Was reading the Graphic Novel version of the TTT and I noticed in the Last Command Leia holding her twins underneath a big portrait of this woman which looks exactly like Padme. Was that coincidence (and if so who was that portrait meant to be ?) or was she inserted into the story after TPM as an Easter egg ???
By the time the comic version of The Last Command was made, it was probably known that Natalie Portman had been cast for the Prequels, as the future mother of Luke and Leia. The author or artist may have decided to include her because of this.
It led to a lot of speculation as to whether Luke or Leia were aware that Padme was their mum before DNT.
I don't buy that it's supposed to be Natalie. Never have. It's always been presented as fact on the Wook and across fandom, which has always irked me. The Last Command Issue 5 was released in April '98. This was before anyone saw the first Episode I trailer, and the most recently we had seen Natalie in a movie was 1996's Mars Attacks!, where she was fourteen (see below) and still too young to look like the woman in that painting. After all three prequels were said and done, it was easy enough to look at that image and in retrospect say "It must have been Padme because it looks kinda like she did in the early 2000s" but since the artist didn't have a time machine, I think it more likely that it was supposed to be a picture of Leia.
You're probably right That then begs the question Who was that mean to be then, it just seemed a strange thing to draw in the picture
If it's not meant to be Natalie Portman, I don't understand why the artist would choose to design the panel this way.
Except it doesn't look like how Biukovic drew Leia. And Biukovic really has no reason to draw Leia hanging around in front of a giant portrait of herself. But it does look like, say, this publicity headshot circulating as of Portman's casting announcement: It looks like Portman, and Biukovic had enough reference to make it look like Portman. I don't think any other explanation makes sense.
I think it also makes sense given that it looks like Natalie Portman in a generic royal outfit, but not really anything close to what Naboo outfits looked like in the actual movie. It always made sense to me that the artist knew that Natalie Portman would be in TPM as Leia and Luke's mother, and would presumably be royalty, and so just drew her as that without being privy to any of the actual insider info.
