Comics Princess Leia (Marvel) #1, part 1 (of 5)

Published: March 04, 2015
Rating: Rated T
Cover Artist: Terry Dodson
When Princess Leia Organa was captured by the Empire as a Rebel spy, she never betrayed her convictions, even in the face of the complete destruction of her home world, Alderaan. When her rescue came, she grabbed a blaster and joined the fight, escaping back to the Rebel Alliance and helping strike the biggest blow against the Empire—the destruction of the Death Star. But in the aftermath of that victory, the question remains...what is a princess without a world? Writer Mark Waid (Daredevil, S.H.I.E.L.D.) and artist Terry Dodson (Avengers & X-Men: Axis, Uncanny X-Men) bring us a story of Leia’s quest to help her people and find her place in the galaxy.



Star Wars: Princess Leia, from Waid and Dodson, follows the Disney princess as she comes to terms with the destruction of her homeworld, Alderaan, and goes around kicking butt.

http://www.starwars.com/news/sdcc-2014-inside-marvels-new-star-wars-comics-exclusive

StarWars.com: So I know you can’t say much, but what can you tell us about your series?

Mark Waid: Basically, the nugget of the idea I seized on is — once the Death Star is defeated, once all the adrenaline dies down, once all the medals are given out and Leia gets a chance to take a half step back — the emotional impact of losing absolutely everything you know, everything about your culture, everything about your family, all in one fell swoop. That’s something we just don’t have the time to deal with in Episode IV and V. That, I find really captivating, because that’s got to be the lowest moment in her entire life and a character is really defined by how they react in the lowest moment of their life. In this case, she has to actively choose: Will I be princess of nothing, and sort of just ride along in the Rebel Alliance and subsume myself to them, or is there a responsibility that comes with the title of Princess even though there are no subjects or royal house anymore.

It doesn’t take but two minutes of screen time to pretty much demonstrate to you that Leia is clearly one of those people who was born 20 years old. You know? That she clearly had and still has a very strong sense of responsibility. It’s so obvious from everything she says and does. So, our story is about Leia not long after the end of Episode IV deciding, “Well, as the princess, there are still responsibilities that fall to me, like making contact with any stray Alderaanians out there who may not know what happened. It is my job as princess to deliver the bad news. It is my job to bring those who survived by being in other places, together. It is my job to help preserve some sort of cultural heritage of my people, so that everything my planet stood for and everything my people stood for doesn’t get forgotten.” So it’s a five-issue story [arc] that takes her across the galaxy in search of others of her kind to try and pull them together. Of course, some of them are going to be suspect, because they suspect this could be some sort of weird trap by the Empire. Some of them are going to be very angry, as they rightly or wrongly blame the house of Organa for what happened. Obviously, Leia will be traveling as low profile as she possibly can. If and when the Empire gets wind of the fact that Leia is doing is this, they’re going to be very interested themselves in what she’s doing, what she thinks she’s doing, and what information there is to be mined from these people.

 

This sounds the most interesting of the three. It's nice to see some actual acknowledgement that having your planet blown up would be hard to deal with.

 

This. Everything else has had Leia get over Alderaan's destruction, and the deaths of her adopted family, way too quickly.

 

This is now the time for their sorrows, to paraphrase Leia's line.

For that matter, I'd like to see Luke deal with the deaths of his adopted family, plus Biggs and the rest of Red Squadron.

 

Is that Mara Jade in a wig on the cover?

 

SPACE PRINCESS!

 

This has potential.
Now if we can get a Princess Leia story after ROTJ.

 

I'm kind of excited about this one. It's a clear choice, but still something we haven't really had, a dedicated, ongoing comic to Leia. Wait, will it be ongoing or limited?

 

Limited, a 5-issue miniseries I believe. Ok cover art, if the story is good (and Waid has written a lot of good stuff, so we'll see) this could turn out to be interesting. Of course, Star Wood started out sounding interesting and look how that turned out. So here's hoping this one will turn out more original than the other two generic series they announced.

 

How long before we get a rehash of this, do you think?

 

Why the need to make her a pilot? is leadership and diplomacy so outdated and boring?

 

Well it's not like "a pilot" will be her defining character trait. She probably just flies something at some point.

 

Mark Waid. Hell yes.

 

I wonder if this will be marketed a bit as a "girls like SW too" product, especially with the Disney Princess angle.

 

I hate that it takes place right after ANH, like everything else for, but I like that Leia getting her own comic series. Would be interesting to see it continue throughout the whole trilogy, maybe ending shortly after Jedi. Cover is sweet, too.

 

Who's on the cover?

Also, I feel like I have read this story at least thrice. On a positive note, at least Leia is getting some attention.

 

At least there's one Marvel title that feels mildly original, and why on earth this is not a monthly title is beyond me. Gee here's a crazy idea... take the monthly series and mash it with this and chronicle the post-ANH stories from Leia's perspective. At least it's different.

Yancy

 

Assuming that's a crashed starship behind Leia, perhaps she also inherited her father's crashing piloting abilities?

 

Will be interesting to see what happens with the remaining Alderaanians.

 

Mark Wait writing Star Wars, Nice.

Interesting idea.

 

Anakin Skywalker, everybody. Best pilot in the galaxy, worst lander in the galaxy.

 

Other than this

I love this and can't wait to see more. Exciting!

But I have to say I'm a little wary based on the cover art for this - I'm really not interested in some of the femme fatale art that Leia got in Star Wars Empire. I much prefer the Rebel Heist-interpretation - she's attractive which she can use to her advantage but her main competence lies elsewhere.

 

It's been done...

 

Yes, but that was Marvel's take on it. They had their chance, now Marvel's material is non-canon. Finally, we'll get to see Marvel's take!