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February 5, 2008
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 Wow, what a difference a script makes! The first six issues of Marvel's original Star Wars comic series were of fairly high quality, and, after slogging through the following four issue mini-arc, its apparent that much of the initial charm was due to George Lucas' story.
Beginning with issue #7, New Planets, New Perils, the series branches off 'beyond the movie,' if not quite 'beyond the galaxy' as the over-the-top cover proclaims. Han Solo and Chewbacca depart the fourth moon of Yavin bound for Tatooine, their reward money for saving Princess Leia Organa in tow. Faster than you can say 'tight spandex,' the two smugglers are ambushed by a band of rogues led by one Crimson Jack, an unintentionally hilarious character who must've failed an audition for Superfriends before migrating over to a galaxy far, far away.
Without going into too much painful detail, suffice to say that Han and Chewie lose their valuable cargo (rendering Han unable to pay back Jabba the Hutt), before crash-landing on the planet Aduba-3 where they are immediately hired by a priest of the Sacred Way to bury a recently deceased borg.
Confused yet? You're not alone, and the story arc just gets weirder, as Solo and his towering first mate are suckered into protecting a local village from a band of outlaws known as Cloud Riders in issue #8. Along the way, they meet everyone from a mean-spirited giant rabbit (who thankfully doesn't ask Han why he's wearing a man-suit) to characters named, I kid you not, Serji-X Arrogantus and Don-Wan Kihotay.
Mercifully, the narrative eventually cuts to the goings-on at the Rebel base, where the victorious Rebel Alliance is busy packing their bags and beating a hasty retreat from the marshaling Imperial starfleet. Luke Skywalker, C-3P0, and R2-D2 provide a brief respite from the cheesiness as they head out in search of a new secret base for the Rebellion.
 Issue #9 finds our smuggler heroes in a fight to the death with a flock of high-hounds, scavenger birds of prey that are attacking yet another defenseless Adubah-3 village. After surviving the avian onslaught, Han and Chewbacca must deal with the Cloud Rider gang, as well as a monstrous creature summoned by an old village shaman in an attempt to defend against the marauding bandits. The narrative splits again as Luke Skywalker informs Princess Leia that he has found a suitable location for a new Rebel base in the Drexel system, but his transmission is unexpectedly cut, and a concerned Leia commandeers a starship to track him down.
Issue #10, Behemoth from the World Below, is every bit as corny as the title suggests. While we do get the unexpected treat of Han's first use of a lightsaber (pre-dating the ESB tauntaun gutting by two years), the issue reads more like a pulpy rendition of Jason and the Argonauts than what we've come to know as Star Wars, and its clear that lead writer Roy Thomas is taking more inspiration from the films of Ray Harryhausen than those of George Lucas.
The mini-series' artwork fares better than the plot, even though the talented Howard Chaykin is forced to draw giant green bunny rabbits and eagle bodies sporting humanoid heads. Han and Chewbacca are nicely rendered, with the former typifying the crazy-cool outlaw that Malcolm Reynolds only wishes he was, while the latter regularly blurs the line between furry loyal companion and ferociously animalistic berserker.
Also of note is that issue #7 stands as the first official entry in the now-voluminous Star Wars Expanded Universe. Released in January of 1978, the comic beat the Alan Dean Foster spin-off novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye to the presses by a couple of months, and the story arc is worth thumbing through if for no other reason than to see a very early chunk of Star Wars history.
While the mini-series isn't unreadable, it does veer quite far into tongue-in-cheek territory, perhaps too much for those readers interested in a story that captures the spirit of the original film. As a slice of yester-year Star Wars, issues 7 through 10 are quite entertaining; as an entry in the canon, they're often unintentionally humorous and ultimately rather forgettable.
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