Comics C-3PO #1: The Phantom Limb (One-Shot)

I honestly can't understand why they delayed this comic so much. I hope their is a big surprise waiting for us in it #wishfulthinking

 

I didn't think I'd enjoy this story but I actually really liked it and I can't wait for the lego adaption Lego TFA. I'm also glad that threepio has some memories of the PT still inside him

Spoiler

I wonder if we'll get a comic on Ackbar's capture at some point? Plus yet another EU appearance by Poe Dameron, he really is just like Wedge

 

Did they mention what time period this takes place in?

 

The comic takes place directly before this.

 

It's clearly not set during the film as

Spoiler

Poe and BB8 show up at the end

 

Just read it. So the LEGO Resistance Rise story is canon? Ackbar was captured and rescued pre-TFA? Interesting.

--Adm. Nick

 

Hopefully this also means that Ackbar's sweet ship, Daisy Mae, is canon as well...

 

Just curious if it could give some clue on the timeline of when the massacre occurred, since Han clearly hadn't seen 3PO since he got his new red arm. How old die Poe look?

 

If I understand correctly, it is a lego portrail of a canon event, just like all the lego star wars games. The difference here is we have seen the lego version before the canon version.

 

Well Poe's there as a Resistance pilot, so this takes place between his joining the Resistance in Before the Awakening and TFA, so sometime within a year or months of TFA at the most.

 

Picked this up today. As a sucker for Threepio- and Artoo-centric stories, I've been looking forward to it since it was announced last year. Before the Poe comic was announced, this was the only new-canon comic in which I had any interest.

It was... OK, I guess. The opening pages had way too much of the Threepio-style-talk that I hate --- that is, his interlocutor emitting beeps and whistles and him repeating it verbatim for the benefit of the reader. "No, I do not always go on about how I'm Droid Communication Chief for the Resistance." "No, I'm not suggesting I know more than you," "Yes, Peezee Ninety Nine, I know you're a Military Grade Class Four Security Droid," "What do you mean, according to your sensors it's not the ground that's moving?" etc. It was especially bothersome because it was interspersed with a couple actual instances of how to do it right --- have Threepio respond in a way that gives the reader the gist of what was said without being so heavy-handed about it. eg, "No one made me leader, VL-44" instead of "What do you mean 'Who made me leader?'" This isn't a detail that makes or breaks a story for me; you see it all the time in Threepio and Artoo tales and you do kind of learn to accept it as a given, but I'd still give more points for an author being creative enough to work around it. It's really not that difficult to write it in a way that mimics realistic speech yet doesn't leave the reader in the dark about what the astromech droid says, and I wish more comic authors would realize this.

I also can't figure out why it was delayed for so long. The art is unique but not Wheatley-six-months-delayed-unique, and a few of the shots of C-3PO look they were copied directly from well-known film stills and promotional pictures, if not outright traced over them Tommy Lee Edwards style. The 2-1B and whatever kind of droid Omri is also have a lot of reference material to draw from. And there were a couple of places where the text looked like nobody had edited it. A missing period in "I presume it's from a First Order Vessel My in-line records show it crashed here several cycles ago," and a sentence that try as I might I can't make heads or tails of: "It is vital that we get you to the Resistance base with the location where weeks is being held before then." ... What? This is just after it's mentioned that Ackbar is being held captive. Is "Weeks" his new nickname? Did anybody edit this comic? Why was it delayed for so long? ... Hello?

The dialogue between Threepio and Omri was good. Musing about memory wipes, free will in droids, the arbitrariness of which side they serve, Threepio's vague memories of the prequels... all good stuff. Omri's sacrifice and Threepio wearing the red arm to honour him were a nice touch, too. Those parts of the story were good, but a lot of the rest of it was giant monster attacks on an unknown planet which has really just been done to death in Star Wars. It's such an easy go-to way to put a story's heroes in danger, and there was nothing unique or new about these monsters either. Giant spiders and dragonflies, and a dianoga thing. Wow.

If I were to recommend buying this comic, it would only be as a means to an end --- maybe strong sales will encourage Marvel to keep producing experimental one-shots like this. I don't think that this experiment was a success, but I'm still glad that they tried.

 

Thanks. So really we learned nothing new on the timeline. Still have to wait for Bloodline!

 

Star Wars: Teedo one shot next!

 

At some point between Before the Awakening and Ep. 7. Who knows, maybe the rescue of Ackbar will be told in (non-Lego) form in a later arc of the Poe comic.

A little more elaboration on my thoughts... the monster attacks were a means to an end themselves --- they were intended to set in motion Threepio and Omri's discussion about living multiple lives (via reprogramming and memory wipes) and to get Threepio considering that the other droids' sacrifices were done for deeper reasons than just serving their masters. The monster attacks served as a setup to the issue's actual thematic meat, but I think that they took up a few too many pages and storytelling-wise they felt like safe and familiar ground. This story certainly had something to say, but ultimately I'm not sure that the payoff was worth the filler.

The more that I read Omri's lines and the discourse that they inspire, the more I like them. Like I said earlier, this comic is a cool experiment --- not necessarily a successful one --- and I'd like to see Marvel keep experimenting.

 

I liked this. The relationship with Omri was well done.
Timeline-wise, Poe joins the Resistance in his BTA story, which leads pretty directly into his comic. So he must get diverted from the hunt for Lor at some point to pick 3PO up. Hopefully Soule will leave a convenient gap somewhere to fit this in.
Two nitpicks:
When 3PO refers to "a single city spread far as my optical sensors could see" it seems like a bit of a stretch that he wouldn't recognize Coruscant.
And yeah, what's with the Weeks thing?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I enjoyed it a lot, felt like a standalone episode of a tv series, filler but memorable.

And I don't usually like C3PO. That's why I don't mind they delayed it.

 

Well, this was much better than I expected.

Spoiler

I wonder if C-3PO will get his memories back during the ST period and what sort of implications that is going to have...

 

I thought this was going to be a silly one-off tale that just fills answers a meaningless question we all probably asked about his red arm.

Honestly, it was that but also so much more. I was pleasantly surprised at how touching they made the relationship between Threepio and this First Order droid, and Threepio's comments at how he has faint recollections from time to time about events during the prequel trilogy and the overall role of droids in these grand galactic conflicts actually invested me in these droids as portrayed in the comic.

And when Threepio ultimately keeps the red arm as a way to remember the lost droids, I thought it was a rather touching end.

Overall, I thought it was nothing mind-blowing in terms of what it adds to the Star Wars lore, but it didn't need to be. Sure we didn't NEED to know how Threepio got the red arm, but the comic did a great job at fleshing out his inner thoughts and how droids think of themselves, when often they're little more than servants or pets in the films. Now I'll see him in a different light when I rewatch TFA.

Though it does make me wonder why Threepio would replace his red arm at the end of TFA if this one meant so much to him... another question to be answered for another time as Maz would say!

 

That sounds cool. What trade do you think this will be part of? I like that we find out about his arm. Yes, it ISN'T vital info but cool nonetheless. A lot of the JTTFA didn't add much to the movies and wasn't kind of a disappointment.

 

Gial 'Weeks' Ackbar... that could kind of work, actually.

 

I liked the different "personalities" and philosophy of droids.

Lesson is, don't let them stick together or reflect too much on stuff or they'll betray you

 

The editing was week. Very week.

Also, the discussions between Threepio and the kid from The Indian in the Cupboard reminded me of Threepio's subplot in Hero's Trial, which, although sadly truncated when the NJO went in another direction, was one of the best things to happen to his character in the EU.

 

I really enjoyed this issue. It was surprisingly character-driven and the art work was great and a lot of fun at the same time. I really did like the interaction between Threepio and Omri and I'm amused they tied into the Lego cartoon.

 

I've just realized what the next Marvel One-shot has to be.

Luke Skywalker: The Phantom Beard.

Admit it. You'd buy ten copies.

 

I wonder if my laptop misses the files I delete when I empty my Recycle Bin.