Broken Frontier

Star Wars has become, in its 29 years of existence, a pervasive part of our everyday life. The movie’s dialogue has entered our lexicon, its characters grace our clothing, and merchandise inspired by the films inhabits our store shelves.

But it wasn’t always like that. According to an article in Back Issue #9, back in 1977, 20th Century Fox and George Lucas were worried about how well their new movie was going to go over. They came to Marvel Comics asking them to start a series to help promote the movie. This first Star Wars series, written by Roy Thomas and with art by Howard Chaykin—two creators apparently hand-picked by Lucas himself—came out months before the movie opened.

I don’t know if the comic played a part in the long lines that greeted A New Hope when it was released on May 25, 1977, but it certainly didn’t hurt. Marvel’s relationship with the Star Wars franchise would last 9 years, from 1977 to 1986. During that time, they would publish 107 issues of the above mentioned comic book as well as adaptations of each movie of the original trilogy. Millions of copies of the comic were sold.

In 1991, Dark Horse obtained the rights to the franchise and for the last 15 years they have been publishing a wide array of series set in the Star Wars Universe. Whether it would be “What If?” type stories like their “Infinities” series, which provide alternate versions of the original trilogy, or the popular Dark Empire series, or the comedic Tag and Blink comic.

The comics became a way for Star Wars fans to spend a little more time in the universe created by Lucas. The worlds and characters from the films were explored a little more. Darth Maul and Boba Fett only had miniscule screen time in the movie series, but their histories were explored in comic book form by Dark Horse.

Dark Times continues this trend. The series is set in the period between the movies Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope , a time period referred to by Obi Wan Kenobi in the latter movies as “the dark times” (hence the comic’s title).

The Republic has just broken down and Palpatine’s Empire has begun to bring more worlds under his control. The universe is in a state of flux, and its future looks grim.

This series references the Del Rey Star Wars novel Dark Lord, which took place during the same time period in the Star Wars mythos and focused on the rise of Darth Vader. The comic will probably intersect with the novel on quite a number of points, and add dimension to the story as well.       

A cynic might say that all this licensing is just a way for Lucas to wring the most money out of his creation as he can. But the books and the comics expand upon the universe.

Fans want more stories set in the world that they have grown to love. And since these creations are treated as canon, they carry a little more weight than just being a method to rip-off the Star Wars loyalists.

The movies appear to be over, but there are rumors of a Star Wars TV series in the future. Until that entry into the Star Wars Universe hit our screens, rabid followers can get their fix in this series. If you are one, I’m sure you don’t need this column to remind you to pick this series up.   

Also out this week:

• Bullet Points #1: It is a story every comic fan knows. In the heat of World War II, a 4-F rated Steve Rogers, weak and frail, volunteers for a special treatment that will raise him to the peak of human physical development. The experiment is a success, but the scientist who created the process is shot and killed right after, making Steve the only person to receive the treatment. But what if he was killed before Rogers got the treatment?

In that case, the Marvel Universe would be a much different place. And that is the crux of this new series from J. Michael Straczynski and Tommy Lee Edwards. They detail a new reality which shows the heroes we know and love in a completely different light. 

• Superman #657: The future is bleak. Natural disasters have taken their toll on the Earth. The world is under the control of a cabal of super villains. Humanity is ground underneath their thumbs. It’s the end of civilization as we know it, and there is only one person to blame—Superman.

Dystopian futures are a popular fodder for stories of all sorts. Why is that? Do they tap into a primal need for people to feel that as bad as their life may be today, that it could be quite worse? Whatever the reasons, this particular storyline is another version of that concept. It should be interesting to see how Supes reacts when he sees that his efforts to make the world a better place might have had the opposite effect.

• Sanctuary #1: A Paleolithic cave artist/shaman is shunned by his tribe. This results in his becoming embroiled in a variety of power struggles and sensual intrigues. It appears that our distant ancestors weren’t that much different than we are today.

This seems like a unique story, right? It is, and one made more complex by the fact that it is written in a delicately crafted Paleolithic language. This six-issue series is by Xeric Grant award-winning cartoonist Nate Neal and is an ambitious exploration of the comic book form. It is published by Fantagraphics, a company which is no stranger to pushing boundaries. If you are in the mood for something different, really different, than you may want to check this one out.   

• Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes II #1: In 2005’s Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes series, Joe Casey detailed what happened in-between the first few issues of the first Avengers series. It fleshed out the creation of the group and how the random heroes meshed into a team. It worked well as a concept, and apparently it was a popular one as well.

Now, Casey is back with a sequel. But this time, he fast forwards a few years in continuity, covering the time right after the Vision joined the Avengers. This was a tulmultuous time period in the comic, and it will be intriguing to see the dimensions Casey brings to these classic stories.  I enjoyed the first series, and on the basis of that I recommend this one to all you classic Avengers fans out there.

• Rex Libris #6: Being a librarian is a tough job. Okay, maybe being a normal librarian isn’t all that tough. But Rex Libris isn’t your normal librarian. Does your local librarian have to worry about kicking out a bunch of loitering zombies? Get late fees from alien warlords? Or, as portrayed in this issue, rescue patrons who have been swallowed into a demonic book? I’d guess they probably don’t.

Yes, Rex Libris is a comedy series. But it mixes the funny with the smart, the quirky with the literate to create a novel and intriguing concept. I’m sure fans of oddball humor the likes of Flaming Carrot and Madman would find this book right up their alley. If you are one of these people, give the book a try tomorrow. 

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William Gatevackes is a professional writer living in Mamaroneck, NY with his wife Jennifer. Bill also writes periodic comic reviews for PopMatters and writes title descriptions for Human Computing’s Comicbase collection management software.