Writer: Jonathan Rinzler
Artist: Mike Mayhew

Two issues in, and it’s clear that ‘The Star Wars’ isn’t just one for the hardcore fans. Adapted from George Lucas’s original screenplay, It’s a nice look at how our favourite galaxy far, far away came to be, but you can see why it went through extensive re-writes before making it to screen.

The Star Wars needs to be taken entirely in its own context. There are scenes and plot details that fans will recognise from the films, but most of these characters, although familiar by name, are not necessarily the same ones we all know and love love (insert ‘these aren’t the droids you’re looking for’ joke here).

The story still feels epic in scale though, and it is clear that Lucas would have struggled to film this the way he would have wanted to back in the 70s’s. At this point we see our heroes on the brink of all-out galactic war. This issue is slightly laden with galactic politics, but manages to keep action fans sated with a very nice looking space battle come the midway point of the book.

The artwork in ‘The Star Wars’ is a little ‘take it or leave it’, but the overall design is impressive. The look of the SW universe is something most of us are no strangers to, but the visual creators have clearly taken Ralph Mcquarrie’s initial Star Wars concept art into consideration, and blended his ideas seamlessly with their own ideas.

This is a title that will probably split opinion, and you need to ignore the ‘franchise baggage’ to really appreciate it. I’m enjoying ‘The Star Wars’ so far, though, and although Issue #2 feels a little slow, it’s a nice set-up issue, and gets you exactly where you need to go.

Rating: 7/10.

The writer of this piece was: Alan Shields aka (Al)
You can also find Al on Facebook