, reading comic books. Unbelievable. But, they're great! I love these damn things!
Let me tell you about a story that just blew me away. If you're going to read these books, then stop reading this post now. I'm about to spoiler you.
This third omnibus is set during the time after The Empire Strikes Back and before Return of the Jedi. Han is out of the picture, encased in carbomite, hanging in Jabba's gallery. It's interesting to note that, when these stories were written, they really were published between the movies of Episodes V and VI. The readers had no idea where Han had been taken. All they knew was that Boba Fett had taken off with him at the end of Empire.
I bet it was really cool reading these stories back then, watching the all the side stories and things that happen to the star warriors while waiting for the next movie to come out.
In the stories, the Rebels have evacuated from Hoth and found a new base inside a mountain volcano on the primitive forest world of Arbra. We see, over several issues, the Rebels strike from this base and go off on various adventures. We follow Lando for a time as he returns to Bespin to find it under Imperial control. There's an interesting arc where the Rebels buy some TIE fighters, assembled by spare parts, from an underworld arms merchant. An Imperial scout visits the system, but the Rebels avoid detection. That leads to Leia's scheme to hide the capital ships of the Alliance fleet inside the corona of the local sun, protecting them with some wondrous Star Wars super-tech that encases the entire fleet in mega-heat-resistant force fields.
It's all extremely cool Star Wars stuff. Excellent stories--many of them taking two or three issues to tell.
Among all this is a new character, the fighter pilot Shira Brie. There is some excellent subtle story-telling used here as Brie becomes, slowly over several issues, a more important character. There's a nice little pseudo-love triangle that develops, too. Ya see, Shira's got the hots for Commander Skywalker, and Skywalker, having given up on Leia to Han (Luke doesn't know she's his sister yet), is all smiles and giggles when she's around.
A moment here and a frame there, Leia wonders why she's bothered by Shira. Is she jealous? She knows she's in love with Han. And, she misses the smuggler so much. But, I guess she's human. There's a part of her that doesn't want to let go of Luke. She doesn't want Brie having him. She doesn't want anybody to have him.
Now, it struck me that this is some pretty damn good writing--the way it plays out in the books--for a comic book aimed at teens when it was originally published. All that I'm telling you is presented through moments in several stories, not just one. And, you've got to imagine, back then, getting the book one small part at a time each month. I'm reading these stories back-to-back in the omnibus, but back then, they were read by fans over a long period of time. A three issue story arc took three months to read. There was no binging like I'm doing. You had to wait until the next month when the book was published.
I think, reading the story serially like that, one at a time, one per month, has an effect--a deeper effect--on your addiction to the story.
It was a cool time to read Star Wars comics.
So, we see Brie be a real hero in one story. In the next, the story starts with the entire base assembled, shades of Yavin at the end of A New Hope, Leia awards Brie with the Burdine Cluster, a medal, similar to the one Luke and Han received, and Leia promotes Shira to Captain.
Over the last couple of issues, we've seen glimpses of this giant Imperial Armada--the largest collection of Imperial warships in the entire galaxy. In its center is a huge super-star destroyer of a type I've never seen before. It's the flagship of Admiral Giel, a ruthless, aggressive Imperial officer.
A few issues back, the Rebels discovered the existence of the Giel's Armada. That's why the Rebels purchased the TIE's. Leia and her team fitted the TIE's with hyperdrives. In a recent issue, the TIEs were tested for the first time on an Imperial Base (where they also took a data dump and learned more about Giel's fleet).
In this last story, the four TIE's are going to jump to the Armada's location and attack it.
At first, the Rebels take some wreckage from a TIE and spread it around on a miscellaneous planet. They also include an Imperial transponder. When some Imperial help appears, the Rebels close their trap, attacking the Imperial investigators with the X-Wings.
One of the Imperial pilots is taken captive....and that's where they get the code to approach the Armada.
Right before the mission is to take place, Shira corners Luke, grabs him, and lays this passionate kiss on him. Luke doesn't resist.
The TIE's jump to the system where Giel has his Armada. The code is used to get them close. This is Commander Skywalker leading the four, followed by Captain Brie, Captain Thorben, and Lieutenant Alph. With freedom to move-about, they pick their targets and set their target locks. Besides the hyperdrive, these TIEs have also been modified with super-charged lasers. These weapons will do real damage to capital ships, but the catch is that they've only got a limited number of shots--something like 12 or 15, IIRC.
Skywalker gives the All-Go, and all hell breaks loose. The scenes in this story are drawn brilliantly--the art is fantastic--and it really came alive in my mind. I could see the TIE's shrieking across the starfield. Points on the targeted capital ship explode. Cut to the bridge of the super star destroyer where Giel's executive officer, Malka, is screaming, above all the carnage, "We've sustained severe damage, Admiral!" Looking out the massive bridge port, we see Luke's TIE screech by in true Star Wars fashion. "And there's the slime-licker," Malka continues, "that caused it!"
Giel is on his knees. He's standing up after a huge explosion that crippled the ship. His voice is calm . "Please, Malka. There's no need to get excited." What a true, arrogant Imperial this Giel is, "Merely dispatch a squad of our own fighters. Have them chase the Rebel Down."
And, as Giel finally gets to his feet, he scans the wreckage on the bridge--all the blinking red lights--and he just loses his mind. "AND BRING ME HIS HEAD!" He says, yelling at the top of his lungs.
The fight outside now really gets hairy. There's an extremely cool shot of Skywalker spinning the TIE down the side of the super star destroyer with a multitude of tubo laser cannon blasting at him.
Alph gets it. His ship explodes. Thorben has one of his solar fins destroyed, and he manages to escape back into hyperspace.
Luke's got only two mega-shots left, then his guns will be empty. A cloud of enemy TIE fighters are on his tail. He ducks behind a smaller vessel as their green lasers slam into the spot where Luke TIE was--not where it is--their lasers tearing up the vessel Luke used for cover. It explodes in a detonation that takes out the cloud!
Man, THIS IS STAR WARS!
Luke is free for the moment. Still, he's only got two shots. He swings around the back of the super star destroyer.
We cut to Admiral Giel on the bridge. The guy is a wily one. He scrambles all communications. Luke's comm spits static.
As Skywalker rounds the bend to the aft end of the star destroyer, he sees turbo laser cannon turrets open up and a TIE sentry protecting the bridge and aft end of the ship.
Inside the destroyer's bridge: "Admiral!" A tech says, "We've got two fighters..."
Giel cuts him off. "We can't take chances. Blow them both to atoms." The bastard just gave the order to kill his own men.
Turbo laser cannon streaking by in waves, Luke calms himself. He trusts The Force, and he squeeze the trigger. The first volley of fire takes out the enemy TIE. The second hits it mark on the aft of the super star destroyer.
Space becomes bright as Admiral Griel's flagship explodes. Another cloud of TIE fighters appear. Luke rolls a 90 degree turn away from them, flips some switches, and then, ZOOM! He's jumped to hyperspace.
The next scene in tranquil. It's a long, high shot of a flat world, covered with vegetation, with a huge volcanic mountain jutting up out of the forest like a sentinel. A lone TIE fighter screams into view. We cut to see the ship fly into the hangar at the base of the mountain. Landed, Luke crawls out of his ship. Right next to his is Thorben's vessel with its right solar panel blasted to hell. Thorben made it back.
But the ground crew are solemn. A tech says, "Princess Leia would like to see you in the briefing room." Luke pulls off his helmet, looks around at everyone, and does as directed.
Leia greets Luke. She motions for him to sit. "As you know," she says, "we equip all war vessels with holographic cameras for use in future tactical studies." A machine, connected to the ceiling, moves behind them. It projects a scene on the viewer. It's the footage from Thorben's vessel.
What comes into view is the chaos back at the engagement. Leia focuses the projector on a single TIE as it explodes.
"Say," Luke says, "isn't that the last fighter I tagged? The one near the flagship?"
Leia nods, slightly. "It is."
Luke stares at the image. Leia uses the zoom control. The view telescopes to focus on the big cockpit viewport on the TIE. It moves in further. Luke can see the pilot. Futher the view zooms. Luke can see the pilot's face.
It's not an Imperial stormtrooper at all. It's Captain Shira Brie.
The story ends with Luke jumping out of his seat and screaming her name. "SHIIIIIRRRRAAA!"
The visual shows Brie, in her cracked Rebel helmet, cracked goggles, eyes closed.
DAMN! WHAT A STORY!
You probably saw the ending coming--probably because I'm making a big deal of it here. You can guess where I'm going. But, it was a total shock to me. Shira had been popping in and out of the last several issues. I wasn't even thinking about her when she popped up on the view.
The story got me. It really got me.
Fine, fine storytelling.
An excellent Star Wars tale.
Highly recommended.
The writers capture the feel and wonder of the original trilogy like no other books I've read. It's damn good stuff, and I'm addicted.
For those who don't know, Marvel started the comic shortly after the first film came out. I remember seeing it as a kid. I read comics for a few years back in my teens (about three years), then I grew up and left comics behind me.
Life is so weird because a buddy got me re-interested in comics over the last five years or so. Now, I'm a grown man, at middle age, reading comic books. Unbelievable. But, they're great! I love these damn things!
Let me tell you about a story that just blew me away. If you're going to read these books, then stop reading this post now. I'm about to spoiler you.
This third omnibus is set during the time after The Empire Strikes Back and before Return of the Jedi. Han is out of the picture, encased in carbomite, hanging in Jabba's gallery. It's interesting to note that, when these stories were written, they really were published between the movies of Episodes V and VI. The readers had no idea where Han had been taken. All they knew was that Boba Fett had taken off with him at the end of Empire.
I bet it was really cool reading these stories back then, watching the all the side stories and things that happen to the star warriors while waiting for the next movie to come out.
In the stories, the Rebels have evacuated from Hoth and found a new base inside a mountain volcano on the primitive forest world of Arbra. We see, over several issues, the Rebels strike from this base and go off on various adventures. We follow Lando for a time as he returns to Bespin to find it under Imperial control. There's an interesting arc where the Rebels buy some TIE fighters, assembled by spare parts, from an underworld arms merchant. An Imperial scout visits the system, but the Rebels avoid detection. That leads to Leia's scheme to hide the capital ships of the Alliance fleet inside the corona of the local sun, protecting them with some wondrous Star Wars super-tech that encases the entire fleet in mega-heat-resistant force fields.
It's all extremely cool Star Wars stuff. Excellent stories--many of them taking two or three issues to tell.
Among all this is a new character, the fighter pilot Shira Brie. There is some excellent subtle story-telling used here as Brie becomes, slowly over several issues, a more important character. There's a nice little pseudo-love triangle that develops, too. Ya see, Shira's got the hots for Commander Skywalker, and Skywalker, having given up on Leia to Han (Luke doesn't know she's his sister yet), is all smiles and giggles when she's around.
A moment here and a frame there, Leia wonders why she's bothered by Shira. Is she jealous? She knows she's in love with Han. And, she misses the smuggler so much. But, I guess she's human. There's a part of her that doesn't want to let go of Luke. She doesn't want Brie having him. She doesn't want anybody to have him.
Now, it struck me that this is some pretty damn good writing--the way it plays out in the books--for a comic book aimed at teens when it was originally published. All that I'm telling you is presented through moments in several stories, not just one. And, you've got to imagine, back then, getting the book one small part at a time each month. I'm reading these stories back-to-back in the omnibus, but back then, they were read by fans over a long period of time. A three issue story arc took three months to read. There was no binging like I'm doing. You had to wait until the next month when the book was published.
I think, reading the story serially like that, one at a time, one per month, has an effect--a deeper effect--on your addiction to the story.
It was a cool time to read Star Wars comics.
So, we see Brie be a real hero in one story. In the next, the story starts with the entire base assembled, shades of Yavin at the end of A New Hope, Leia awards Brie with the Burdine Cluster, a medal, similar to the one Luke and Han received, and Leia promotes Shira to Captain.
Over the last couple of issues, we've seen glimpses of this giant Imperial Armada--the largest collection of Imperial warships in the entire galaxy. In its center is a huge super-star destroyer of a type I've never seen before. It's the flagship of Admiral Giel, a ruthless, aggressive Imperial officer.
A few issues back, the Rebels discovered the existence of the Giel's Armada. That's why the Rebels purchased the TIE's. Leia and her team fitted the TIE's with hyperdrives. In a recent issue, the TIEs were tested for the first time on an Imperial Base (where they also took a data dump and learned more about Giel's fleet).
In this last story, the four TIE's are going to jump to the Armada's location and attack it.
At first, the Rebels take some wreckage from a TIE and spread it around on a miscellaneous planet. They also include an Imperial transponder. When some Imperial help appears, the Rebels close their trap, attacking the Imperial investigators with the X-Wings.
One of the Imperial pilots is taken captive....and that's where they get the code to approach the Armada.
Right before the mission is to take place, Shira corners Luke, grabs him, and lays this passionate kiss on him. Luke doesn't resist.
The TIE's jump to the system where Giel has his Armada. The code is used to get them close. This is Commander Skywalker leading the four, followed by Captain Brie, Captain Thorben, and Lieutenant Alph. With freedom to move-about, they pick their targets and set their target locks. Besides the hyperdrive, these TIEs have also been modified with super-charged lasers. These weapons will do real damage to capital ships, but the catch is that they've only got a limited number of shots--something like 12 or 15, IIRC.
Skywalker gives the All-Go, and all hell breaks loose. The scenes in this story are drawn brilliantly--the art is fantastic--and it really came alive in my mind. I could see the TIE's shrieking across the starfield. Points on the targeted capital ship explode. Cut to the bridge of the super star destroyer where Giel's executive officer, Malka, is screaming, above all the carnage, "We've sustained severe damage, Admiral!" Looking out the massive bridge port, we see Luke's TIE screech by in true Star Wars fashion. "And there's the slime-licker," Malka continues, "that caused it!"
Giel is on his knees. He's standing up after a huge explosion that crippled the ship. His voice is calm . "Please, Malka. There's no need to get excited." What a true, arrogant Imperial this Giel is, "Merely dispatch a squad of our own fighters. Have them chase the Rebel Down."
And, as Giel finally gets to his feet, he scans the wreckage on the bridge--all the blinking red lights--and he just loses his mind. "AND BRING ME HIS HEAD!" He says, yelling at the top of his lungs.
The fight outside now really gets hairy. There's an extremely cool shot of Skywalker spinning the TIE down the side of the super star destroyer with a multitude of tubo laser cannon blasting at him.
Alph gets it. His ship explodes. Thorben has one of his solar fins destroyed, and he manages to escape back into hyperspace.
Luke's got only two mega-shots left, then his guns will be empty. A cloud of enemy TIE fighters are on his tail. He ducks behind a smaller vessel as their green lasers slam into the spot where Luke TIE was--not where it is--their lasers tearing up the vessel Luke used for cover. It explodes in a detonation that takes out the cloud!
Man, THIS IS STAR WARS!
Luke is free for the moment. Still, he's only got two shots. He swings around the back of the super star destroyer.
We cut to Admiral Giel on the bridge. The guy is a wily one. He scrambles all communications. Luke's comm spits static.
As Skywalker rounds the bend to the aft end of the star destroyer, he sees turbo laser cannon turrets open up and a TIE sentry protecting the bridge and aft end of the ship.
Inside the destroyer's bridge: "Admiral!" A tech says, "We've got two fighters..."
Giel cuts him off. "We can't take chances. Blow them both to atoms." The bastard just gave the order to kill his own men.
Turbo laser cannon streaking by in waves, Luke calms himself. He trusts The Force, and he squeeze the trigger. The first volley of fire takes out the enemy TIE. The second hits it mark on the aft of the super star destroyer.
Space becomes bright as Admiral Griel's flagship explodes. Another cloud of TIE fighters appear. Luke rolls a 90 degree turn away from them, flips some switches, and then, ZOOM! He's jumped to hyperspace.
The next scene in tranquil. It's a long, high shot of a flat world, covered with vegetation, with a huge volcanic mountain jutting up out of the forest like a sentinel. A lone TIE fighter screams into view. We cut to see the ship fly into the hangar at the base of the mountain. Landed, Luke crawls out of his ship. Right next to his is Thorben's vessel with its right solar panel blasted to hell. Thorben made it back.
But the ground crew are solemn. A tech says, "Princess Leia would like to see you in the briefing room." Luke pulls off his helmet, looks around at everyone, and does as directed.
Leia greets Luke. She motions for him to sit. "As you know," she says, "we equip all war vessels with holographic cameras for use in future tactical studies." A machine, connected to the ceiling, moves behind them. It projects a scene on the viewer. It's the footage from Thorben's vessel.
What comes into view is the chaos back at the engagement. Leia focuses the projector on a single TIE as it explodes.
"Say," Luke says, "isn't that the last fighter I tagged? The one near the flagship?"
Leia nods, slightly. "It is."
Luke stares at the image. Leia uses the zoom control. The view telescopes to focus on the big cockpit viewport on the TIE. It moves in further. Luke can see the pilot. Futher the view zooms. Luke can see the pilot's face.
It's not an Imperial stormtrooper at all. It's Captain Shira Brie.
The story ends with Luke jumping out of his seat and screaming her name. "SHIIIIIRRRRAAA!"
The visual shows Brie, in her cracked Rebel helmet, cracked goggles, eyes closed.
DAMN! WHAT A STORY!
You probably saw the ending coming--probably because I'm making a big deal of it here. You can guess where I'm going. But, it was a total shock to me. Shira had been popping in and out of the last several issues. I wasn't even thinking about her when she popped up on the view.
The story got me. It really got me.
Fine, fine storytelling.
An excellent Star Wars tale.
Highly recommended.
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