Lit Coop's MARVELous Voyage

The explanation someone came up with -- not in any official source -- was that way back when Luke fought Baron Tagge's lightsaber, he hung on to it. And between losing it and building a new one in Shadows of the Empire, he used that one.

By the way, in some official source, the Rebels' search for Tay Vanis and the Bothan tapes, etc, actually happen after Shadows of the Empire. So, the post-Shadows era starts around the Iskalon stories. I like to think it goes all the way back to the Stenos story, during which Luke is wearing an outfit very similar to his Shadows look.

Now, here's the part where I would love to point you to my article about the Nagai-Tof war, where I tried to make sense out of the story, fill in some gaps, etc. BUT it's one of the casualties of the loss of Hyperspace. Hopefully, some day that article and all the great stuff from Hyperspace will find another home!

 

Is it not even on archive.org, or is it one of those things where even the cache version is just the Hyperspace subscription link? Man, that's annoying. I would like to read that once I'm through that part of the series.

As for the lightsaber, I'd forgotten Tagge even had one...those issues were a long time ago. Is it at least blue? I agree about SotE, by the way--I think at the very least everything with Shira should be post-novel, if only because it's mostly one continuous story.

Damn it, Hav, don't tempt me with spoilers when I'm this close. But yeah, I definitely wasn't saying Dani gets a pass, I was saying that it's even worse because Duffy is a woman. Though I really am getting used to her--#90 went a long way to making her, Rik and Chihdo seem much more like real people.

Gorefiend--I have all the issues of Gamer already, which one is it? I'll dig it out when I'm done.

 

Actually his is orange, though he uses a red one in that duel.

#1 under the Marvel stuff were it explains various character's fates.

 

Yes. As someone who was a kid at the time, I remember this: The ROTJ Marvel Super Special #27 with the entire comic adaptation, the novelization by James Khan, and the ROTJ HC storybook all came out before the release of ROTJ in May 1983.

The 4-issue ROTJ mini-series (which reprinted the contents of Marvel Super Special #27) may have been cover-dated October 1983, but at that time Marvel would, for some inexplicable reason, date their comics 3-4 months after the actual release date. I know for a fact that the 4-issue mini-series came out sometime in the summer, since I remember getting all of these issues in a sealed plastic bag (we old-timers will remember this) in August 1983.

 

Then Wookieepedia's got it very wrong.

 

Maybe I'm misremembering Dani but I don't seem to recall all that much offensive about her. Yes, Leia is catty about the world's oldest profession but Dani seems a very strong female character. What happens to her is horrific but torturing comic book characters is pretty common. Let's not forget what Leia goes through at the hands of the Dark Lord in ANH.

 

Yes, that's it exactly. Any of the subscription areas aren't accessible because you'd need to log in to a now non-existent account to see it.

Just a reminder before you get to the very end of the series, there appears to be a big gap between #106 and #107 where a lot of that war happens. The story is that Duffy had a longer conflict planned, but the cancellation of the series forced a quick end. I got the opportunity to expand things and make up for it a bit.

 

Yeah, it already feels like there's more coming than I know there could be. Figures that just when they start plotting more than ten issues at a time the plug gets pulled.

 

the New Republic-Tof war needs to be explored!

 

Yes, but it's an easily understandable error. If you weren't around or weren't collecting comics at that time, you wouldn't know about the several-months-long gap re: the publication date. So, Wookiepedia is correct that the publication date listed in the comic is October 1983 (which is all they have to go by); however, the comic was actually released months earlier. This also goes for the other 3 issues. I actually speculate that they were all released at roughly the same time since, as I mentioned, I got all 4 issues in one bagged pack. This is something else that collectors/fans today wouldn't be aware of (unless you were around then). Marvel, DC, and other comic companies used to bag several comics in a pack, and sell them that way - usually at retail stores, etc.

Re: SW #81, I remember first seeing this in Fall 1983, and being surprised that Marvel was continuing the heroes' adventures after ROTJ (remember, this was before the Internet). The Return to Tattoine storyline was interesting, as well as Boba Fett's brief return. I also speculate that SW #81 inspired the re-appearance of Boba Fett in Dark Empire 1 (1992), by Dark Horse.

 

The website below is a great resource that shows cover date and release date. The release date seems to be fairly accurate, and is at least based on publication dates listed in Marvel Age and other magazines from the time. Some pages on Wookieepedia have the two different dates:
http://www.dcindexes.com/index.php?site=marvel

And those bagged comics you mentioned. I can't be sure with those specific issues, but many of the those bagged books are actually second printings. I've got a few G.I. Joe comics from back then like that. You can usually know by looking at the bottom of all the publishing info on the title page and it should actually say 'SECOND PRINTING'.

 

Issue 92

Luke finally got a new outfit, but the damn glove still has a hole right where the damage should be.

The "NR senate" meeting apparently includes a Vulcan this time.

Last time it came up, Luke didn't want to train Kiro, but now he's suddenly got a handful of recruits, including Barney and random dragon guy.

Oh, thank god--it's just basic meditation and stuff. The last thing I need is for Rik's gang to suddenly be Force-sensitive.

Denin...never heard of this guy.

Lord, Han just called Barney "the black kid". So our options are apparently no black people, or things like that. Though in fairness, Luke is "the blonde kid" and Lando is "the guy with the moustache".

How the hell has this guy heard about Yoda? That's a weird thing for Luke to have been spreading around.

Denin is all meditative for a second, then Leia shows up and he's right back to jackass.

Hey, Han and Leia are finally getting some sexy time. Took long enough.

Duffy's not that great at Yoda dialogue. But then, few are.

Sebastian Shaw! Continuity! Continuity!

Oh, Lord, is that Flint's armor? Bleh.

Interesting--even thirty years ago, Duursema was doing her close-up face rendering trick.

You know, I really know next to nothing about what's coming up with Flint--but simply the fact that Barney randomly came on this mission is telling me that he should be showing up any second now.

"You should have trained me Luke. I would be more help to you now." Dude, you were on Endor for like twelve hours.

Aaaaand re-enter Flint.

Denin is really...his sister? Is that what's happening here?

So this makes Flint the first person other than Han and Leia to learn that Vader was Luke's father. Interesting.

Okay, well, most of this issue was great. I liked all the Barney/Flint stuff, though the former's presence at this particular moment was awfully convenient. But Denin/Vila? Dumb dumb dumb.

Issue 93

"Sweetheart, when I see three against one, I draw my own conclusions about who the good guys and bad guys are." I love Han.

"When the Imperial leaders surrendered, some of 'em were eager to win points with our side fast. We got detailed maps showing just where all the major Imperial strongholds were." That actually makes a lot of sense--never thought about it that way. For every Imp who dug in and made himself a warlord, there was probably another who sold the first guy up the river.

Sami looks like the cat version of Westley from Princess Bride.

Man, Luke sure has been levitating a lot of people lately.

Gee, do you suppose the other guys are Rebels, too?

As obvious as the twist here was, the story overall was decent. I just hope there's a good reason for what Durne was doing.

Interesting--twice now the editors have mentioned that Domina Tagge will be showing up again, but according to the Wook that doesn't happen. She must have been a victim of the cancellation. They also promise some sort of update on Arbra in #100, so we'll see if that bears out.

Issue 94

Woo, Ewok cover! I like this one already.

This is the first issue by new regular penciller Cynthia Martin, and so far I like what I'm seeing--though I feel like the recoloring is helping more than usual on that score.

Aaand enter the creepy French bug guys.

Threepio: "It's so difficult to be a droid, and be expected to understand the social nuances of interaction between organic beings..." Dude, that's literally your exact job.

Ewok wearing a stormie helmet--one of those things I never realized I'd always wanted to see.

Okay, if the Lahsbees are all basically children, I don't even understand why they're still hanging around, let-alone having wars declared against them.

And now Han's arming them. Wonderful.

Good ol' Ewoks--even after the Huhk shows up they're still game for a fight.

Moral of this story: if there's a big bomb about to go off, smash it with a rock.

From the letters page: "Lumiya will be back next issue [...] and we guarantee you that Shira Brie will be back among us by issue #100.

Issue 95



FINALLY.

It was kind of ambiguous for a while there, but it looks like this series' official name for the post-Rebellion gov't is the "Alliance of Free Planets". Which is odd, because "New Republic" seems like pretty obvious conclusion to me.

Gah, Lumiya's prisoner just became Lando for a panel. One more reason not to give black-haired characters moustaches.

While I'm happy to see male Zeltrons for once--"Bahb" and "Jahn"?

The Zeltrons think Han is Lando.

So Kiro and Dani are officially a thing now?

Luke to Kiro and Dani: "Don't be dumb."

Dani's outfit is 80s-tastic, BTW.

I don't know what Leia's upset about, I think the Zeltrons' half-dress is a great idea.

Wait, holy ****, she's actually wearing it??

Han's brilliant escape plan is for Leia to pretend to faint. Y'know, being a woman and all.

It's amusing that they're just calling all the Nagai "Knives".

I expected the Zeltron stuff to be annoying, but I really liked the way this issue handled the two plots--and started jumping between them faster and faster as the action heated up. It's such a staple of the films, but it doesn't seem like they did much of it in comics in those days.

Issue 96

OH MY GOD DO MORE FIGHT SCENES LIKE THIS

Best quote of the whole series, re: Zeltrons: "A pack of adolescents is virtually a force of nature."

"Party dresses? I must have the wrong box."

On that note, I love seeing this issue rely so much on the last one; to the point of even backing up and re-telling parts of the second half of #95. It's nothing too bold by modern standards, but it's worlds beyond what I'm used to here.

Oh, damn, Luke already figured out who she is. Cool.

Well, I was looking forward to this issue from the very beginning and it did not disappoint--in no small part thanks to Cynthia Martin, who showed up just in time. The only thing that kind of bugs me is Luke cobbling his shoto together from basically nothing; I'm hoping someone has retconned Iskalonian stingers as using similar crystals (which could actually help explain how strong they are), otherwise I don't see how that could have worked. Also, the Nagai fleet is pretty cool, and for once only a small minority of the ships are ripoffs of other ones.

Oh, and some idiot wrote in to say he didn't like the cover of #92, and the editors tease that Leia may be "learning the Force" soon. I'll believe it when I see it.

UP NEXT!! More Nagai!! A Goodwin/Williamson issue!! And the one where Han threatens to destroy a planet!!

 

I maintain that this is more or less how the Post-Battle of Endor Rebellion went.

1. Imperials start bickering over who is in charge.
2. The fleet gets re-arranged.
3. Lots of worlds find themselves without the Empire.
4. Lots of worlds join the Rebellion in absence of their Ant Overlords.
5. The people from this worlds proceed to kill their commanders and take their fleets to join the Rebellion.
6. The Rebellion suddenly has a vast Navy.
7. The Empire has no idea what the hell just happened.

 

Well besides... Owen, Beru, Obi-Wan, Yoda, Bail, Breha, the Emperor and of course Xizor

 

Issue 97

While I'm happy to finally see the Empire playing a role again, they seem to be suggesting that the stormtroopers here are just sort of a renegade army with no higher command structure. I'll be surprised if even an ISD turns up.

Wait, one of them just referred to Firefist as "our home galaxy". So even some of the apparent stormies and just more Nagai.

The Nagai have some random humans working with them in addition to stormtroopers.

Is it wrong that I'm happy to see Dani getting tortured a little? Hopefully she'll be a little more...tempered when this is over.

Kiro: "...let us go, and the Nagai will be the ones who are sunk." Seems to me the word "sunk" would have a different meaning to an aquatic species.

Nice to finally see a mind trick in this series. And against three people--this may be the most powerful Luke moment so far.

Oh, lord...the Zeltron mimbos are sticking around for a while, aren't they?

Okay, I'm fairly certain Kiro's not actually dead but I admit I don't know how this works out. The flower certainly isn't a good sign.

Oh, and speaking of Luke's power level--the editors, in response to a letter: "Luke, as a Jedi Knight, probably could, in fact, lift the entire Millennium Falcon and its contents." .

Issue 98

And now for something completely different--the return of Goodwin/Williamson, in their first EU story since, I think, the newspaper strips?

The cover appears to depict a stormtrooper fighting the Rocketeer.

Man, Al Williamson just loves drawing those little frog guys.

Finally, the first post-Endor appearance of a Star Destroyer.

Lando using his business experience! It's a miracle!

Nice to finally see an acknowledgement that the Rebel fleet didn't exactly make it out of Endor in one piece, either.

I definitely recognize the name Vandelhelm, but I can't remember from where.

Admiral Mordur looks like Adam Driver from Girls.

Seeding smuggling routes with asteroids is actually a pretty good idea.

"But it would require an unbelievable pilot to get anything through those asteroids..." "No doubt something similar was said aboard both your Death Stars!" For reals, though.

Paging the Fashion Thread--I really wish I could find a full-body shot of Orrk's outfit, because it is fantastic.

Han keeps calling Nien Nunb by his full name. It's giving me Ostrander flashbacks.

I liked this one a lot--it even had a nice level of Imperial involvement without any iffy continuity. Kind of makes me wonder what else Goodwin and Williamson might have come up with if they hadn't been busy on the film adaptations.

Issue 99



Fun story: my comic shop guy has a little box by his register with an assortment of higher-value issues in it--and right at the front of it is this thing. That means that every single week for months now, I've had to sit there and look at it while I make my weekly purchase, without having any idea what the context for that crazy cover is. And now here I am, at last, and even having read all 98 issues preceding this one, I still have no idea what's going on. Next Wednesday is going to be weird.

High on my list of what-ifs surrounding the sudden cancellation of this series: exactly how long would the Rebels have stuck around on Endor? Would some version of Coruscant ever have entered the picture? Or in lieu of any official word on the matter, would Endor have become the official capital of the Alliance government?

Luke on Dani and Kiro: "She loved him, Lando...really loved him." Not like the thirty issues she spent fawning over you, in other words?

And Shysa's back. I'm glad he's got non-Boba-colored armor this time, but orange and white? He almost looks like a Rebel pilot.

Incidentally, this series (or at least Duffy) uses the word "system" the way ANH uses "parsec". Whenever it comes up, I've taken to just mentally substituting "sector".

Wow, the series that's terrified of confusing people just used a footnote to say that part of the story won't be told until two issues from now.

Whatever this Bey person's deal is, he was friends with Han growing up. Lovely.

Oh, Bey is Eyepatch Guy. Got it.

Man, good thing the Goboans were lucky enough to have Han Solo come by and explain their planet to them.

Oh, lord, it's the statues again. Nice continuity, anyway.

Just realized Luke is back in his RotJ black. Been a while.

Hm. Well, I'm not sure how I feel about all this. On the one hand, it is crazy that they'd randomly decide not to let Han and the others back into the temple just a couple hours after saving everybody. On the other hand, Han and Luke and what appears to be all of Rogue Squadron being ready to lay waste to the whole city just to get at the temple is also crazy, especially when it was their own fault that Lando wasn't inoculated. And on the other other hand, Fumiyo kept saying it was his leaders' decision and he had no power to change it, yet he arbitrarily lets them come back at the last second anyway, and doesn't seem overly concerned about the consequences.

Having said all that, though, this was a pretty good issue until the last few pages. Drebble's genuine redemption was cool and for once I liked how much stuff was packed into the one issue. Nowadays a story like this could take four or five issues, which can either be great or awful.

Also, someone on the letters page agrees with me about not allowing the Lahsbees to hang around on Endor.

Issue 100

...is Han pulling a Kobayashi Maru?

You know, I'm surprised that Crispin didn't address the Bey thing in the HST. Unless she did and I've just forgotten about it.

Holy crap, am I looking at a young Han flashback?

Bloodstripes, nice. I always forget how long those have been around.

Oh, wow, they actually are leaving Endor. Shows what I know.

As silly as this piloting test thing is, I actually like it from a philosophical standpoint--the contrast between Han's rough-and-tumble smuggler sensibilities and his role as a military officer is something that he should be dealing with right now; and something that could've been a much bigger part of the NR era.

Heh, there's an Ewok named "Tippet". Don't think I'd ever caught that before.

I'm guessing the Nagai's secret ally is Bey, but I do know French Bug Guy comes back at some point, so I guess he's also possible.

Yep, it's Bey. Why else bother with the flashbacks, I guess.

Huh, that's weird. When Bey tells Han "Even as a child, you were the biggest man I've ever known", the word bubble is way bigger than the text itself--which is bunched up at the top, and "I've ever known" looks like it was hand-written in later. It's either a very poorly-arranged bubble, or the line was originally a lot longer. It's like that in the original issue, as well. It would be cool to know what happened there.

So the Nagai were specifically waiting to see which side of the GCW came out on top before invading. Makes sense.

What the hell ship is Lando flying here? I would've assumed he'd be in the Cobra.

Maccabrees--well, that was weird.

Well, there you have it--just one issue after I finished whining about it, the Alliance is officially off Endor. The rest of the issue was okay, too.

Issue 101

Top of page two: Han's hand is on top of his speech bubble. Weird.

I didn't like Han calling the Hoojibs "vermin" for a second, but then I remembered that he wasn't around when they came into the picture. Still iffy, but I can see some logic to it.

Fenn's back in Boba colors. I know this is a flashback story, but I'm just gonna pretend he's still in the orange and white and ignore the latest rehashing of "Oh no! It's Boba Fett!"

The sequence of these issues is pretty interesting--I'm assuming this story was originally supposed to be told in sequence but was bumped in order to get the big double-length story in #100. But #98, where this would normally have gone, was the Goodwin/Williamson one-shot. Normally that's the kind of thing that happens to give the regular team time to catch up on their ongoing story, but that doesn't seem to make sense here unless they deliberately had Cynthia Martin working on #99-100 first. It feels like they'd originally plotted the main arc to go straight through to 100 but then had to squeeze Goodwin/Williamson in there...but why? Couldn't they just have put that story in #101? Was there some contractual reason it had to run in #98? I'd love to know the behind-the-scenes deal here.

And now, randomly, horses.

Sigh; they just had to squeeze one more lazy quasi-medieval planet full of white people in there before the series ended.

The Falcon landed upside-down, and sure enough, everyone falls to the ceiling--because it's not like it's got artificial gravity or anything.

Oh, good, at least there's one tide-locked planet still in continuity.

I know I've beat this drum already, but I still don't get how the hoojibs can talk to droids.

I will admit that this is kind of interesting as a mirror image of the John Carter story with Leia missing Han.

The people on this planet are explicitly called humans earlier, yet the vizier still just referred to Han as an "alien". How ethnocentric.

Okay, having finished the story now, I can kind of see why they might have placed it out of sequence with the story leading into #100, but it still feels pretty unnecessary. I would have much preferred to spend this time with Fenn and Bey, which is what I thought this issue would be.

UP NEXT!! Kiro returns!! Nagai!! Hoojibs!! Hiromi!! THE FINAL ISSUE!!

 

Am I to assume that is a case of the cover not matching the actual issue? Or did General Han Solo call in what appears to be a good chunk of the Alliance Fleet and threaten to destroy an alien world?

Speaking of which, Coop, any shots of the Rebel Fleet?

--Adm. Nick

 

For the purposes my article, I decided that Lando was actually flying the Cobra. It looked to me like the art was depicting a very stylized version of the ship. Which would go along with the rest of the ships. I really like Martin's art, but she never managed to have the ships look very accurate.


By the way, #100 is my favorite of these late issues. We see a lot of the Rebels' base on Endor and a lot of characters. Plus, some of the art on later issues -- especially the last issue, I'm sorry to say -- looks a bit rushed. In "The Forgotten War," I focused a lot of time on the battle in that issue, too, since it's the only large scale battle of the war we actually see. I also focused on filling in more of Bey's back story, including mentioning that Han is 9 years old in the scene where Bey saves him from the bullies. Incidentally, my biography of Bey dates back several years earlier. A handful of sentences in there were probably written seven or eight years before the article was published.

Didn't mean to hijack the thread. Just can't help but think about the details reading these posts. I studied these issues very closely for a few months.

 

Not at all--one of my favorite things about this read-through is finishing a story and going back to see what things have been retconned over the years.

Nick--the gist of the cover is accurate, but it's not a literal depiction of the actual scene. The fleet is there, more or less, but they're incidental to the Lando situation. If I were you I'd look into #98; lots of awesome Williamson fleet art in there, including the first ISD in ages.

 

Funny how Han Solo spends a lot of this series going after ancient treasures and raiding temples.

Eh?

 

Interesting! Are the ships shown in the fleet actual Rebel designs, or Marvel-esque kitbash ships?

--Adm. Nick

 

Those kitbash are canon! CAPITAL SHIP UGLIES!

*Nick screams in horror*

 

Mostly "real" ships, but the plot revolves around a barge convoy that seems like new designs to me.

 

You are a horrible person

Marvel was still no go at the time, otherwise I am pretty sure she would have thrown in a reference during his childhood.

You mean when he keeps quitting being a military officer every other week?

Funny enough, it has been mentioned most switch artificial gravity off once they land, as it can apparently destroy the machines responsibly for it, if they have to keep fighting planetary gravity for to long.

 

That's not quite true. Marvel references were less prominent back then, but Rik Duel does appear in one of Crispin's books. I guess it's possible it was discouraged, but she may have decided against it, too.

And I'm not sure if there ever really was a "no Marvel" rule. I think it was more than no one was required to pay any attention to those stories, and they didn't dictate what was done in the newer EU. In the years before those Han Solo books, Marvel references showed up in a few RPG sources, and the original Essential Guide to Characters was full of them.

Years back, I used to have an updated Marvel references list on my site. By 2009 I stopped updating it because Marvel stuff was everywhere. The Legacy comics had a Zeltron and a Nagai as regular characters. But, at the risk of more self-promotion, here's the last version of that list. It became surprisingly big at the end. Note how many references already appear in the early '90s:

http://www.myuselessknowledge.com/sw/swmarvel.html