Star
Wars: The Last Jedi
Kid’s
Stuff
Star
Wars 3-D #2
All
the things you never wanted to know that happened between movies
"Havok on Hoth”
Writer – Len Wein
Artist – Patrick Zircher
Letters – David Cody
Weiss
3-D Effects – Paul
Tallerday
Editor – John Stephenson
Summer 1988
Now
that everyone has seen the new Star Wars flick we can get back to the toy
tie-ins...
What?
One more day? Seriously?
Alright
then, I’ll give you that one more day with a look back at Blackthorne
Publishings’ Star Wars 3-D series, made possible by the little loophole that
could that allowed Blackthorne to publish these right after Marvel’s
short-lived Droids and Ewoks books at the tail-end of a decade of holding the
licensing.
Blackthorne
got three issues out of the 3-D title, which were later reprinted in black and
white, non-3-D format by Dark Horse in their 2013 Omnibus called Star Wars:
Wild Space. I’ll be color correcting them here on the blog so you see them in
black and white too, given that my scanner drops out the non-repro blue used in
the 3-D process. However, I will state that the 3-D isn’t that great. Either
that or my glasses that came with the Journey to the Center of the Earth DVD
are sucky, one or the other.
This
is what an unaltered page looks like out of my scanner:
On
we go with Len Wein an Patrick Zircher’s “Havok on Hoth”. This story is set
between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back, telling details we never though
were important and really aren’t. Wein does a good job covering ground that
Marvel had already paved into highway-sized thoroughfares over the course of
nine years and 107 issues. Let’s see what he can do with it here, because Wein
was a professional storyteller who could spin a good yarn when it came down to
it.
Luke,
Han, Chewie, and Threepio make their way back from a little jaunt in the
Falcon…
…to
Tatooine (which we find out, care of the last issue block) so that Luke could
be sure his late Uncle’s moisture farm passed on to someone worthy of having
it. As story hook, I suppose it is somewhere to start hanging things off of A
New Hope, but for me this doesn’t work so well. Luke and Han both had bigger
fish to fry than a dried-up plot of land on a planet that is in Luke’s own
admission off the beaten path.
Han
and Luke are headed back to Yavin base, but they receive no answer on the comms
and Threepio starts bothering them…
…with
good reason. A sit appears there is a small army of Star Destroyers between
them and Yavin’s moon. Including … an Imperial Shuttle?
And
on one of those crafts is none other than Darth Vader himself, hanging out in
the best Christmas ornament ever …
To
escape all this mess Han has little options here except for…
…diving
into an asteroid field which he would do again in Empire Strikes back to avoid
the exact same fate. There’s something very odd about seeing Han repeat
something before he does it the first time. I’m not certain I like it very
much.
Oh,
and that admiral failed Vader so…
HR
is going to have a field day with Vader before that next movie is through. If
only they had some kind of “Force Sensitivity” training to send him through.
Luke
and Han arrive to find the base empty and off they go to the secondary rendezvous
point that Luke knows by memory.
Which
leads to some neat shots of the classic fleet (sigh, The Last Jedi did TOO!)
and an awkward reunion of the Skywalker siblings, who didn’t know at the time
were siblings, but the audience at the time the issue came out knew were
siblings since the publication date was AFTER Return of the Jedi and…whoa, got
dizzy there for a moment. STOP TOUCHING YOUR SISTER LIKE THAT!
Also,
I’m not sure Wookiees make that noise.
We
get our droids back together, then Han and Leia share a moment of that thing
they do so well, that looks like fighting but really is something completely different.
And
then HAN suggests they hide out on Hoth. Not the two of them, I mean the
rebellion.
Since
this is Han’s big idea, he, Luke, Chewie and the droids go to scout it out.
And
it’s a desolate, inhabitable frozen world, for sure, except where it isn’t.
Which happens to be where they’ve landed.
We
get to see the group discover a Tauntaun pack, which I’m pretty sure couldn’t
happen as my inner Star Wars geek says those weren’t native to Hoth. Wookieepedia
says they were, but if so why does Han’s die of exposure when he went looking for Luke.
Thanks for making me feel like I spend way too much time ruminating about Star
Wars, comic book. I’m sure the area holding that tidbit of information could
have probably been used to store something waaaaay more beneficial.
Anyway,
Luke tries to make like a “Space Cowboy”…
Which
leads to a couple of pages of funny physical humor, enough to make me forgive
the book bringing up the whole logical Tauntaun puzzle. The physical humor in
that top bit is both silly and wins points with me in a story that I felt was
very much “been here-done this”.
And
if I thought that moment of levity lightened up the mood enough for me to give
the book some points, the page that follows with Luke attempting to tame the strange
furry lizard thing made ticked its score up even higher.
Then
we are back to a standard adventure tale with some smugglers who have also
picked Hoth as the perfect hiding place, taking pot-shots at our intrepid band.
Until
they realize that their target is Han Solo, still wanted by Jabba and having a
huge bounty on his head. Which only increases the barrage of fire coming at
them.
The
group turns the tables on the bad guys by using a little blaster created steam
to cover their retreat…
…but
quickly find themselves pursued into the smuggler’s cavern / den, which I
thought was exactly the type of cave they were looking for to hide the rebel
base…
…but
obviously wasn’t meant to be as Luke’s plan causes a massive cave-in which kills
all the smugglers…
…and
which they barely escape from. Or maybe it IS how the find the cave the
rebellion uses, they just spend issue #3 clearing out the crushed corpses of
the dead smugglers.
But
it is here that we take our leave of the Star Wars universe for a time, and I
can’t think of a better stepping off point as this felt like a faint tint of
nostalgia that tried to fit in all the pieces to a universe I like with some
mystery left in it.
While
I may be leaving the Star Wars Universe, you don’t have to. The Last Jedi is
worth an admission price ticket. Just remember to join us here tomorrow as we unwrap
a few more toys before heading into a week of the odd and out there Christmas
books.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.