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

Dodson manages to do realistic females without going too far into the cheesecake route. I don't doubt that this is to test the waters on how well a Leia-centric book will sell, or they could be keeping the third title slot open for a revolving door series of featured characters. I don't doubt that Marvel will want to see sales numbers and how it is received outside the echo chamber of fandom.

 

Technically, that was John Carter's take.

 

Only one issue though, right?

 

Yeah, pretty much. It's hard to get too worked up when Wood's Star Wars was sold on the same sort of "guys we're actually paying attention to the fact that her planet blew up" line. But I really am pleased that Leia is getting her own headlining miniseries after being restricted to playing second or third fiddle in ensembles for forever. She never gets her own stuff -- even her own EAR book ended up being an ensemble piece with Han -- and for her to finally have a title to herself feels good. It's new canon so I have a very hard time caring, but it feels good.

 

Unlike the other two, this one actually sounds quite interesting. Leia rarely gets enough time in the spotlight.

I haven't read Star Wood though, so have no idea what she was like there.

 

I read it and I'm not sure I know what she was like there.

 

It's not the title that would sell me this in a nice Panini trade, it's the combination of Waid and Dodson.

As Patch has posted, Dodson draws good looking women without the fool excesses of the superhero genre when it comes to body type and position.

And with Waid writing we might get an assertive Leia. It can be you read a SW story, Leia's in it and she's a one-note aggressive steamroller - where's the diplomacy? It's good that Leia can steamroller idiots of all variety, but she's also smart enough to know when the heavy end of a hammer isn't required! That's diplomacy. Even in ANH, once she was off the Death Star, Leia's demeanor altered, she was bossy to Luke, Han and Chewie when it was needed, but took her foot off the gas when it wasn't.

 

I got rather excited the concept of this one, even after Brain Wwod's Star Wars... but it being a 5 issue limited run is holding me back (maybe it's me realizing this won't canonized Winter from the EU, maybe it's me thinking Marvel is playing it safe and might not make as many star wars comics as dark horse and might make even less if sales are low 5 months down the line...)

Anyone else thinking Rieekan might get introduced here to Leia in this?

 

Although the face doesn't look like Carrie, I like the realistic proportions, yeah (read: she doesn't have bazooka boobs).

For all I enjoy Duursema's art, it grew a bit tiresome that nearly every female in most Star Wars comics needed to look hot, whereas I like that the cover image here makes Leia look a lot more like a woman on a mission, not a woman striking a sexy pose to sell comics to fanboys (Darth Talon I'm looking at you).

 

It's still a beautiful woman in skin-tight clothes holding a phallic weapon. Although I agree it's not Carmine Infantino.

 

She's not unattractive, no, but... the cover doesn't immediately make me think about sex, which too many artists insist on exploiting female characters for.

I'm not really seeing "phallic imagery" in the blaster either... I see a pistol. (If anything, it's a bit disturbing if people are always looking for sexual imagery the second they see a woman on a cover...)

 

Thank you for expressing my feelings, Jello.

(something about Star Wars just makes me the least eloquent person ever).

 

Terry Dodson previously did the comic adaptation of Dark Force Rising:

 

You're right, there is nothing phallic about Leia's extra-long barrelled gun...

 

Dodson is a pretty solid artist. I contend that he's the middle ground between Adam Hughes and Amanda Conner. His art isn't as realistic as Hughes but not as Cartoonish as Conner's tend to be.

Hughes


Conner


Dodson

 

Will be interesting see how the art changes from Dark Horse to Marvel.

 

I don't know anything about drawing, so I'm not trying to criticize or anything. But is there an explanation for why Leia looks nothing like Fisher?

 

Because Dodson can't do faces. All his women look the same.

 

Where are those Conner pics from?

 

I was thinking the same question - that's an interesting page.

 

Well, Leia was a pilot as far back as 1978, in Splinter of the Minds Eye, so it's not exactly a new ability for her. Squadron leader as in Star Wood was a bit odd for her, but pilot fits in quite well.

Yeah, how dare they give her a slender, long barrelled gun! It's clearly sexual subtext, and the strong feminist Leia of ANH would never be caught dead using something like that!



Err, they'll have to pry it out of her cold, stunned hands!

 

Sometimes a blaster pistol is just a blaster pistol.

 

Its from Star Wars: Art comics.

http://geek-news.mtv.com/2011/10/24/check-out-awesome-images-from-star-wars-art-comics/

 

I think that complaint has more weight with Hughes, tbh. Dodson is highly stylized but his faces are different, it's just that his style is so distinctive it carries over from character to character.

And I'm pretty sure she's supposed to have "helmet hair" in that pic; her normal tight buns messed up by her x-wing helmet, and to those who make comments about her piloting; she's flown starships since the beginning, all the way back to Splinter in the Mind's Eye. Wood's take of having her command an elite squadron was a little silly, but as it seems most everyone can fly a ship in the SWU, it's not a surprise that a rich princess would have had lessons in something a farm kid who's never been off his own planet does with ease.