A quick look at Star Wars #1: “Skywalker Strikes”

Comic books are a bit off-topic, but I’m going to make an exception to talk about Marvel’s new Star Wars book.

The new ongoing title is being written by Jason Aaron, drawn by John Cassaday and colored by Laura Martin, and they’ve captured the feel of the A New Hope era.

Opening shortly after the destruction of the Death Star, “Skywalker Strikes” finds Han Solo trading on his reputation as a minor smuggler and known associate of Jabba the Hutt to help the rebels infiltrate an Imperial weapons factory.

Aaron does a wonderful job of capturing Solo’s cocky swagger.

Of course, no plan survives contact with the enemy… and when you ask C-3PO to make sure the Millennium Falcon gets to where you need it, you’re just asking for trouble.

Still, Luke, Han, Leia and R2-D2 were holding their own for a while… (and what Star Wars story would be complete without at least one severed limb?)

The arrival of the Empire’s negotiator leaves are rebel band in a precarious spot, but even though we know that they’ll all be fine in the end, I want to know what happens next.

I will definitely be on board for issue #2 next month, and I want to see what Marvel does with their Darth Vader and Princess Leia limited series.

Not everything about Star Wars #1 was perfect though. Marvel lists the book at 44 pages to justify the $4.99 price tag, but I only count 31 story pages.

The comic opens with four pages dedicated to evoking the opening film title crawl, but I’m not going to count a page of “A long time ago in a galaxy far away…” or a double page spread of the words “Star Wars” as story pages. The rest are ads, promo pages for the Vader and Leia books, and a credits page.

Next month, we’ll see the price drop by $1, but the official page count falls to 23… hopefully they will all be actual story pages.

Marvel has a definite win here, and I can’t wait to read the next chapter.