'Star Wars' #1 Review: Character moments stand out as the Rebellion is pushed to its limits by new foe
Spoiler alert for 'Star Wars' #1
Forty years after 'Empire Strikes Back,' and five years after the return of 'Star Wars' comics to Marvel Comics, we have a new #1 that takes the Age of Rebellion forward. Where the 2015 relaunch of 'Star Wars' filled in the gaps between 'A New Hope' and 'Empire Strikes Back,' the current series starts were 'Empire Strikes Back' ended. It opens on the most famous moment in 'Star Wars' history — 'No, I am your father.'
In the movies, Luke (Mark Hamill) is not given a lot of time to adjust to the news, nor do we get to see much of how he deals with it beyond his first horrified reaction. When we next see him on 'Return of the Jedi,' he has gained a brand new green lightsaber and has all but completed his Jedi training. There's a lot of story that's missing from Luke's journey to becoming a Jedi master and the new series looks like it will be exploring just that.
The issue is written by Charles Soule, art by Jesus Saiz, and colors by Saiz and Arif Prianto. It opens with a recreation of that iconic moment of Luke losing his hand, and finding out his father is alive and well, evil. Luke is reliving the moment onboard the 'Millenium Falcon,' as it escapes from Cloud City and plans to meet up with the rest of the rebellion. As great a writer as Soule tends to be, the start of this issue is most definitely Saiz, who sells these small human moments from each of the characters. He does a remarkable job of bringing the faces of the film's actors to life while bringing an emotiveness to still expressions that sell each moment.
The storytelling done with these moments really drives the story forward. Saiz perfectly frames the moments we should be paying attention to. Even Chewie gets a closer look, and the comic seems well up to the challenge of portraying the emotional complexity for someone who only communicates in unintelligible roars.
But that doesn't mean that the issue doesn't have large-scale action in it as well. There's still a war on, and we're introduced to a new villain, Imperial Commander Zarha. Zahra comes across as a zealous perfectionist, and her eagerness to see the rebellion crushed is going to make her quite a threatening series antagonist. She's going to push the Rebellion to its limits. Though we know the Rebellions wins out in the end, it appears that we're about to learn what it cost for them to get there.
There are a lot of character moments that the movies didn't have time to explore, and it's where the various 'Star Wars' novels, comics and TV series get to shine. There's a lot of fun to be had in expanding the lore of the franchise, but in 'Star Wars' #1, we get to see more of the characters that made 'Star Wars' so entertaining in the first place.