Old Marvel Star Wars Awesome

[Water Bob]

And the hits...just keep on coming!!



After the Battle of Hoth, the Rebels used an old magma smelting installation on Golrath as their secret base. They eventually left that base, relocating to some honeycombed caverns below a dormant volcano on the green world of Arbra.

I'm reading issue 65 when Thorben (I mention him in the OP) is talking to another Rebel who complains of not getting enough sleep because this rock he picked up on Golrath is flashing lights through it crystalline formations at at night.

Now....this was a year and a half real time, with the issues coming out one a month, back in the day. We're talking back in issue 50. This story is one of the last in the omnibus, and the Rebel approach to Golrath Base was shown in the very first story. How cool is that? I love these "linked" stories.

Leia has the rock analyzed, and they find out that the rock, native to Golrath, absorbs light. It does more than that. It records light patterns, not unlike storing holographic images on a hard drive. And, when the rock's base temperature cools, the light radiation escapes. That's why the paperweight that the Rebel picked up on Golrath is emitting a pattern--that the Rebels discover is recorded images "seen" by the rock--is a natural sensor/camera system.

The Golrath plant was abandoned not because it played out, but because the entire planet was cooling--and entire planet cooling at the core.

And...what does this mean? That the very walls of the old Rebel Base recorded EVERYTHING that happened in front of them.



Now, how's that for a beautiful, spectacular, very cool space opera idea, huh? I think that kind of stuff is just plain awesome.

The Empire can "read" all types of secrets about the Rebels if they discover (or already know about) the natural properties of Golrath's rock.

Great idea for a story.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I remembered reading many of these when I was a kid, and they were the only way to get a Star Wars fix between movies.

I picked up some of the Omnibuses about a year ago, and found them very ... mixed. They definitely got better, later. Some of the early ones, well ... they did go for the zany, episodic serial Flash Gordon feel Lucas said he was going for back then, but the series with the 7' green rabbit alien and old Jedi Obi Juan Kihotay were just silly.

Some of the best were searching for a new Rebel base, and searching for Han. The best I think were later after novels started getting published: Other Sons of Tatooine, the Rogue Squadron comics, and so on.

 

[Water Bob]

I picked up some of the Omnibuses about a year ago, and found them very ... mixed. They definitely got better, later. Some of the early ones, well ... they did go for the zany, episodic serial Flash Gordon feel Lucas said he was going for back then, but the series with the 7' green rabbit alien and old Jedi Obi Juan Kihotay were just silly.

I'll agree that, as the series as grown, the stories have become more sophisticated (as evidenced by my posts here). But, I liked this book from page one. I liked that 7' green rabbit alien and Don Whan Kihotay. I was struck with the wonder of Star Wars as soon as it hit my hands.

For me, it represented some of the more acceptable silliness about Star Wars. I"m not a fan of Jar-Jar or the blue elephant playing in Jabba's band, but I think Ewoks are cute (I do object to the role they played in Return of the Jedi), C-3P0 can be quite silly-funny (though I didn't like the CGI 3P0 in the prequels), and the comedic moments that Chewbacca has. Like the little mouse droid on the Death Star. It was good for a chuckle. That's how I see the rabbit and Kihotay.

And....those stories were over almost as soon as they started. The first couple of story arcs after the adaptation of A New Hope were like that, but more serious story-telling took over pretty quickly (in the omnibus---was probably a year back in the old days when it came out monthly).

The best I think were later after novels started getting published: Other Sons of Tatooine, the Rogue Squadron comics, and so on.

Well, I've got 'em, and I'll eventually get around to them. I've read the first two omnibuses in the Rogue Squadron series. Many people love those. And...I find them pretty boring. I'm hoping the third omnibus is a better read.