Disney is preparing to relaunch “Star Wars” comic books in 2015, with Marvel now possessing the exclusive rights (Dark Horse went out with a bang). It all begins with Jason Aaron’s Star Wars in Jan., but the Feb. premiere of the Darth Vader ongoing series is even more exciting. Helmed by Kieron Gillen, writer behind Phonogram and a number of X-Men stories, and with art by Salvador Larroca, Darth Vader tracks the Sith Lord after the events of “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.”
Star Wars Comics Return with 'Darth Vader' #1
You can check out a preview of the first three pages of Darth Vader on Marvel.com. And while the art is great (love that first panel with silhouette), this preview is where I began to worry about the history of “Star Wars” series in comic book form. As much as I love seeing Bib Fortuna, Salacious Crumb, and Max Rebo, I can’t help but wonder if Marvel and Disney will offer us anything new with these interim products, or if we’ll have to wait for “Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens” to see radical expansions to the mythos. Disney’s move to make everything in continuity, rather than allowing the comic books to be a place where new planets and characters thrive, seems to be largely about reminding us how great the Original Trilogy was then building new stories. But we won’t know for sure until Darth Vader #1 hits the stands.
The real critique I’d like to make is much narrower in scope. What’s with Jabba the Hutt being such a galactic bigwig?
Tatooine is a dump. Orbiting a binary star in the Outer Rim territories, Tatooine is a backwater full of moisture farmers, junkers, and criminals hoping to avoid the long-reach of Imperial Law. It’s a planet full of ruffians, Wild West justice, and poverty. So what’s such an unimportant planet doing with a crime lord with a higher profile than Pablo Escobar? We are first introduced to Jabba via poor, doomed Greedo, who comes to collect the dead or alive bounty on Han Solo’s head. And while the “Star Wars” movies don’t reveal too much of Jabba the Hutt’s criminal enterprise, it’s easy to infer that he has his hand in everything from drugs to gunrunning . From his run-down house to his coterie of guileless hanger-ons, Jabba’s life has more in common with backwoods meth dealers than intergalactic wheelers and dealers. So why are we repeatedly subjected to Jabba the Hutt hob-knobbing with some of the Galaxy’s most influential figures?
In “Return of the Jedi” Luke dealing with Jabba feels more like returning home to finally settle a score that had been festering long before any of our main characters were involved with the Rebel Alliance. Han Solo’s days as a smuggler have come back to bite him and Luke is handed the opportunity to put a local bully in his place. Even “The Phantom Menace” didn’t seem to give too much thought to the Hutts, positioning them as a regal local mafioso, more Don Corleone than Boyd Crowder. Presumably by “Return of the Jedi” Jabba has fallen on harder times, having to personally go after dysfunctional contractors like Solo. But then “Clone Wars” happened and placed Jabba the Hutt in the middle of a galactic conspiracy. What.
With the continuity reboot Marvel and Disney had the perfect opportunity to revert Jabba the Hutt to the backwoods hick he is. Instead they’ve put him in the first issue of Darth Vader, fielding a visit from the second most powerful man in the entire Empire (now that Grand Moff Tarkin is dead).
It’s not a big deal. I’m still looking forward to what Marvel will do with the “Star Wars” license, but I am a little sick of the “Star Wars” Universe containing more planets than real characters. Can’t “Star Wars” take a page from “Game of Thrones” on this one?
Let me know how you think Jabba should be handled in the comments. Also, if you’d rather be excited and forget all my bubble popping then check out this awesome variant cover to Darth Vader #1 by Alex Ross.
