Reviewer: Chris Delloiacono
Story Title: N/A
Based on the story and screenplay by: George Lucas
Adapted by: Miles Lane
Art by: Doug Wheatley
Colored by: Chris Chuckry
Lettered by: Michael David Thomas
Editor: Randy Stradley
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
I have been a Star Wars fan since I was three years old. I didn’t actually get to see the film until its re-release in the summer of 1978 (I was four), but prior to that I had several figures as well as the children’s book adaptation. The movie was part of my psyche before I’d even seen it. For much of my life Star Wars was my principal leisure activity. I bought as much merchandise as possible, read everything I could get my hands on, sucked in all the trivia possible, and essentially breathed the Force day and night.
Not long after the release of Episode I – The Phantom Menace my love for the Star Wars saga took a major hit. The endless search for new merchandise, mainly the action figures, became a drag. I was sick of looking for these crappily made bits of plastic from Hasbro, or paying inflated prices on the secondary market. So much of my love for Star Wars was wrapped up in these little mounds of synthetic trash that my love for what counted, the films, had become secondary.
Most will disagree, but, for the most part, I enjoyed Episode I. Episode II pretty well killed any care about Star Wars. When Episode II – Attack of the Clones came out my interest was stoked again. Unfortunately, the film was absolutely lousy. Sure the second half of the film was pretty good, but the first half was a travesty. It didn’t even feel like a Star Wars movie. It felt like a badly written video game trying to be Star Wars.
Since I was so down on Star Wars, with nothing invested any longer, I started reading a lot of spoilers about Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. This was something that I didn’t do for the first two prequels. I must admit, what I read actually began to reignite that interest. Even though I knew most of the story prior to the official release of merchandise this past Saturday (April 2, 2005), I was planning to purchase the novelization. Fortunately, my comic shop had the Episode III comic adaptation a little early. It seemed far better to read the story in comic form and about half the price. How could I go wrong?
Non-Spoilers
First, let me say that Dark Horse’s team of Miles Lane and Mark Wheatley do a very nice job crafting the comic story for the final Star Wars film. The dialogue and narration flows well from page to page and Mark Wheatley’s artwork captures the vibe of the Star Wars universe. Wheatley does high-quality work with the facial likenesses as well as other elements of detail with regard to the backgrounds, space ships, and settings. This is a first-rate looking comic.
As for the original story by George Lucas, I must say, this may finally do the job. George Lucas has largely missed the essence of Star Wars in the first two prequels. This time he’s back on track. Not only is the story epic in scale. The situations finally tell us the information we wanted to know. The scope of the film is absolutely gargantuan. The tone is dark, but there are also some lighter moments. The character interactions also appear to be very well done. To top it all off, it seems like Episode III will mesh nicely with the original trilogy.
All doesn’t come together perfectly, and a few sections do fall flat. Of course, this is not the film. The comic could be better than the movie. The movie could be a hell of a lot better than the comic. It’s impossible to judge from the comic what the level of acting will be in the film, or if the effects will look like a video game as did much of Episode II. Many other portions of the film can’t be accurately judged from a comic. Fortunately, the most important–the story–can. This story looks to be a winner. If you want to know spoilers, move on down the page.
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I’m not going into the entire story here, but, in brief, here’s the string of events that drive Episode III.
The story starts off with Obi-Wan and Anakin attempting to rescue the recently “captured” Chancellor Palpatine from the clutches of the Separatists led by Count Dooku and the Jedi-killing robot General Grievous. The two Jedi storm Dooku’s ship and eventually come face-to-face with the Sith apprentice. Obi-Wan’s knocked unconscious and in the time while he’s out Anakin kills Count Dooku at the urging of Palpatine. The Jedi and Palpatine survive the crashing craft, but Grievous gets away.
Palpatine enlists Anakin to be his “spy” on the Jedi Council. The Council enlists Anakin to be their spy against Palpatine. We learn that Padme is pregnant with Anakin’s child(ren), and that Anakin will be expelled from the order if found out. While attending an opera, Palpatine reveals to Anakin that he’s a Sith lord. Anakin runs to the council with the newfound information. This leads to Mace Windu and three other Jedi attempting to arrest Palpatine. Palpatine, or more specifically, Darth Sidious shows that he’s the baddest Force user in the galaxy. With the aid of Anakin Skywalker the pair vanquishes these Jedi. Annie is dubbed Darth Vader.
Anakin and the clones throughout the galaxy turn against the Jedi and destroy them all, except for Yoda and Obi-Wan. In an inspired scene Anakin goes to the Separatist leaders’ stronghold and ends the war in lightsaber swinging brilliance. Yoda and Obi-Wan come back to Coruscant in the hope of using a signal to divert any living Jedi away from the planet.
Yoda fights Sidious, but must flee before the Sith’s might. Obi-Wan hitches a ride with Padme to Mustafar where the Dark Lord’s wife appeals to her hubby. Anakin asks her to join him in ruling the galaxy. Obi-Wan’s sudden appearance causes Anakin to snap and Force power Padme across the room. This action leads to her eventual death during childbirth.
Surrounded by the lava fields of Mustafar, Anakin and Obi-Wan engage in the epic duel we’ve all been waiting for. Anakin loses and ends up in the drink. After Obi-Wan departs with Padme, Darth Sidious shows up to save Anakin.
As I mentioned Padme dies, but the children of Anakin and Padme are hidden. The story closes out with Yoda going into hiding on Dagobah, Vader, Sidious, and Tarkin watching the construction of the Death Star, Leia with Senator Bail Organa on Alderaan, and the final image is Obi-Wan leaving Luke with Beru and Owen on Tatooine.
There’s a hell of a lot more going on but, that’s as truncated a version as I could bring you.
Here are a few pieces that bothered me.
One, the idea of Vader, Tarkin, and Sidious watching the construction of the Death Star links well with the second trilogy, but it doesn’t really work. It took these guys nineteen years (that’s how long before the original Star Wars film this one takes place) to build the space station? Yet it only takes a few years to build the second station. It’s just a silly nitpick. Since it should make for a killer closing image, I can live with it.
One aspect I really dislike is that Anakin kills a number of Jedi in the temple, but we only see that through a brief holo-image. The majority of the Jedi killing is done by clone troopers shooting Jedi in the back. Part of me likes this idea of the Jedi getting killed by some of the worst shots in the galaxy. What I really wanted to see was Darth Vader hacking up a bunch of the intergalactic hippies that let the galaxy pass them by.
On the positive side, the early part of the movie seems to successfully deal with the Obi-Wan and Anakin relationship quite well. I didn’t think there’d be enough time to focus on strengthening their relationship. To show Anakin’s fall and Obi-Wan’s heartbreak we needed to believe these guys loved each other like father and son. Episode II was only moderately successful in that. This story seems to excel in that area.
The lightsaber duel that ends the relationship between Anakin and Obi-Wan appears to be fantastic. It may beat every duel before it, plus it’s got the ultimate payoff.
The story excels at showing the final pieces of Palpatine’s plan falling into place. This guy’s been at it since Episode I. His plan ends up being perfect and he can back up everything he tries with his own power. Selling Palpatine as the greatest of Sith lords was a must. His plan needed to come together and spell out the vagaries that many viewers didn’t get in the first two prequels too. It does!
It’s not the film yet, but this version of the story pulls everything together as it should be. The characters end up where they should be. The galaxy is on the brink of rebellion as it should be. The pieces are put into place and the final chess match for the galaxy is set up, and waiting to be carried out. If the Episode III turns out as good as this comic adaptation, Star Wars fans will have a lot to cheer about come May.
