As discussed in my last post, I've been a Star Wars fan
for as long as I can remember. I was but a sprout when Episode IV was first
screened on ITV and captured my imagination and heart. Star Wars was my world.
Well, Star Wars and comics. More specifically, Star Wars and Marvel...
But until last week I had never read a Star Wars comic in my
life (let alone read an EU novel). Which seems ridiculous – surely this would be
a perfect synthesis of my interests? For some reason, I've always been repulsed
by the very idea of it. I've never quite been able to put my finger on why...
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| 'A laser-gun' might have had something to do with it. |
A few days ago, I met up with an old, old friend who I see
not nearly enough. He and I were tiny sprouts together, we grew up playing with
each other's Kenner figures and playsets, we pretended to be Luke and Han in
our back gardens, drew Star Wars pictures, went to see Return of the Jedi in
the cinema. Our childhoods were inextricably intertwined with Star Wars.
Obviously, I was really keen to hear what he thought of The Force Awakens. But
he hadn't seen it and had little interest in doing so. I was stunned. For the
love of Jabba, why, man, why? He told me that the prequels had completely
crushed his interest in Star Wars, because 'It's amazing how much of the appeal
of Star Wars is in things that aren't explained.'
My god. He's right. That's it.
So much of the original trilogy is left to your imagination.
Who the Bothans are and why they died. What the Senate is and how it was
disbanded. The badassness of Boba Fett. Who the hell Mon Mothma is. Anakin and
Obi-Wan's relationship. Tosche's station. What happened in the Clone Wars.
Those spider-robot-brain things in Jabba's palace. How Han won the Falcon from
Lando. What a womp rat is. What happened to Dengar's face. Half of the familiar
names are never even said in the films themselves but came to us via the toys –
AT-ATs, Ugnaughts, Y-wings, Bosssk, Gamorrean Guards, Lobot, Wampas, Salacious
Crumb...
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| Who hell he? |
This willingness to drop the viewer into a world without
feeling the need to explain every detail is a huge part of what makes OT Star
Wars so compelling. It's also one of the many reasons why I find the prequels
so unsatisfying. And it's the main factor, albeit a subconscious one, in my
avoiding the comics and the EU for the last 30 years. I don't want to someone
else to fill in the gaps for me, because the gaps are where quite a bit of the
fun lies.
If the OT taught us anything, it's that not everything needs
to be spelled out, while the prequels explained too much. Yet one of the
recurring complaints I've read about The Force Awakens is that not enough is
explained or resolved, and too much is left open for the sequels. Needless to
say, I don’t think this is a problem – we're now in an age of serialised movie
storytelling, and I embrace the wider scope of that. I'm all for movies working
in isolation, but I'm equally excited about them working towards something
bigger. TFA gets the balance right, and in leaving a number of questions
unanswered, it opens up a lot of directions in which modern Star Wars can go.
All of this is a very long-winded, circumlocutory way of
saying that I recently read the first two trades of Marvel’s new Star Wars and
Darth Vader series. Set just after A New Hope, these intertwining stories
follow Luke, Han, Leia et al as they mount a raid on an Imperial weapons
factory, and Vader as he tries to uncover the identity of the Rebel pilot who
blew up the Death Star. From a pure comics storytelling point of view, I
enjoyed these quite a bit – especially the Vader one. Both are rollicking,
multi-layered tales that interconnect in interesting ways and explore new
facets of the Star Wars universe. And both have fantastic art, from John
Cassaday and Salvador Larocca, respectively.
However, I do still have a psychological block with these
titles, partly because of the aforementioned wish not to have the gaps filled
in, but also because there is a slight element of uncanny valley to them. When
comics are converted to films or TV, they are of necessity more or less
faithful adaptations, taking sometimes considerable liberties with the source
material in order to work in a live-action medium. The conversion of films to
comics, however, entails a tendency to replicate the movie visuals as
accurately as possible – which is, of course, great for purists, but for me
often makes for an unsettling, stilted experience, heavy on photo reference,
full of designs optimised for the screen, not for the page. Star Wars is, of
course, full of classic, iconic design, and I’m in no way suggesting they
should be reworked for the comics – but it makes it harder to see the comic in
its own terms, rather than an as ersatz version of the real thing.
Ultimately, this is my brain’s problem. And I’m seeking help
with it. But the comics are pretty good. If you can handle them.
