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

No, they were rubbing their hands together and thinking about all the money that could be made from new, slightly-different C-3PO action figures.

 

I liked this issue. Very unique art, which I wasn't 100% on board with but, overall, a fun, touching story. The most unique thing about the comic was that C-3PO does have occasional flashbacks to his pre-memory wipe life. One of my favorite Star Wars images of all time is this panel from a (now Legends) comic book in which Vader meets 3PO for the first time after the memory wipe:



It'd be really cool to see that tiny bit of info regarding 3PO's flashbacks followed upon. After all, now that Vader is gone, there's no in-story reason to keep the memory wipe intact.

 

This issue was some heavy stuff, hit me right in the feels. I fully approve.

 

This. I wound up purchasing the issue as I already have the Shattered Empire trade, and don't see a reason to purchase the hardcover too.

 

so question, the events of the one-shot take place before this so this mean that certain parts of this LEGO episode are canon?

 

It appears to be a humorous adaptation of a canonical event, much like the Lego Star Wars video games.

 

Read the first 2 pages and stopped. I couldn't get pass the artwork and terrible dialogue. Maybe one day I'll finish it.

 

It was okay. It was very similar to the Rebels episode The Forgotten Droid

 

I really liked this issue, I thought the art was unique and suitably bizarre for a story that had a fantastical vibe to it. Thematically, it's about the tragedy of memory wipes in droids that have something sort of resembling consciousness but their utilitarian nature has their very identity wiped away on a regular basis. Even the droid who had the red arm underneath his black paint had no idea that he was red under there. Also it had a lot of monsters tearing droids apart which is always fun. And I dug how the construction droid's final words were proclaiming itself a construction droid (like all of it's lines were). It's a very sad story, actually, that the most forgotten beings in the galaxy actually do have depths of kinda emotion and kinda heart. Maybe. It has a memorial feeling, which is appropriate. The title "The Phantom Limb" was great too as in Threepio is missing a huge chunk of his personal history from the Old Republic. and the Phantom Limb is not just Threepio's missing arm but they're missing a very piece of themselves on a regular basis they might remember. Might.

I think it's actually something of a darkly philosophical issue that follows from Threepio's line "We seem to be made to suffer, it's our lot in life"

 

As for the odd fact that Threepio "would know what Courscant is" (which did throw me for a loop), I think you have to look at it from the POV of his not-entirely-wiped memory wipe. Threepio has probably been to Courscant in the intervening 50 years and would know what it looks like it since his memory wipe at the end of the Clone Wars, but what he's remembering now is hazy and ill-defined, which is a huge theme of this comic. So it's not really "he doesn't know what Courscant is" but more "he doesn't know what his memory of Courscant is". I think the big theme of this book is "droids are sentient beings too" but they're tragically used as cargo, transportation and reformatted into spies and servants, etc., but there is a "being" in there somewhere.

 

Droid rights and philosophy is my favorite underexplored subject in the SW universe, so I loved this issue. Some of the dialogue was a bit clunky, but the discussions of memory wipes and the droids lot in life were spot on. Hope this topic gets explored further in future stories.

 

Thought it was terrible, one of the worst of Marvel's new issues. With the horrible artwork and dull dialogue, I couldn't get absorbed into it. I'm not sure what I was expecting but for a scene in TFA to be created for this, I was expecting better.

 

Other way around - this was created to (badly) explain the TFA scene.

 

I keep meaning to look up which issue that is. Do you remember?
Never mind I found it. its star wars tales 6

 

So I just picked up the C-3P0 one-shot in celebration of Free Comic Book Day.

That was a fun read, and a fun way to tell a story. I hope we get another one of those in the lead-up to The Last Jedi.

 

C-3PO: The Phantom Limb was the first thing I read from the new canon, and I was very impressed with it.

Like most people, I thought the red arm was just a way for Disney to sell new 3PO toys and merchandise, and an eventual off shoot story to explain how it happened.

But having read it, my cynicism about the whole thing pretty much faded. I have to say that it works quite well as a simple and touching story about the droids and their role in the universe. The artwork is great. The story is great, and it doesn't try to be any bigger than it needs to be and works as a simple character piece.

 

Phantom Limb still remains the best of the new Marvel comics by a long shot. In a single issue it has more pathos and more exploration of an OT character's personality and history than any of the multi-dozen-issue books. Plus it's a much better emulation of Moebius than those TCW episodes that claimed to be an homage to him.

 

So, I just played the Phantom Limb mission for Lego TFA, though I haven't read the comic. I'm assuming mostly everything happens about the same? Although in the game, O-MR1 is still alive and C-3PO doesn't notice...and he just gets left behind. That seems pretty silly...it doesn't happen in the comic, right? And why does he walk out into the acid rain to begin with...why not just wait for the rain to stop?

 

It's explained in the comic. And the LEGO games tend to alter the deaths of various characters; this story especially is pretty existential, so not the best material for a straight adaptation into a kids' game.

 

Huh, well being left behind like that seems like an even worse fate than just being killed outright.

 

his walking into the rain in the comic is a pretty triumphant, heartfelt moment, the Lego level treats it as a gag as the series is wont to do.

 

Just read it again last night, after three years, and it's still an amazing story. I loved it. Very much in the spirit of the old Droids comics from Dark Horse, and I enjoyed the philosophical aspect. I have no idea why anybody could hate this comic. I mean, what were you expecting? It's a C-3PO-centric one-shot about how he got his red arm. Simple as that.