Lit Coop's MARVELous Voyage

Way to steal my thunder twelve years in advance, man.

Damn, now I'm in an even bigger hurry to finish this so I can read your version.

 

Sorry!

I enjoyed writing that piece, though, and the format would later evolve into the "Retroviews" that CBG would run from 2003 straight through to its cancellation earlier this year. Wound up being something like 5,000 back issues reviewed by the time they were done. Hard to conceive now of how much work we put into that mag.

 

Just think how much worse it would have been if Leia had been commanding Mandalorians in TFU, as was originally planned.

TC

 

...did not need to know that.

 

I forgot to mention - the City of Bone has been retconned to an unfinished amusement park that some Mandolorians conned the imperials into buying at inflated prices.

...I am not really sure how to feel about that.

Wait, what?! Where did you learn that? I never heard anything like that!

 

XTREEEEME BRO

Though just think of the continuity fun we'd have if the Mandies ended up as double agents and tried to capture Leia for a mysterious cloaked figure Sate Pestage.

 

Bad. You're supposed to feel bad.

 

The only thing worse than a bad retcon is an unnecessary retcon...

TC

 

what.

 

And yet people still question when I tell them Traviss just went insane sometime during the writing of LOTF.

 

Because the idea of a Mandalorian warrior building a city-sized roadside attraction is much less unbelievable then city-sized dinosaurs in a space opera fantasy setting...

 

I will say that it felt kind of logistically implausible when I was reading it. There are little gunnery stations in the ribs despite them not looking wide enough for a Stormtrooper to even get up there.

 

But the Marvel comics are so well-known for their photorealistic art and accurate depiction of scale.

 

Which is why I didn't mention it at first.

 

The problem remains even if this is now the former site of Uncle Bobba's World of Beskar'cue.

TC

 

Issue 70

Lando's page-and-a-half-long recap is interrupted by a growl from Chewbacca, which I'm choosing to interpret as "hey Luke, I think Lando's having a stroke."

And now, our flashback to post-ANH gives Leia the buns back, implying that even now that they have reference for her in other hairstyles, they're genuinely under the impression that was the only way she did her hair for three entire years.

Hey, a Moff (well, a "governor"). Don't recall seeing one of those since Tarkin.

Threepio called Artoo an "astrodroid"--the only time I can remember that term from the movies is out of Anakin's mouth in TPM. Is it in the OT and I'm just forgetting it?

Ladies and gentlemen, we have Zeltron. I can tell from the rosy complexion and the boob window.

Han, accused of joining the Rebellion: "Joined? What joined? Who joined?"

Breaking: Zeltron acting Zeltron-like. More as the story develops.

New thing alert: Threepio carrying large rocks.

Wow, Rik Duel's got quite a talent for hastily drawing in dirt.

Also, his yellow-sense is tingling.

My, this issue is fairly witty by Marvel standards.

"I don't believe it!" "They're flying!" Why, it's almost like they've got wings or something!

Issue 71

"The Quest for Han Solo...Ends Here!" Hey, have I caught up to RotJ already?

Recap alert: Lando and Luke are discussing their plan in the Falcon while waving their blaster and ignited lightsaber around to "check" them. Read: look cool for no particular reason.

Chewie and Artoo can't come to Stenos, because humans are common, but "droids and Wookiees aren't." Given the last issue it's understandable that they would be technophobic, but they don't seem very fond of aliens either, and there's plenty of them there--so it's weird that droids specifically would be a problem.

More wit: "Barkeep! My friend and I would each like a glass of whatever that fellow who's passed out has been drinking." I notice now that this (with #70) is Jo Duffy's first story as regular writer, so I guess I can at least count on it to be funny for a while.

There's a Jawa here. Odd.

Luke forgot how Rik's name is spelled.

"So I just yelled, 'he's profaning Vol! Get him!!' End of story."

Pointing out that Luke technically never saw Han in carbonite--nice touch. Never thought about that.

Issue 72

"...frozen in that block of carbonite steel behind you."

This isn't the most movie-accurate rendering of Bossk I've seen; any chance we can just say this is someone else?

Well, Rik's reasons for helping Luke are certainly nuanced and rational by this series' standards. I'm impressed.

There's an utterly hilarious picture in here of Chewbacca attempting to sneak around on tiptoes, but I can't find a copy online. I highly recommend it.

Breaking: Zeltron still acting Zeltron-like.

Well, aside from the whole carbonite-chamber thing being a fairly uncreative way to do a bounty hunter story at this point in time, I definitely liked the Stenos plot overall--as evidenced by far fewer notes than usual for these three issues--and I can appreciate why they couldn't have played this kind of shell game with Han and Boba for the whole three years between the films. Even Bossk and IG-88 didn't feel too out-of-character (insofar as IG's personality is "evil droid"), besides Bossk speaking Basic, which is hardly new.

Issue 73

I haven't been paying much attention to the letters pages lately, but this issue is notable for both the first reference to "Return of the Jedi", and for someone finally pointing out that Luke shouldn't have had his lightsaber all this time--to which the editor responds that "all will be explained in due time." We'll just see about that.

Strange--I'm totally down with the telepathic bunny people, but I'm only on the first page of the kitten people and they're already infuriating. This issue came out about a month before RotJ; it'd be interesting to look into the timetable of the Lahsbees' development versus the Ewoks'--and whether the former made the latter easier to take, or harder.

Leia wishes they were still looking for "the bounty hunters who caught" Han, but I'm not totally clear on where that left off--they had a lead that either Bossk, IG-88, or Dengar had been working with Fett and might be willing to sell him out. But they chased down all three and it didn't seem to have been the case for any of them...so what exactly are they doing now? I suppose they didn't really get to talk to Bossk and IG about it, so are they still after those two?

Continuing the series' problem of never knowing how Leia should look when not wearing movie outfits, it looks like they've got her in her Echo Base vest here.

Well, that's interesting... Dani: "I have the death sentence in six stars systems." Leia: "As many as that? I didn't know there were so many places where what you do is still illegal." Hahaha, prostitute joke. But hold on--is Leia intimating that prostitution is generally legalized under the Republic/Empire? If not, and its status in mainstream society is analogous to modern Earth, what exactly is Leia's joke? Either I'm missing something, or that's a pretty striking notion for a comic published in 1983. I suppose she could just mean general female promiscuity, but I certainly don't like to picture a GFFA where that was illegal.

The catfighting with Leia is annoying, but I'm still liking Dani a hundred times better now that she's not relentlessly pawing at Luke.

Whoops, I take it back: Zeltron now acting even more Zeltron-like.

How convenient that the Lahsbee's biplane glider thingy supports Luke's size and weight.

My, Luke, quite the rippling arms you have--and I haven't even gotten to that infamous He-Man picture yet (I don't think?).

Oh, Lahsbees and Huhks are the same thing? Did not realize that.

...yeah, I still like them better as Huhks.

I respect that Lando just stunned the Huhk that was fighting Chewie--honestly thought he'd just killed him for a second there.

Luke's rescue of Leia and Dani: I wish I could find that page online.

Aw, no more Dani (for now). Just when she was getting non-annoying.

It's nice to see more supporting-character-building here, but generally I wasn't crazy about this one. Also you'd think the Rebels would have had a little intelligence on the whole Lahsbee/Huhk thing before going down there.

Issue 74

Oh, joy, Leia's feeling morose again. "My homeworld, my family and friends...Han...the Empire has cost me everyone and everything I've ever really cared about..." Dude, Luke is standing right in front of you.

Luke now lecturing Leia on what the Rebellion is for.

"Is it safe to talk here...it's so...public!" "What is 'public'?" I like the Iskalonians.

Kind of annoying that post-Dagobah Luke doesn't realize they're being followed, like, five meters behind.

I'm enjoying the variety of fish people on Iskalon, but I'm wondering whether they're different Iskalonian races, or other aquatic species altogether--there's easily at least five or six of them.

My, what a tastefully discreet cyborg eye that Imperial has.

Whatever the missile thing is they shot at Iskalon, it almost hits the Falcon, which is going in the other direction--that's some serious aim.

For the record, I'm actually really liking this story so far. I demand more of Iskalon...if it's not destroyed or something in the next issue.

Issue 75

One breach is going to flood the entire city? Do they not have bulkheads on this planet?

Wait, wait--did Lando just land the Millennium Falcon, under its real name, in an Imperial fortress, with no problems, purely because he gave them Mone's name instead of his?

...yes. That's what just happened. Lando really should know how to fake a tranceiver--and come to think of it, the Falcon should have had a handful of fake IDs ready to go, right? Even if the base did buy that Mone was the new owner, you'd think someone would at least glance its way to see if Billie Dee Williams and a Wookiee got off.

Heh, it's always nice when Threepio reminds people just what a "protocol droid" is actually for.

Oh, sure, now that we've been wandering around in public for a while--now let's put on disguises.

"That full-speed-ahead-and-bash-them-in-the-teeth approach may work very well for a Wookiee and a Corellian...but it's not a technique that works for me." Tell 'im, Lando! And I love that the art underscores his point by flashing to Han and Chewie chasing Stormies on the Death Star.

Threepio relating Lando's alien concepts to the Iskalonion! I love this!

Random Imperial just appeared to understood Artoo.

Heh, I like the callback to Drebble. This is totally my kind of Lando story.

"Admiral Tower"? Why would an Admiral be in charge of a base?

And sure enough, the whole plan is screwed because Luke couldn't sense they were being followed last issue.

I don't imagine it gels perfectly these days, but I like the way they're talking about droids in the "3P series"--the Imperial says he's got an A3 and two C3s, which nicely supports the conceit that "C-3PO" isn't his entire designation, and there's bunches of them out there with that same base name.

It's bad enough for the story to refer to the explosion and resulting tidal waves as the "Iskalon effect", but why the hell would Leia call it that, like it's some understood phenomenon that's peculiar to this planet? I figured it was coming, but I'd assumed the missile would trigger some kind of tectonic reaction or something, not just "WHAM!! BIG EXPLOSION!!"

Well, lots more iffy stuff in this issue, but I'm still liking the story overall.

UP NEXT!! Hoth Stuff!! C-3PO finds true love at last!! Wait, what?

 

Afaik it is later explained as one of those planets were the locals (the Stenax) just happen to hate everyone but are at least forced to tolerate humans because of the Empire. After the Empire is gone they actually go on a genocidal war and kill millions.

Sadly not as IG-88 actually calls him Bossk during the story.

Hints of it have been dropped as far back as the Han Solo Adventure books, whilst Splinter of the Mind's Eye actually point to that even sexual slavery of humans is allowed by the Empire.

I am pretty sure there are some of those worlds out there in the GFFA, as it is sadly also still rather common in many Earth Countries.

Properly meant to support a Huhk as well.

Happens in the last issue

I just love the Officer and the Troopers in this issue, clearly the Elite of the Empire at work.

Star Wars Gamer 1 mentioned there are 17 different ones, each its own race, but will refer to themselves as Iskalonians towards outsiders, their society was apparently formed by aquatic refugees from all over the galaxy.

I always figured he is actually in charge of the weapons project, which just happens to include the base.

Warning you ahead of time, I actually still have to cry whenever I read that story.

 

That makes it SO MUCH BETTER, but what I meant was that if they're going to be pissed about everything why draw the line at Chewie and Artoo.

That's awesome.

 

Yeah. My bad. I misspelled it from memory in History of the Mandalorians and then Karen seems to have picked it up from there.

Note that the screenplay for The Phantom Menace itself refers to "Jedis" ... though this tends to be only in the possessive form.

That's probably true. Actually, Rich and I originally made him a Ssi-ruu, but that was struck down in approvals. After that, Rich, who wrote the majority of Suprema's entry, decided the heck with it and completely rewrote his background.

Take care,
Abel

 

Abel, you created a continuity error?? My whole world is upside-down!

You say that like George's opinion matters to me.

Issue 76

Note that I'm only doing five issues this time so I don't have to do RotJ in two pieces.



"Lord Vader's trying to punch the holo again, sir."

Okay, Pavillion's destroyed, I can totally get that--but I really don't understand how that missile is supposed to have "devastated" the entire planet. Last issue even specifically pointed out that there were other artificial cities, to say nothing of all the amphibious species who wouldn't have been anywhere near the wave.

As far as I'm concerned, this issue is proof that if the GFFA just made Artoo its emperor everything would be perfect.

K-3PX informing Tower he's under arrest--comic book pages: you're doing it right. Gorefiend, I trust you'll stick this page into the thread for me.

Whoa, Chewie just snapped a Stormie's neck. Surprisingly visceral.

I know there were Stormtroopers caught on Pavillion when the wave hit, but I choose to believe that the ones in the crowd rushing Luke and Leia are Iskalonians that salvaged the armor from drowned corpses. And to this day, there are still a handful of Iskalonians swimming around in Stormtrooper armor.

So yeah, I would've been much cooler with this story if they hadn't used the phrase "Iskalon effect" in dialogue, and if they hadn't talked about it like Pavillion was the entirety of Iskalonian civilization, but overall I enjoyed this arc a lot. Certainly way more than the Lahsbane story.

Issue 77

Oh, there's a Huhk on the cover. That bodes well.

Hoojibs!! Now we're talking.

Now they're calling what happened on Iskalon "genocide", despite the fact that even the story itself goes out of its way to point out what a ragtag group of species inhabited Pavillion. I'm starting to hope for a retcon that the missile had some kind of water-poisoning component that killed way more Iskalonians than we saw, and that the destruction of Pavillion was incidental--which would also explain why they'd retreat to the depths for a while.

Rieekan (I think?): "We received new information...information that could dramatically restructure our priorities." Given that we're only a few issues out from RotJ (and actually a couple months past it in terms of release dates), there was a time I'd have hoped he was talking about the Death Star. After 77 issues, of course, I know better.

"Now, as all of you know, you've spent the past few weeks searching for two missing Rebel spies--Tay Vanis and Yom Argo." But now he's gonna tell them about it in extensive detail anyway. Another thing I'm used to after 77 issues.

Lando knows the report of Han being active is BS, but he and Chewie are going along with it so they'll be allowed to continue the search. I like it.

The Hoojibs are going on the mission!

Breaking: numerous Zeltrons acting Zeltron-like.

Big Three racism alert--Luke mistakes a random Zeltron for Dani.

Did Leia just flat-out tell the Imperials they were from Arbra? That's asinine. if Hoojibs were that well-known of a species they'd have had no business putting their base there to begin with.

Contrary to all common sense, there's a Stenax at the space station party. And Lahsbees, which is almost as dumb--but I guess the cover should've told me that was coming.

See, the random three-eyed guys know what's up with the Lahsbees--why didn't the Rebellion?

For the record, this issue is one of the series' better attempts to give Leia an original outfit and hairstyle.
Luke found Tay Vanis' message! And it's one of these things!

Y'know, at a certain point, Luke really ought to just do one of these Zeltrons and get it over with. Better red than dead.

"Seezar's Planet".

Okay, Leia as a lounge singer does not need to happen. Though it's interesting that they put her in a bikini--clearly they weren't totally in the dark about RotJ when this was being put together.

Breaking: Zeltron now hitting on Plif.

Okay, issue over. Let's all agree never to discuss this again.

And if there were any doubt that Hoth Stuff had been crammed into the schedule at the last second, this issue teases that next up is Lando and Chewie, starring in "The Big Con!" Big, indeed.

Issue 78

Wow, this story must be non-canon--there's a black guy in it who's not Lando.

So given that RotJ was already out, and that this issue was clearly crammed in at the last second, I'm assuming this their retcon for Wedge's total absence over the last three years of stories? The wook doesn't really get into it.

I knew it was coming, but it's really quite amazing how completely Michelinie got Wedge and Biggs mixed up here; it's almost like he never saw ANH in the first place. I'm gonna have to keep an eye on the next few letters pages to see if it was as obvious back then as it is now.

They're hiding in the head of the AT-AT Luke threw the grenade into--you know, the one that exploded on camera.

Aw, Wedge and Janson are cuddling.

Huh, I'd never really thought about whether the Empire would've lingered at Echo Base after chasing the Rebels away--can we take the suggestion that they left the next day at face value, despite the rest of the story being bad? It certainly runs counter to the Golrath story.

"Janson was hurt worse than I'd thought, hurt inside where I couldn't help him." And that was when I realized I'd broken his heart.

Alas, poor Belina. Given the story's IU tall-tale status, I guess that makes Belina Wedge's "Canadian girlfriend".

Glancing at the wook, it's nice to see that the ice scrabblers at least have been referenced elsewhere. They're kind of cool-looking.

Ooh, a Harch! I'm calling it!

Well, all things considered, this is a nice little story. I definitely like the idea of them telling it to new recruits--then having Janson walk in and freak them out.

Issue 79

One thing I'll give Marvel over modern comics--this issue starts with a full-page, nicely-rendered image of Han, which we then pull farther and farther away from over the next four panels. Nowadays, the first image would just be duplicated and shrank in the next three, but here, it's actually four different drawings. That had to be annoying.

At first glance I thought was the surprise resurrection of Crimson Jack. Alas.

Evidence that capes are awesome--only a few months of hanging out with Lando, and now even Chewie's wearing one. Well, it's more of a parka, really, but I'll take it.

One of the grizzled space criminals doesn't know a Wookiee when he sees one. Poser.

New thing alert: Jawa speaking Basic.

Alter-ego be damned, Lando totally needs to wear this outfit more often. It should be his NR General's uniform. It'd be no weirder than what half the Imperial officers are wearing.

Ha, even Lando gets "Stenax" and "Stenos" mixed up.

Finally some RotJ influence--the "Cobra", as it were, is basically a Lambda with the top fin chopped off.

"Is this what smiling is supposed to feel like? It hurts!" I demand more errant thought bubbles.

"...and make it fast, tramp!"

"Fett eventually handed him over to Jabba..." Boy, "eventually" is right.

Drunk driving!

Revisiting the prostitution topic, here we see one practicing it in the usual manner--though lamenting that all the pirates in the neighborhood have chased away the "honest" customers.

Huh. It's weird to see such heavy speeder traffic on an actual, y'know, street.

I've said it before and I'll say it again--Jo Duffy writes a mean Lando. In fact, I think I like her scoundrel stories better than her Rebel/Empire stories. What's she doing these days? Dark Horse needs to give her a Lando ongoing.

Issue 80

This issue was colored by a guy named "Glynis". Just wanted to point that out.

I like the in media res opening. More of this kind of thing, please.

At long last--despite my own cynicism on the matter, Tay Vanis' tapes (which, PS, "tapes"--hilarious) are officially tied into the Bothan Death Star data. Which, of course, doesn't really work anymore, but it's nice to know that, six months after the movie came out, they finally got around to leading in to RotJ.

Also, I suppose that makes this the first EU reference to Bothans (well, "the Bothan system", but I'll take it).

Man, is this the first time the series has shown Luke actually chopping up Stormtroopers? Seems like they always tapdance around the whole dismemberment thing.

"...at the time of his disappearance, there was an important Imperial Sith Lord visiting the base--Darth Vader." As opposed to all the less-important Imperial Sith Lords? Little late in the OT for a line like that, isn't it?

It's funny that I saw it coming that Ellie would be Tay Vanis' droid, despite knowing that the X-Wing shouldn't have been able to carry them both to the planet.

Vader really likes leaving conveniently-relevant holorecordings for Luke all over the galaxy. I wonder how many more are still out there waiting to triggered by random passers-by?

****. That was pretty sad. Great issue, though.

So I guess, like so many issues before me, a recap is in order. The ESB-RotJ stretch was without question leaps and bounds above the ANH-ESB stretch. It's easy to pick on the art at the beginning, but I can understand how they were essentially building the whole universe from scratch in those early years (though they could at least have given Leia a different hairstyle once in a while). Looking back over the last few weeks, I honestly think the single-issue stories have been fairly weak across the whole 80 issues thus far, and the longer arcs, not needing to cram as much plot into each individual issue, were way better--and the biggest difference in #40-80 was way more of a focus on arcs, so naturally it comes off better. Diversity is still abysmal, but at least now there's been effort to create some second-tier characters--WHMs or otherwise--and I know Dani, the Hoojibs, and Yellow-Fish-Boy-Whose-Name-I-Forget are coming back post-Endor, so there's that. I had a rough idea of when Shira Brie was going to show up, but I didn't realize before how big of a gap there was between Shira's "death" and Lumiya's reappearance; I'd just assumed the whole thing was one big arc prior to RotJ. Suffice it to say that Jo Duffy's status as Marvel MVP is already thoroughly cemented, and between her writing and the strength of Lumiya as a character I'm very excited for that.

UP NEXT!! The Jedi return!! With fewer Hoojibs, I'm guessing.

 

*Cough*Perfection*Cough*

 

Gotta love Space Pirate Lando Harlock.

 

I love this thread. Just putting that out there. The Marvel comics have such a bad reputation, some of the fans I talk to elsewhere put them on the same level as the GoDV books. Crazy, I know. There's just so much more zaniness in the Marvels than in the modern EU, more world-building and going out on a limb, everything feels tongue-in-cheek. And yet, it still feels like Star Wars (when it isn't John Carter).

 

I liked them, once I got round to getting the Omnibuses. Quirky but fun.