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Lit Original Marvel Series

Discussion in 'Literature' started by JediKnight75, Mar 16, 2015.

  1. JediKnight75

    JediKnight75 Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 15, 2011
    I was curious about the Marvel's original series. Did it adequately bridge the gap between films? Did the make the GCW feel like and actual conflict; by this I mean did the Rebellion feel like an organization and were the heros seen working with the wider group? Did the seris feel like Star Wars and was it unified? How was the characterizations?

    Should I consider reading this series?
     
  2. Iron_lord

    Iron_lord Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    I like them a lot - but it definitely has its ups and downs.

    The Tagge arc, and the Shira Brie arc, are probably the ones where the Rebellion most feels like a group, and not just "support for the heroes".

    Characterization is usually fairly good.
     
  3. Duguay

    Duguay Jedi Grand Master star 2

    Registered:
    Nov 30, 2002
    The bottom line for considering reading the original Marvel series is are you looking for SW stories that are just fun for the sake of fun? That's what I experienced while going through them and not taking them too seriously; and occasionally it really surprised me and defied my expectations.

    Regarding the bridging question, that's something the series could only do to a limited extent. The stories that are set between ANH and TESB have more of ANH's flavor of pulpy action adventure. Post TESB the Rebel Alliance is more prominent. There's the occasional introspective moments for stories post-TESB and post-RotJ, reflecting the deepening of the movies. Pacing wise, the comics would do their own thing, as inspired by the last movie the had to work with, and jump forward a bit abruptly once the next movie comes out and the writers have to recalibrate their storytelling style and approach.

    The comics felt like Star Wars stories. I would say that they broadened my perspective of what a Star Wars story could be, particularly the post-RotJ stories when the main writer started to gain traction on new directions to take the continuing narrative. It broadened my perspective of how the SW ensemble could continue to grow and expand to make me care about new characters having adventures alongside the movies' characters.

    As far as the Galactic Civil War, it's there in the background, and it's sometimes a hook to get the characters into their next adventure, and some adventures that stand alone build a larger picture of the state of the galaxy sometimes. It's not as though they outline major turning points in a campaign, just random schemes that the Rebels or Empire are hoping will gain an advantage, and what the other side does to stop or counteract that scheme.

    I personally had a great time with the original Marvel comics. The major question with the series still remains, are you looking for some really fun Star Wars stories? :)
     
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  4. Dr. Steve Brule

    Dr. Steve Brule Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 7, 2012
    Funny how all the Marvel fans don't seem to care about this being non-canonized. Guess they kind of forget that it was the original disposable unofficial fan-fiction or whatever the current vogue term for the EU is.
     
  5. Taalcon

    Taalcon Chosen One star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 12, 1998
    The 'current vogue term for the EU' you're looking for is Legends. And still, they're treating the material quite, quite well.
    [​IMG]
     
  6. Duguay

    Duguay Jedi Grand Master star 2

    Registered:
    Nov 30, 2002
    Eh...I'm not sure what you're getting at? I hope this doesn't sound rude, but I don't understand how this relates to the original post. Are you making a case for not reading the original Marvel SW? I'm not attached to the issue one way or another, I've made a pitch for what I think answer the OP, and the general merits of the series, but maybe you can outline more specifically for why you think it's not worth it to bother reading Marvel SW other than canonicity related commentary?

    I'm a casual fan regarding Marvel SW, enthusiastic yes, but not die hard. The series has it's flaws, sure. I never for one moment thought that Marvel SW was supposed to fit into any old or new notion of canonicity with the rest of EU, while reading it and afterwards. I always saw them as stories that are inspired by the original movies, and existed in their own narrative space. All comics and novels before and after the Canon/Continuity divide I regard with equal weight, actually; I think the New EU could easily be as vulnerable as works in the old EU to "Decanonization". Legends or NEU I'm equally receptive to either one, as long as I'm having fun with them. And I don't care about canonicity or continuity at all, old or new, borrowed or blue, as long as any story well told and works for me.

    I don't often post, but I'm a little disconcerted by your generalization: "all the Marvel fans..." posted after only two people (including myself) have posted responses. I'm sorry if I'm being oversensitive, but could you please not make generalizations about me? I really hate the canonicity argument game, I just was enthusiastic about sharing what I know about a corner of the SW universe that I'm familiar with. I can't participate as deeply in a conversation about, say, NJO or the novels beyond that, or the Legacy comic, there's a lot of SW I'm out of the loop on and feel like I can't participate in a discussion about. Even if I was familiar with those, I still wouldn't want to have generalizations made about me. They're just stories; maybe I'll like them if I get around to them in the future, but I'm not going to put up a fight about whether I think they should matter, or whether I think other fans should think that they matter as much as I do.
     
  7. EternalHero

    EternalHero Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Feb 17, 2014
    This series did not have the benefit of knowing what was coming next (ESB, RotJ) or what had come before (PT, TCW) so it's a little bit scattered. Once it got rolling with Archie Goodwin and Carmine Infantino on board it went from strength to strength, IMO. After RotJ it had settled into a kind of predictable groove and that was exploded by Jo Duffy and Cynthia Martin who brought SW into the 80's with a heavy Anime/Manga influence. Overall, a great run; and it's fun to look back at how we imagined things before we "knew" the whole story.
     
  8. Darth_Duck

    Darth_Duck Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 13, 2000
    When I read through the series a few years back it felt more Star Wars-y than most things coming out around that time. It's just great fun.
     
  9. The Positive Fan

    The Positive Fan Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 19, 2015
    Yes! The old Marvel series is enormous fun. As others have said, it has ups and downs (but mostly ups). Duguay's post is pretty spot-on in terms of what to expect in the comics and what to expect to take away from them. They're a product of their time, so the art is sometimes funky and the dialogue overwrought and melodramatic at times. Let it make you smile and don't try to compare them to today's comics. Set expectations accordingly and in the end you'll be very glad you read them.
     
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  10. The Positive Fan

    The Positive Fan Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 19, 2015
    That's just "Dr. Steve"'s usual routine. He's bitter about the EU reboot and retaliates by making sweeping, untrue generalizations about fans who have figured out that one can be a fan of both "canon" and "Legends" Star Wars and that it doesn't have to be a one-or-the-other proposition.
     
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  11. Oaknut

    Oaknut Jedi Knight

    Registered:
    Jul 5, 2010
    I felt that reading the original Marvel comic was like going back in Star Wars history. The writers didn't know anything about TESB or ROTJ, so they took a lot of freedom in how they developed the universe. Seeing a different bodily form of Jabba the Hutt in those early comics is pretty funny. We are so over-saturated with content and references today, it is an interesting perspective. I think now would be a great time to read those comics. You can really see how far Star Wars has come in storytelling and the overall development of the Star Wars universe as we lead in to the new movies.
     
  12. EternalHero

    EternalHero Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Feb 17, 2014
    The concept of licensed fiction has changed drastically since the 70's and 80's. Shows like The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family had tie-in novels and Saturday morning cartoons. It was a very undefined No Man's Land that no one really knew how to use creatively or exploit as a market. Star Trek and Star Wars both redefined the notion of ancillary fiction. Star Wars fandom has completely reformed the whole genre by making the notion of "canon" important (which has turned out to be a double edged sword). The Masters of the Universe toy line employed writers to "world build" Eternia and the toys came with little picture books and comics to convey the mythology and characters. When Filmation accepted the license to produce an animated MotU TV show they tossed all of that out. When Cannon acquired the film rights they threw everything out the window. Nowadays fans expect a decent level of continuity across platforms. So back in the day, Marvel (who would later become deeply involved in licensing from toy and television properties in the mid 1980's) was not happy to be taking notes from Lucasfilm. At that point, George had yet to establish a company for dealing with publishing, it was very loose. All this is to say: the original Marvel SW doesn't conform to contemporary expectations for licensed fiction. As a kid, I didn't even notice that Luke and Vader's sabers kept changing colors, that the laser bolts kept changing colors, that they got things "wrong". It was just exciting to have a SW comic! But they had lots of good writers and artists on the title and some issues are real classics.
     
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  13. Vthuil

    Vthuil Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 3, 2013
    I agree with everyone else: this series is dated in a lot of ways, but it's still a lot of fun.

    That said, one thing that always bothered me was that it didn't do a very good job of looking like Star Wars, especially in some of the earlier issues. The original spacecraft or technology designs often seemed much more like the sort of overgreebled stuff you saw in most contemporary comics, and the character designs (particularly the infamous Crimson Jack and His Pantsless Pirates) seemed to borrow more from old Golden Age sci-fi then they did Star Wars.
     
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  14. Solent

    Solent Jedi Master star 2

    Registered:
    Aug 4, 2001
    Don´t forget He-Man Skywalker.

    Personally I read them some years ago and with a few exceptions (ie, the Shira Brie twist) they were mostly of the "so bad it´s good" kind. It felt much more a product of the times it was published in than the movies, and don´t think they´ve aged well because of that. Still, some moments like Vader channelling Doctor Doom, Lando cosplaying as Captain Harlock made them fun to read.
     
  15. The Positive Fan

    The Positive Fan Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 19, 2015
    Every time Carmine Infantino tried to draw a Star Destroyer, he created a new class of ship :) One thing to keep in mind about the early issues is that visually speaking, all they had to go on was the first film. They didn't have five additional movies, animated series, scores of reference books, and more to help them nail down the Star Wars "look" that we take for granted today. That does not defend or justify Crimson Jack and his unfortunate drawers, or the ever changing lightsabers and such, but in general it puts the early artwork more in context.
     
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  16. EternalHero

    EternalHero Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Feb 17, 2014
    The Positive Fan LOL Carmine was definitely an idiosyncratic artist but boy did he "get" SW visually!

    [​IMG]
     
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  17. The Positive Fan

    The Positive Fan Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 19, 2015
    Infantino didn't do that cover, that was Michael Golden. He did the pencils in that issue too. That's a great cover though.

    I don't want to imply that Infantino wasn't a great artist at all. He did some amazing stuff in the original series.

    [​IMG]

    He was idiosyncratic to a fault, and had a limited amount of source material to work with. And with that, turned out some great SW art.
     
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  18. EternalHero

    EternalHero Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Feb 17, 2014
    Ah I saw a CI and its a G good catch. I love his art especially his Batman. His SW was incredibly bold and exciting.
     
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  19. Iron_lord

    Iron_lord Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
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  20. JediKnight75

    JediKnight75 Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 15, 2011
    Thanks for all of the replies. It's all very interesting. I'd love to read this series. What is the easiest way to purchase the books?
     
  21. Iron_lord

    Iron_lord Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    I got them in the shops - but these days it might be easier to get them online - somewhere like Amazon.
     
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  22. Duguay

    Duguay Jedi Grand Master star 2

    Registered:
    Nov 30, 2002
    Amazon shows options available for collecting Dark Horse's 5-volume A Long Time Ago... set. Alternatively there's a similar set in trade paperback size; it's a seven volume set that does not include the RotJ comic adaptation (ANH and TESB are included, but all three movies are included in the 5 volume set). You might get better pricing on some of the earlier volumes from the 7 volume set on Amazon. Good luck, hope you find them easy to collect, and hope you have fun with the stories.
     
  23. JediKnight75

    JediKnight75 Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 15, 2011
    Thanks for the information :)
     
  24. The Positive Fan

    The Positive Fan Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 19, 2015
    Marvel is also reprinting them in a set of three really gorgeous, really expensive hardcovers. Taalcon posted a picture of one above. The Dark Horse Omnibus sets are far more economical, but those hardcovers are beautiful.
     
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  25. SatineNaberrie

    SatineNaberrie Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 28, 2014
    Some of the old marvel comics had interesting stuff, but I didn't like much of it. I think its worth looking into if your curious. I read them at the library.

    Some of it's kind of corny and I don't like He-man Luke look or cinnabun Leia, but its interesting to see Vader portrayal and some Luke moments.