Comic Review: Star Wars (Marvel) #1

Talk about starting over. So how is Marvel's return of the Jedi? Let's find out.

Picking up shortly after the destruction of the Death Star, the Rebels decide to take a risk and land a small group at the Empire's Weapons Factory Alpha. With Han Solo posing as an emissary of Jabba the Hutt's, he manages to sneak in with Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and R2-D2 to the facility and begin setting the station to blow up when the Empire's own representative arrives-Darth Vader! Throw in the discovery of slaves on in the factory, a failed attempt on Vader's life and their only hope being C-3P0 in the Millennium Falcon and you can say it...I got a bad feeling about this...

Since this is the restart of the whole "expanded universe" pretty much put everything aside and enjoy the ride since the issue is a strong and fun throwback to the classic trilogy. Capturing the feel of those films without bogging down in minutiae, writer Jason Aaron captures the personalities of the characters and delivers a slam-bang opening to the series that fans will enjoy. I don't want to spoil all the surprises but there is enough there to entice fans while being easy to follow for newcomers.

Helping to tell the story is the excellent artwork by John Cassaday, who manages to recreate the characters and make them familiar to fans. The backgrounds are nice and solid, the action well-rendered and there is enough style to spare. In short a great, colorful effort that brings back everything except John Williams' score.

With the renewed interest in the franchise it's a good thing Marvel got this right. But to have it be more than just another media tie-in is a bonus I wasn't expecting. If you can put your feelings aside about the past, then the Force is really strong with this one. Have fun and I'll see you guys and girls later.