Category Star Wars

Jan 4 2016

Chewbacca 5

chewbacca 5

Today, Taylor and Patrick are discussing Chewbacca 5, originally released December 30th, 2015.

Taylor: In the new Star Wars movie, it’s apparent that director J.J. Abrams wanted to make Chewbacca a more rounded character. The need for doing this is plain – Chewbacca is one of the main characters in the Star Wars movies, but he’s little more than Han Solo’s charismatic shadow. Abrams rounds out Chewbacca by having him interact with more characters than just Han and by also giving him more heroic things to do like blasting stormtroopers. For the most part I find this to be a fairly successful venture into Chewbacca’s character. He’s portrayed as being important but not to the point that his language barrier interferes with things at all. The Chewbacca comic series similarly attempts to flesh out this character, but as issue 5 highlights, it is not nearly as successful as Episode 7.

Continue reading →

Dec 1 2015

Chewbacca 4

chewbacca 4

Today, Michael and Taylor are discussing Chewbacca 4, originally released November 25 2015.

Michael: Remember in Revenge of the Sith when Anakin Skywalker was arguing that from his point of view the Jedi were evil and we all laughed?  Flawed storytelling aside I think comic book fans can agree that the big difference between heroes and villains is their perspective. “History is written by the victors” is probably an overused statement but nonetheless true. Simple Star Wars logic dictates: Rebel Alliance = good, Galactic Empire = bad. I’m not sympathizing with The Empire here, but Chewbacca 4 had me examining the actions of our “heroes.”

Continue reading →

Sep 28 2015

Kanan – The Last Padawan 6

kanan 6

Today, Patrick and Andy are discussing Kanan – The Last Padawan 6 originally released September 23rd, 2015

star wars div

Patrick: I don’t think there’s a franchise out there that is as saddled with its own historical baggage as Star Wars. There are certainly series and characters that have been around longer and have more content in the histories (I mean, we do write about DC and Marvel here), but none of those have histories that are as visible as Star Wars. Everyone knows that little Anakin grows up to be Darth Vader, everyone knows that Luke is Vader’s son, etc. As such, part of the “Star Wars experience” is dealing with expectations, both negative and positive. On his first trip back to Planet Kaller as an adult, Kanan confronts similar expectations head-on, and even as he’s haunted by the ghosts of the past, nothing plays out exactly how he expects it would. Continue reading →

Sep 16 2015

Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Shattered Empire 1

Shattered empire 1

Today, Patrick and Andy are discussing Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Shattered Empire 1, originally released September 9th, 2015

star wars div

“Star Wars is the saga of good vs. evil, divided into nine parts.”

-George Lucas, 1994

“It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I’ve always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime.”

-George Lucas, 2012

Patrick: George Lucas’ original Star Wars trilogy is heavily influenced by just about every archetype-establishing institution in the book: westerns, serials, samurai stories, myths. They are clear stories of good vs. evil, strictly adhering to tenants of Joseph Campbell’s Hero With A Thousand Faces. In 1977, that made those films the sum total of popular fiction to that point – a perfect distillation of the hero triumphing over forces of darkness. That’s an over simplification, of course: Taxi Driver came out the year before A New Hope, after all. But what Lucas did so well in his original film was channeling the simple, clear morality of popular fiction. Almost 40 years later and morality in popular fiction isn’t so clear – neither is the morality of war. Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, Mad Men, Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, two different Gulf Wars – today’s storytellers have a different responsibility to their audience than Lucas did. Greg Rucka and Marco Checchetto’s Shattered Empire embraces this shift, focusing more on the insane fog of war surrounding the bit-players that supported the main heroes of the original trilogy. Continue reading →

Aug 26 2015

Star Wars Round-Up: Star Wars 8 and Kanan – The Last Padawan 5

star wars roundup 2

Today, Patrick, Michael and Spencer discuss Star Wars 8, and Kanan – The Last Padawan 5.
star wars div

Patrick: One Star Wars series wraps up a story arc while the other kicks off a fresh one! They’re interesting points of comparison: Kanan 5, being the end of something, delivers information and catharsis, with a clean thematic unity, while Star Wars 8 more tepidly tests the waters, both in terms of theme and plot. Luckily, both issues are emotionally honest, and brimming with personality.

Continue reading →

Aug 3 2015

Star Wars 7

star-wars-7

Today, Patrick and (guest writer) Elliott are discussing Star Wars 7, originally released July 29th, 2015.

star wars div

Patrick: Comic books are the go-to medium for fleshing out stories and characters set up in movies, TV shows and video games. There’s always going to be a Firefly comic or something featuring Lara Croft – and 90% of the time, those series are filling in gaps in the narratives. And those gaps — those times before or after or during the main stories are usually filled with precisely that: more narrative. That’s not fair to comic books as a medium, which move in their own rhythms and will always be compared to the storytelling prowess of the original. We’ve had a ton of conversations on this site about what we even want from these things: Star Wars isn’t just a set of aliens and some colloquialisms about the Kessel Run, it’s the music, the motion, the sound effects, the light, the performances. Star Wars 7 is an interesting issue; it fills in gaps in the narrative we’re already reading, which in and of itself is filling in gaps in a different narrative altogether. But rather than letting the necessarily weak plot drive the issue, writer Jason Aaron imagines what Obi-Wan Kenobi must have felt during his years on Tatooine, and builds a story out from there. Continue reading →

Jul 2 2015

Princess Leia 5

princess leia 5

Today, Patrick and Taylor are discussing Princess Leia 5, originally released July 1st, 2015.

Patrick: Love it or hate it, I’m a Wisconsin boy – born, raised, and educated. It’s a weird culture to grow up in, but it’s an even weirder culture to have to carry with you for the rest of your life. There are some awesome parts of being from Wisconsin, like an enthusiastic beer culture or an emphasis on education or the outdoors. Plus there’s the general air of friendliness that permeates my every visit to the homestead. But man, oh man, there are also a ton of drawbacks to that cultural identity: a meatheaded obsession with sports (specifically, the Green Bay Packers), unhealthy and frequently disgusting cuisine, and a bunch of casual institutionalized racism. And every person I meet is surprised that I’m not some backwoods, smalltown hick. Worse are the negative characteristics I actually take with me wherever I go, like juvenile appetite for dairy products and that irrepressible accent. Throughout the course of Princess Leia, Mark Waid and Terry and Rachel Dodson have presented us with Leia’s cultural identity, and with the final issue boldly declares that being Alderaanian is a powerful thing. Love it and hate it. Continue reading →