REVIEW: Chewbacca #1
I used to love Marvel’s first run of Star Wars comics. Granted, back when I was a kid, I could only get the weekly or monthly reprints, which would have less than half the pages of their American counterpart. Still the best part of the run was the issues set between Empire and Jedi, which was quite confusing for me as Han Solo was my favourite character by far. Thank the Maker then for Chewbacca. To this day, issue #72 which features panels of conversation between Chewbacca and Artoo, remains a personal favourite.
Writer Gerry Duggan starts of well, with the now familiar “previously” scroll, seen through the eyes of Chewie as the protagonist. Story wise, there isn’t anything particularly new here. A father and daughter get conscripted to work in the mines to pay off a debt. Daughter then escapes and seeks the help of the conveniently crash landed Wookiee. Duggan does add some humour to proceedings, especially the sabaac game. Duggan even tries to get around the issue of explaining what Chewie says, by Zarro’s lack of comprehension leading into assumption, which due to our knowledge of Chewbacca’s past, adds to the humour.
Art is provided by Phil Noto who seems to have rely on “photo” style art when drawing Chewbacca but delivers excellent colors. Take a look at the detail on Chewie’s fur for example. Granted this is still part of the “photo” style, but it is done with enough aplomb to warrant comment.
Marvel is clearly pushing the envelope with their Star Wars books, with a number of books on the rack. Unfortunately, I am not sure that these tales of Chewbacca are as good as both the previous Marvel run and the Dark Horse special which ties into a previous novel series. I may be being unfair: Star Wars, inherently, is not aimed at me. The books are aimed at a new, younger audience which may be more forgiving than I am, as they do not own my set of rose coloured glasses. As such, I am sure new fans will get a kick out of the book and if they, like mu younger self did, discover a new appreciation for the mighty Chewbacca, feel free to check of Star Wars #72 which can be found in the fourth omnibus edition.
Author Profile
- I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow
Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network
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