Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Star Wars #7
Marvel Comics
Aaron, Bianchi & Ponsor
"Star Wars" takes a detour from the normal plot lines to tell a tale about Obi-Wan watching over Luke Skywalker on Tatooine. This kind of story has been told before and generally either Obi-Wan saves Luke, saves the farm or saves both. This comic book doesn't do anything differently from the norm and plays it too safe in its execution. Nothing out of the ordinary occurs in the comic book and makes the read very average. If you aren't interested in Obi-Wan then you probably could sit this issue out.
Some thugs are moving through the dessert looking to take a water tax from the people. Surprise, surprise, they work for Jabba. Obi-Wan is reluctant to get involved but finds himself using the Force here and there to influence altercations between the thugs and the locals. Until the thugs show up at the Lars homestead.
While this is occurring, Obi-Wan finds himself mediating to his old master, Qui-Gon. He's upset that Lars won't allow him to train Luke, he's lost all of his friends and he's turned away from the Jedi way. He's depressed. However, he finds a renewed purpose when the Lars farm falls under attack.
The comic book is by-the-numbers. There was plenty of opportunity to go deeper into Obi-Wan's depression, bring interesting villains, take a look at the tension between Lars and Obi-Wan. This comic book avoids all of that and is basically a bunch of faceless Jabba goons with a little of Obi-Wan's thoughts sprinkled in.
There are holes in the plot as well. Jabba's goons don't get what they want by the comic's end. No one knows who was the helper. Why won't they come back to the town and farm again and again and in greater numbers? Make everyone pay? Obi-Wan may have made the locals a target as a result of his actions. The comic book just isn't a very tight story.
Much like the story, the artwork is a roller coaster. Some panels look so stellar that they are poster-worthy. Particularly the few panels of Obi-Wan in the desert with his cloak following in the wind and the panels of the close-ups of his face. These are fantastic renderings of Kenobi. Then a few panels later when Kenobi is mediating and raising bones the details are lost to the point of confusion. I'm not even entirely sure what I'm looking at. The comic follows this pattern for the remaining pages making me wonder how rushed this issue was to meet its shipping date.
"Star Wars" is a one-off story involving Kenobi defending young Skywalker and his homestead. The comic book doesn't explore any new territory as it throws the usual group of thugs from Jabba's palace to shakedown the locals. Kenobi seems to be on the brink of depression and while this is a great idea, it only gets explored for a couple of pages. Generally this is the kind of story that has been told many times before. Perhaps those that are new to the Star Wars universe of comic books might find something to like in here but I found the story to be unimaginative and very average. I expect more from this creative team on the flagship book dealing with this subject matter. Proceed with lowered expectations.
2.5 out of 5 Geek Goggles
