Review: Star Wars #1, by Brian Wood and Carlos D’Anda

There have been so many Star Wars comics over the past twenty-odd years that it might be hard to get excited about a new one. With the acquisition of LucasFilm by Disney, however, interest in new Star Wars material is on the rise. Dark Horse’s new ongoing series, set shortly after the destruction of the Death Star at the end of Episode IV, hits at the perfect time to capitalize on that interest. As a comic, though, Star Wars #1 doesn’t quite bullseye the womprat.

Brian Wood is a more than capable writer, but it feels a little like he’s trying too hard with this issue. The exposition is laid on thick, both through long swatches of dialogue and sporadically-placed captions, as he establishes just what the status quo is like for the Rebels and for Vader and the Imperial forces. That status quo is definitely intriguing, but it’s presented as an awful lot of telling things that could either have been shown or teased out in later issues. One gets the feeling that he wanted to get all the heavy lifting out of the way in this first issue, which is understandable but also doesn’t make for the most smooth or enjoyable read.

The art by Carlos D’Anda is solid. There are quite a few static pieces and settings in the issue – ships floating through space, and a lot of talking heads – but D’Anda manages to keep them from being boring to look at. He doesn’t worry about capturing actors’ likenesses, but each character is easily recognizable. D’Anda hits his stride when the action starts. Possibly the best sequence in the issue is of Leia, having crashed on a strange planet, hunting for and getting rid of a TIE pilot who was downed along with her. It’s a silent couple of pages that shows a side of Leia we’ve never seen before, and D’Anda knocks it out of the park.

While it may not be the best first issue for a series, the new Star Wars ongoing looks to have a lot of potential. Wood is clearly interested in getting more in-depth with the characters’ psyches and the situations they find themselves in than the reader is used to seeing. Hopefully future issues will address those pieces a bit more gracefully than they are presented here.