Star Wars #6 – Review

By: Brian Wood (Writer), Carlos D’Anda (Artist), Gabe Eltaeb (Colorist)

The Story: Luke goes to save Leia and gets much more involved in the mission that Leia is involved in.

The Review: Did you ever read something that you know is crafted well, yet you could never truly get into for some reason? A novel or a comic that you can definitely see the qualities and the hard work put into, yet did absolutely nothing for you? This is what Star Wars by Brian Wood is doing for me right now.

There are several qualities to this book, like the willingness to stick to the mythos as much as possible, without being redundant. By incorporating some newer characters and giving us a plotline that can be easily placed between the first two films (the original ones, mind you), Brian Wood show inventiveness that does him credit. It can be hard to write in such a revered era while adding new stuff in it without sounding sacrilegious, which I do believe he manage fairly well.

Star Wars #5 – Review

By: Brian Wood (Writer), Carlos D’Anda (Artist), Gabe Eltaeb (Colorist)

The Story: Han Solo has to find a way out of Coruscant, as Leia and her squad fight some Tie-Fighter as per her plan to guess just who might be the rat in the rebel army.

The Review: I finally understood something about this comic and myself, something that came as some kind of realization as to why I rather disliked some of the scenes while I enjoyed others. I once said that I preferred the Han Solo scenes in general, while I found the space battles to be rather boring, but gave a rather vague assessment of just why I felt that way about those.

Star Wars #4 – Review

By: Brian Wood (Writer), Carlos D’Anda (Artist), Gabe Eltaeb (Colorist)

The Story: Han Solo tries to escape from Coruscant, Leia goes on with her plan to find out the rat in the rebellion and Darth Vader is awesome.

The Review: When I reviewed the last issue of Brian Wood’s take on Star Wars, I mentioned the fact that there were parts that were much stronger, or at least, more interesting than others. I now realize, in retrospect, that it was not absolutely fair, as it seemed to come a bit from personal taste rather than actual appreciation and critical analysis of the various scenes. However, while I do admit that I rather prefer Han Solo to Leia Skywalker as a character, this issue made me see just why perhaps this analysis was closer to the truth than what I thought.

Star Wars #3 – Review

By: Brian Wood (Writer), Carlos D’Anda (Artist), Gabe Eltaeb (Colorist)

The Story: Luke gets a little bit rebellious with one of his comrades; Leia tries to uncover the identity of the spy while Han Solo gets into a trap set by the empire.

The Review: There are several things that can be frustrating in comics featuring a whole universe: some concepts that are too conceited or too much used, some characters that don’t have enough screen time and a whole load of other problems. This issue here has a very particular problem that does not fatally undermine the whole thing, yet becomes a bit handicapping: there are some parts and characters that are much more interesting than others.

Now, this may seem normal, even obvious to most, but there is a difference when it is a ‘’universe’’ book. In a team book, it’s pretty much normal that some people prefer some characters above others, but in a ‘’universe’’ style book, the writer has to show a whole world through his story and his characters, to make everything interesting and relevant to the plot. Here, we have two plots, with one being about Leia commanding her own squadron and trying to uncover a traitor amongst their midst, while the other one features Han Solo being his regular self as he tries to get some work on Coruscant. It is the latter one that is more interesting and actually better written, as the adventure of the charming rogue is actually more fulfilling for a reader.

Star Wars #2 – Review

By: Brian Wood (Writer), Carlos D’Anda (Artist), Gabe Eltaeb (Colorist)

The Story: Han Solo is pursued by a well-known bounty hunter, whole Leia form a team to carry out the mission she received.

The Review: This feels like Star Wars. It’s a bold statement to start this review with, but it also very much true. In this issue, you’ve got much of everything that made this franchise great to begin with. There’s the scope, the war between good and evil, the space fight and the characters. Much of it ring true to the original trilogy, but there’s also something more to it.

What Brian Wood has succeeded in doing so far is properly extend and deepen some characters while respecting who they actually are and how they usually are presented. There’s Han Solo, still roguish and savvy like always, partnered up with his trusty Wookie friend Chewbacca. Here, he explores just how his life as a smuggler has been affected by his actions from A New Hope, which is a wise choice, as it had not been properly explored in the actual sequel to the original movie.

Star Wars #1 – Review

By: Brian Wood (writer), Carlos D’Anda (artist), Gabe Eltaeb (Colorist)

The Story: After an ambush by the empire on Luke, Leia and Wedge, the alliance suspects that there might be a spy in their midst.

The Review: Star Wars means a lot to most of us, both as a sci-fi universe and as movies. It is cherished by millions, loving the classic battle between good and evil that was represented during the whole saga. It is a universe that is no stranger to comics, with some very good stories told in its vast continuity and lore. Writing in such a loved universe can have its lot of challenge to even the most seasoned of veterans or the greatest of writer. It is even more so when the story that is told in this issue is set in the most beloved part of the saga: the original trilogy of films.

A single error in characterization, in the timeline or the addition of several unwanted elements could topple all this noble effort down by the fans. Thankfully, Brian Wood is a smart writer and knows exactly what he can and what he should do with this series and all its characters. Here we see all the beloved characters, themes and designs from the first movie in a comic book format and it works really well, incorporating just the right amount of new elements in the mix to make sure it is a brand new tale.

Justice League #6 – Review

By: Geoff Johns (writer), Jim Lee (penciller), Scott Williams, Sandra Hope, Batt, Mark Irwin (inkers), Alex Sinclair, Tony Avina, Hi-Fi (colorists)

The Story: Darkseid, wouldn’t printing ads on the back of milk cartons work better than all this?

The Review: Justice League Dark demonstrated, by negative inference, how important it is to give each member of the team an active role in a conflict.  But more than divvying up the work for tactical purposes, it’s even more important, for long-term storytelling purposes, to give each character a distinct spiritual role within the team.

Unfortunately, Johns hasn’t succeeded in making his League anything more than a gathering of powerful super-beings—which is surprising, since Johns usually can’t resist making a symbol out of everything he writes.  The problem is the characters come across so flat just in their personality that it’s hard to draw out any deeper substance from them.

Johns simply hasn’t used the team he’s brought together well.  Take Aquaman.  I don’t think he says much more than four lines the entire issue, and aside from putting his trident into Darkseid’s eye (which, really, is only copycatting Wonder Woman’s sword-trick two panels earlier), he serves no crucial purpose at all.  Neither does Flash, for that matter, unless you count coming up with the one of the lamest team names ever in a craven ploy for heartwarming laughter.  And after all that drama between Cyborg and his dad, Johns allows only a single throwaway panel and line to resolve it.

At least Johns takes some pains to finally give the only lady at this sausage fest something important to do.  That said, when you think about her biggest accomplishment in the fight against Darkseid, all anyone really needed from her was her lasso.  As charming as her naïve wisdom is (“The world belongs to no one.  And everyone.”), she only seems to have value in the absence of others.  Without Superman, she fills in as the team’s heavy hitter; without Batman’s leadership, she leads by example of her fearlessness.  Once the boys come home, she’s back to fodder again.