It's the one we've all been waiting for, as our heroes come up against Darth Vader again.
Other than Vader being involved, I've not one clue as to what happens in this issue.
I do suspect there'll be no mention of him being Luke and Leia's father, nor of Leia being Luke's sister, nor of R2-D2 and C-3PO being husband and wife.
I don't know, the things you can forget to mention when you're having an intergalactic punch-up.
I also assume that, in his back-up strip, Star-Lord's still tangling with the ship whose inhabitants want to blow up a planet. It sounds to me like they should get together with Darth Vader.
The Hulk's still battling against the Sentinels' Master Mold, with the help of the Angel and Iceman. I suspect this may be the John Byrne drawn tale's final instalment but don't quote me on that.
I know nothing of what the FF, Iron Man and DD are up to but I suspect they're still continuing their respective struggles with Annihilus, Mikas and the Mandrill.
I do know the back cover is once more advertising that sonic-controlled car that'd cost you £75 in modern money.
More enticingly, for violent skinflints like me, it also features an ad for Super Bop Bags, those inflatable thingies you can partially fill with water and then, no matter how hard you hit them, they spring straight right back up again.
Admittedly, that must get somewhat frustrating after a while. When I hit a bag, I expect it to stay hit.
Regardless, the ones advertised this issue are themed around Superman and Batman and you can get them for £1.99 each, which is £10.91 in today's money.
To be honest, £10.91 seems a lot of money for something that doesn't have the sense to stay down when I hit it.
This is a curious one. For some reason, this cover is a Ron Wilson redrawing of John Byrne's original frontage for Spectacular Spider-Man #17. Why Marvel didn't just use the original version, I have no idea.
Anyway, Spidey and the Angel are taking on someone called Rampage who's, allegedly, an old enemy of the Champions and is using Iceman for nefarious purposes.
Elsewhere, on an alternate Earth, the Avengers and Squadron Supreme are looking forward to knocking each others' blocks off, in a tussle on behalf of the Serpent Crown, and Hellcat's looking forward to showing off what she can do in a scrap.
Ah, the good old days before Darth Vader was Luke's father, before Leia was Luke's sister and before R2D2 was Luke's second cousin twice removed.
ReplyDeleteGeorge Lucas created Star Wars but he also ruined it.
ReplyDeleteIt would have been so much better if Star Wars had remained a one-off sci-fi film without all the sequels and prequels.
IMHO, the original (1977-83) movie trilogy was OK. And I would have been OK with adaptations in other media (comics, paperback books) depicting the further adventures of the heroes. But the later movie prequels and sequels are pretentious drivel. As with Star Trek, they got delusions of grandeur, and thought they were creating Great Art.
ReplyDeleteDunno about Great Art exactly, but Lucas probably thought he was making something better than he actually was. But thats as true of the first film as the later sequels, its just that at the start there weren't guaranteed huge profits so Lucas couldn't indulge himself as much.
ReplyDeleteNot a fan myself, but I watched a bit of the Phantom Menace on tv the other week (clearly I have too much time on my hands just now) and it didn't seem that different to what I remembered from the first film, except it relied more on fx, and tried to explain stuff probably best left vague.
All that background about the republic, or midiwhatsits and the force was boring - and a bit stupid - but to be fair it seemed like an attempt at the sort of "worldbuilding" which you'd expect from an ongoing fantasy series.
-sean
Thanks for your comments, Sean, TC and Colin. I must confess I've never managed to make it through any of the prequels without giving up on them. I have yet to get round to seeing any of the sequels but will no doubt do so once they start turning up on Christmas TV, like the original movies do.
ReplyDeleteOK... I have seen all but actually remembers the first 3 star wars released.
ReplyDeleteThose 3 were worthy of a trip to the cinema. And, though the 2nd one was perhaps the least satisfying b/c Hans was frozen in a block of whatever, that fight scene in the snow (Planet Hoth?) was a thriller. I watched # 2 about a year ago just for the fight scene.
The cover with the Hulk looks like he's ready to bust out a disco move, no? LOL.
Happy Black Friday!!!
Well, ITV are showing the prequels weekly right now, so I expect they'll be on their secondary channels in a few weeks Steve.
ReplyDeleteHaven't seen the others, but as a fellow Star Wars sceptic you'll need to be pretty smashed to make it through the whole of Phantom Menace.
-sean
Charlie - looks like C3PO on that Star Wars cover has smoother moves than the Hulk.
ReplyDelete-sean
Yep... Somehow I feel C3PO is mocking my dance moves, lol!
ReplyDeleteYou guys were lucky that week! Iceman and Angel in two different mags! What are the odds?
As a teenager I gave up on the whole Star Wars scene when the muppets showed up in the third movie. It was like Fraggle rock in space.
ReplyDeleteWhy.
M.P.
I have seen all the Star Wars films. The recent sequels all bored me senseless, especially Rogue One which was amazingly dull. I can't remember much about the plots now either. Whereas, with the prequels, I do recall them fairly well. The excitement I got from Phantom, at the time ( late 90s?) was an echo of Star Wars in the spring of 1978. TBH, I was in the company of younger people for Phantom and that helped build an atmosphere.
ReplyDeleteThe mythos is very thin and simplistic to me. It doesn't transcend age barriers, to my mind.
The first three "original" Star Wars films were enough for me. The prequels and sequels, in my opinion, are just fan-milking box office & merchandising whoring.
ReplyDeleteLoved the Avengers/Squadron Supreme/Serpent Crown storyline. Great Perez art and probably the most accurate simulation of an Avengers vs JLA battle/s".