In celebration of Star Wars Day, Laughing Place is starting an issue-by-issue analysis of the original Marvel Star Wars comic book, which launched in 1977. I’ll be going through each installment one at a time and giving my thoughts on any interesting choices or odd differences that stand out between the comic and the movie that inspired it, beginning with the six-issue adaptation of the very first Star Wars.
The original price for this comic book was 30 cents, though the reprint cover above reflects a fairly steep increase on that. It was written by Roy Thomas (The Avengers) and drawn by Howard Chaykin (American Flagg). Read along if you have access to the issue!
- Cover: Why would Luke Skywalker destroy the galaxy? Seems like an odd question to ask. I guess we didn’t know much about him at that point. (Note: this issue was published on April 12, 1977, more than a full month prior to the release of the movie.) Check out Luke and Obi-Wan’s red lightsabers, Han Solo’s yellow jacket, and Darth Vader’s green helmet. Strange indeed.
- Page 1: Roy Thomas has taken it upon himself to expand the famous opening title crawl ever so slightly: “It is a period of civil war… in the galaxy” and so forth. The remainder of the wording has been edited for this adaptation as well.
- Page 2 (panels 1-4): The action begins pretty much right away here, with explosions going off and chaos reigning. If one hadn’t seen the movie, it would be difficult to get a grasp on the layout of the Tantive IV and its hallways.
- Page 2 (panel 4): C-3PO says “There is no escape for the captain this time” instead of “for the princess” as he does in the movie. It’s possible some of these differences came from an earlier version of the script that Thomas had access to.
- Page 2 (panels 5-7): Luke looking up toward the space battle through his macrobinoculars is one of the film’s more famous deleted scenes.
- Page 4 (panel 1): “Overweight globe of grease” instead of “Overweight glob of grease.” A typo?
- Page 4 (panel 6): Leia puts up more of a fight against the stormtroopers here than she does in the film.
- Page 5: This is another famous deleted scene from Star Wars, with Luke meeting his friends Fixer, Camie, and Biggs Darklighter at the Tatooine city of Anchorhead. Note that their nickname for him is “Wormie.”
- Page 6 (panel 2): “Several transmissions were beamed to this ship by spies, who are now unfortunately dead.” Lord Vader must have seen Rogue One.
- Page 6 (panel 5): “Vaporize this ship. Don’t leave anything.” But he must have missed The Rise of Skywalker.
- Page 8: Biggs tells Luke he’s joining the Rebel Alliance. I always thought it was weird that a later Biggs scene on Yavin 4 was re-edited into A New Hope for its Special Edition release, but not this one. They would have made more sense together.
- Page 9 (panel 1): The word “Sith” is never spoken in the original Star Wars trilogy, but it was in this comic book!
- Page 9 (panel 2): With blonde hair, Tarkin looks much younger here than actor Peter Cushing did in 1977.
- Page 10 (panel 1): “The Cosmic Force” is an interesting way to put it, especially for the first time it’s mentioned.
- Page 12 (panels 2-4): Leia’s hologram isn’t blue and just looks like a little miniature version of her hovering in mid-air instead of a projection coming from R2.
- Page 14 (panel 1): I don’t think Anthony Daniels would have been capable of doing this move in the Threepio costume.
- Page 14 (panel 6): This calls Luke’s adoptive uncle Owen Lar instead of Owen Lars. Might be another typo.
- Page 17 (panel 6): The cliffhanger ending with the Tusken Raider threatening Luke’s life, but the text box at the bottom right promises us we’ll be on to Alderaan in the next issue! Will Alderaan be there when we get there? Find out tomorrow!
