Imagine General Skywalker not as a whiny farmboy but as a swaggering force to be reckoned with very much like John Wayne in The Searchers.  He’s father of two boys:  Annikin, the tough older brother with the look of Alan Tudyk, and Deak, well, Deak is a bit like Anakin, the excited little farmboy from the movie prequels.  Imagine a very young Princess Leia Nash with her mother and father and siblings Biggs and Windy on their home planet before war comes along.  The Emperor, with the look of Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon, presides over the capital city of Alderaan, where he has aligned his political influences to wipe out the last of the outlawed Jedi, based in the Aquilean System…

We’ve previewed the first issue of The Star Wars, probably the most eagerly awaited Star Wars event since the prequels were first released in theaters, and we think everyone will want to get their hands on this eight-issue mini-series from Dark Horse Comics that hits comic book stores on September 4, 2013.  Based on George Lucas’s original rough draft screenplay, you will absolutely find more than a few story and character elements that are better than… dare we say… those found in the original Star Wars: A New Hope movie.  Blasphemy?  Maybe, but J.W. Rinzler, whose worked we’ve reviewed here at borg.com before, no doubt has connected missing pieces from the Lucas source material to begin for us this intriguing parallel universe of the world of the Jedi-Bendu, the Great Rebellion, and the Knights of Sith.  And of course, The Star Wars couldn’t have a better artist on this project with the new futuristic yet familiar worlds required for this story via borg.com favorite artist Mike Mayhew.  Mayhew has a way of letting his characters show gripping emotion, conveying in just one panel feelings that some artists never achieve in their work–and his first issue is simply stunning.

And this is poised to be the best-selling Star Wars licensed property this year–if it doesn’t definitively prove the Star Wars comic book license should remain with Dark Horse Comics then nothing will.  Disney could never do as well.  Star Wars Episode VII coming in 2015… directed by JJ Abrams… who cares?  It can’t be as cool as this new series, steeped in the classic Star Wars tradition fans love.

Yesterday Dark Horse Comics released this teaser trailer for the series:

And if you want to read the first seven pages of Issue #1, you can find them here at the Dark Horse Comics website.

Comic book retailers… we hope you order extra copies of this one.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com