Hello and welcome to Laughing Place’s continuing weekly analysis of Marvel’s original Star Wars comic book. Issue #7 was released on October 11, 1977, and is notable in that it is the first installment to not be a direct adaptation of the Star Wars movie. For that reason it is often considered one of the first entries in the Star Wars Expanded Universe (the first part of another comic story starring Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia entitled “The Keeper’s World” was also published in Marvel’s Pizzazz magazine around the same time). Below I’ll go through the issue panel-by-panel and point out any interesting tidbits or oddities that stick out to me.
- Cover: “At last! Beyond the movie! Beyond the galaxy!” The wanted poster isn’t really representative of anything that happens in this issue. Han calls the weapon a “laser-gun” instead of a blaster.
- Page 1: The story picks up right after the events of the film, with Han Solo and Chewbacca bidding farewell to Luke, Leia, and the droids to head off on their own adventures. Luke mentions that the Rebellion is scouting for a new world to become its base, a theme that will recur in more contemporary Star Wars comics. Han does also say that he plans to reconnect with his friends after he’s done what he has to do.
- Page 2 (panel 2): “I’d give my star-spurs to stay there…” is an interesting expression. As Wookieepedia notes, “Jabba the Hutt” was spelled with only one “t” until Return of the Jedi. Here Han mistakenly says Jabba lives on Dantooine instead of Tatooine.
- Page 2 (panel 3): Now Han has the name of the planet right as he and Chewie set course for Mos Eisley.
- Page 4 (panel 5): Han says “X-Wingers” instead of “X-Wings” or “X-Wing Starfighters.”
- Page 5 (panel 1): This panel introduces the first original characters invented for the Marvel Comics Star Wars series– a band of space pirates led by Crimson Jack.
- Page 6 (panel 3): And so Han and Chewie lose their reward for rescuing Princess Leia almost immediately after having received it.
- Page 7 (panel 1): Aduba-3 is the first planet invented for the Marvel Comics series.
- Page 7 (panel 4): They have Sunday School in Star Wars?
- Page 8 (panel 1): Star Wars beat Star Trek to the use of the word “Borg” by over a decade.
- Page 9 (panel 1): This Bantha looks more like a dinosaur than the woolly mammoth-like creatures we see in the films.
- Page 9 (panel 2): A mention of the fictional language High Galactic, which in the current Star Wars canon has come to mean the use of the written English alphabet instead of Aurebesh.
- Page 13 (panel 5): The caption says there are fifteen separate words for “violence” in the Wookiee vocabulary. I feel like Wookiees have come to be portrayed as somewhat more peaceful than that over the years.
- Page 14 (panel 6): I wonder what “holy-book” this space priest is referring to.
- Page 16 (panel 2): Similarly, I also wonder about the “gods of space” mentioned in the caption here.
- Page 17 (panel 1): “What’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this– I hope!” Does he hope she’s nice, or hope she’s a girl?
- Page 17 (panel 4): Chewbacca is really into these decidedly non-Wookiee ladies.
- Page 17 (panel 6): “Next issue: Trouble in paradise!”
