Last week, Dark Horse Comics released the long-awaited new Star Wars series set during the Rebellion era. More specifically, this first issue is set just a couple of weeks after the destruction of the first Death Star. The series will sadly not last past this year as Dark Horse’s rights to Star Wars will expire and Marvel will then produce the comics, and it’s anyone’s guess if they’ll continue existing series (they probably won’t). But at least the Star Wars comics we’ve known for the last twenty years will be going out on a high note.
The story in this initial run of Star Wars has Leia, Luke, and Wedge scouting for a new Rebel base. The subplot deals with Han and Chewie going off on their own after receiving their reward. When the trio in X-Wings exit hyperspace near a planet, they encounter TIEs lead by TIE Interceptors. They fight the TIEs, and Leia crash lands on the planet and kills the pilot on her own. While some fans have complained that the Empire shouldn’t have TIE Interceptors at this time, they have been established to have been in the Imperial fleet after Yavin.
Meanwhile, there’s a bit where Vader is stripped of his Star Destroyer by Palpatine for punishment over the whole Death Star blowing up. His command is transferred to an Imperial Officer who hasn’t failed Palpatine yet, and Vader starts to ponder this Skywalker he’s been hearing about.
As the Empire seems to be right on the Rebel’s tail at every hyperspace scouting jump made by Leia and Luke, Mon Mothma asks Leia to sort of go rogue and off the grid. Threepio is outfitted specifically for their spec ops mission so no one would know what Leia is doing, and she dons a dark gray pilot jumpsuit and recruits Luke to her secret team to find the new Rebel base.
Will Han and Chewie’s adventure conform to the backstory Zahn recently established in Scoundrels in explaining how he lost his reward money? Will Leia, Luke, and Wedge find Hoth, or will the Rebels have a different base before that? These are questions that any Star Wars fan should be asking, and hopefully we’ll get them answered in the next few issues of the series.
Star Wars #1 sold out, but it’s headed to a second printing and Dark Horse should have it available digitally as well.
