Hello and welcome to Laughing Place’s issue-by-issue analysis of Marvel original Star Wars comic book. Issue #5 was released on August 10, 1977, about two and half months after the film arrived in theaters. Let’s go through this installment panel by panel and pick out any interesting oddities or notable differences from the movie, shall we?
- Cover: As Wookieepedia points out, the events depicted on this cover never occur in the film or even in the pages of the comic adaptation, making it quite a bit misleading. The Death Star never fires on the rebel base and nobody speaks any of this dialogue. Even the caption “Luke Skywalker Strikes Again!” is dubious.
- Page 1: This issue’s title “Lo, the Moons of Yavin!” sure is an overly poetic way of saying our heroes get to the rebel base.
- Page 2 (panel 1): “Almost instantly, Luke finds himself setting into the laser cannon…” The caption makes it seem like Luke has been teleported into the Millennium Falcon’s gun turret.
- Page 2 (panel 2): Han evidently sees himself as an “erstwhile”– meaning former– space-smuggler. Interesting, considering at this point in the movie he still plans to grab his reward and head back out to his regular life.
- Page 2 (panel 4): “Here come the TIE Fighters!” isn’t quite as catchy and to-the-point as “Here they come!”
- Page 2 (panel 5): This drawing of a TIE Fighter pilot is kind of haunting, though the uniform is definitely off-model.
- Pages 2-4: Luke trying to use the Force during the TIE Fighter attack doesn’t really come up in the movie, but it’s an interesting and sensible addition to this adaptation.
- Page 5 (panel 4): Han calls the Falcon “ship” instead of “baby.” Just a weird little change that makes a big difference for his character.
- Page 6 (panel 1): I want to say this is the first official source that ever mentioned Han was from Corellia, but that factoid may also be in the Star Wars novelization.
- Page 6 (panel 2): To what or whom is Han praying, I wonder?
- Page 9 (panel 1): I don’t think “undoubtably” is a word… should be “undoubtedly.”
- Page 9 (panels 2-4): I guess Han is indeed still in it for the money.
- Page 10 (panels 3-4): The Falcon’s cockpit looks huge here.
- Page 15 (panel 4): Leia kisses Luke on the lips again here instead of on the cheek like in the film.
- Page 15-16: This Biggs sequence was another deleted scene that got reinserted back into the movie for the 1997 Special Edition.
- Page 15 (panel 6): Red Squadron has been changed to Blue Squadron for some reason.
- Page 16 (panel 1): These lines about “Blue Leader” (AKA Garven Dreis) having met Luke’s father when he was a boy was shot for the film but edited out of the Special Edition version of this scene.
- Page 17 (panel 3): Another mention of parsecs, appropriately as a measure of distance.
- Page 17 (panel 4): “Next issue: The final chapter?” We’ll find out next week!
