Lit Star Wars #1: In the Shadow of Yavin, Part 1 (of 6, not 3)

Yeah, really. It's sad that people don't see the potential problem with this practice.

 

I don't think it's anything distressing. Wookieepedia is fine for a broad view, which a writer in this era would need, and the editors should be able to catch any potential continuity problems (Dark Horse editors are much better than Del Ray's in this regard).

 

Hope I'm posting this in the right thread. Without any subtitles (well, calling it Star Wars: War probably wouldn't have helped ), took me a while to find this thread.

I decided to just get the digital version to see how it was and so far... pretty good. Not really anything groundbreaking or new, and maybe a few continuity questions (I'm not that good at keeping track of the hundreds of events between Yavin and Hoth) but overall, fantastic artwork, and I think Wood has a very good handle on all the characters' voices, or at least on certain aspects of their personalities, though whether its completely accurate for this time period, I leave that up to more knowledgeable posters.

I like it so far, great art makes up for the decent plot, and the writing is very good, nice to have a focus on characters talking, even if these are all such major characters so most of it has been covered before. I'm probably going to pick up at least the rest of this arc.

 

Just read it and it was really good. I've never read anything written by Wood before, so I was really surprised at how good of a job he did with the characters. And the classic dogfight action was exciting and the art in the entire book was well done. Can't wait for issue 2!

 

Do we see the Rebel Fleet in the issue? Is it out today?

--Adm. Nick

 

I hope we get a lot more discussion about the issue and it's quality in this thread, and a lot less continuity or fleet talk.

For me the issue was pretty great. It had that classic feel, and it was definitly very new comer friendly. Especially liked how it explained who and what the Rebel Alliance and Empire were to new readers. Wood seems to have a good handle on the characters, and the story set up things pretty nicely. Enough for me to come back next issue.

DH is really going for a broader audience here, and they did it withouth ignoring the fans or their precious continuity. If fact you can see how it's going to work. Randy said that Wood will not dismiss continuity, just ignore it. Thus we have our first example. The story of the escape from Yavin is never brought up at all. For fans you know that story, for new comers they can use simple logic and figure that with the Empire knowing where the Rebels were that it was time to leave and find a new home. That simple. So hopefully that will give some of hte continuity nonsense. As for more comics in an era already crammed. Oh well. Big 3 sale, and DH is going for a new audience which will hopefully bring in more money.

 

It's out today - get it stickied!

 

Yes. "They're heading for the medical frigate".

Onto the issue itself, it is another story with a familiar setup of post-ANH/pre-ESB era, but a rather good one, indeed. I was kinda surprised at how the narration seems to explain even the most basic things: what the Rebellion and the Empire are and how Luke, Leia, Vader etc fit into all this. These are things I have taken for granted even before touching the EU, but people who only ever saw the movies may find something new in there indeed.

As for continuity: Dominus (planet, system, sector) from TFU appears, Eriadu, Thyferra are Kuat mentioned. No need to fear a reboot indeed. No other references of note, but some nice character interaction moments.

Oh, and while the inside cover says "The events in this story take place shortly after the events in Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope", the dialogue in the comic itself establishes it as 2 months ABY. Is that enough time for Yavin base to be evacuated? I remember reading how it wasn't abandoned until 6 months ABY, but don't remember if it was a canon source.

 

To be fair it's not hard to look in the database and pull planet names and use them. Why make them up when their are already names you can use?

 

OK, couple of reviews from well known comics sites:

Newsarama - 10 out 10!

CBR - 4 stars out of 5!

And then Bleeding Cool, normally a haven of scum and villainy, posted these killer images of Leia in action, with commentary:

Spoiler

a downed Leia tracks the Tie Fighter that took her down.

Finds the craft in question….

And then finishes the job.

 

Wow. Brillant art Jedi Ben. I must look into this comic if I can.

 

Because they are used correctly? Kuat is a major shipyard, Eriadu is go-to place for black market and Dominus sector is at the edge of galactic map. I don't really care if the writer possesses demonstrating Luceno-class knowledge of EU, checks Wookieepedia for pre-established things he could use or e-mails Chee every time he needs to bring up something pre-established. What matters is that in the end, things are what they're supposed to be.

Compare that to TCW, who every so often pulls a name of an EU planet as a nod to the fans, but half of the time manages to screw the most vital characteristic of the planet royally, leaving behind a pile of continuity mess for Jason Fry to clean up and leaving us wondering, why did they bother with it in the first place, if they can't get it right?

 

Yeah, it's excellent, we apparently an artist who can do:

Luke, Han and Leia
Vader
Starships

All very well! That's rare! It's on the trade buy list for me, but I'll be paying very close attention to this and its successor threads. Hopefully, Wood doesn't short-change anyone either, I doubt he will, he's a bit too good to do that.

 

Nice! Any other ships shown?

--Adm. Nick

 

Other than the Falcon, the ISD, 3 X-wings, some TIE fighters and TIE interceptors, no.

_______________________________________________

Hey, just look what the author has to say about this:

I like this guy already

 

See? That is why, amongst other things, Brian Wood writing SW was a big deal to those of us who knew his work!

 

The only thing I didn't like was Vader's face looked somewhat pinched.

Other than that, I liked it.

 

Home One is mentioned as the Rebel flagship although its not seen. And several shots of the Falcon (although Han and Chewie aren't fully committed yet to the Rebellion), and plenty of excellent panels with TIEs and a few Star Destroyers (a very nice two-page image). Also they already used the word squint so that's a nice sign. Also, yay, Threepio being useful.

So far indicates a good deal of EU knowledge and handling, much better than TCW's random use of homonyms for a few things and just plain wrong references other times. Also at one point someone jokes about Corellian cruisers so that's very nice (funny it took years for something like the Warfare guide to bring it up again).

 

Sweet! Home One is mentioned? Any mention of Ackbar? How long after Yavin does this story take place? If we are at or after 1 ABY, that would be around the time that Ackbar took over as fleet commander.

--Adm. Nick

 

Pretty good so far, the dialog is kind of unusual for a SW comic though clearly Woods usual style translated to SW and it works pretty well.

 

Yep Home One is mentioned as Rebel Flagship and Ackbar is mentioned as Commander Ackbar

2 Months after Yavin

 

Fantastic continuity! At this point, Commander Ackbar would be just that, commander of the handful of MC80's that escaped Dac and serving as an "unofficial" admiral in the Rebel Navy. Brian Wood has definitely been doing his homework. Well done!

--Adm. Nick

 

The Death Star also already had prototype TIE Interceptor models on board, so should not really be a problem.

More like 5 from what I recall

 

So, from what people are saying, this was absolutely no different to any other decent EU work.