Review by C.J. Bunce
It only wrapped its third season less than a year ago and the Disney+ TV series The Mandalorian is still delivering exciting content for the Star Wars brand. The latest takes us back to the age-old medium of the comic book adaptation, a concept that’s been around nearly as long as movies and television, with Fawcett Comics delivering adaptations of movies back in the 1930s. You’ll need to look back to 1980, to Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson’s adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back, to find a Star Wars comic as worthy as the new manga adaptation of The Mandalorian.
The Mandalorian: The Manga Volume 1, available now here at Amazon, is an attractive, action-filled adaptation faithful to the first episodes of the show. It also brings the story back to its roots.
The first volume contains 116 pages in its paperback or digital edition, with the expected black and white art of the manga format, read right to left. It’s broken into four “episodes,” although these tie to only the first two TV episodes of the show. It begins with The Mandalorian’s first on-screen bounty and his meeting with Carl Weathers’ Greef Karga to get more bounty fobs, taking readers through the encounter with Nick Nolte’s Ugnaught Kuiil, and it ends with the face-off and brief partnership with the IG droid and realization that the bounty is a foundling.
Adapting the story by Jon Favreau et al and providing the artwork is Yusuke Osawa. The series has tallied several volumes in its original Japanese edition, and is only now making it to its English edition thanks to VIZ Media.
If you’re familiar with the backstory for the series, you may know that the story was inspired in part by the 1970 manga series Lone Wolf and Cub, written by Kazuo Koike with artwork by Goseki Kojima. This makes a manga edition for the series adaptation a really good fit, particularly with Osawa’s sharp pencil work and traditional, realistic style.
It’s a great comic series all Star Wars fans should love. Pick up a copy of The Mandalorian: The Manga Volume 1 now from Elite Comics, get a digital copy direct from VIZ Media here, or order a copy here at Amazon. You can also pre-order a copy of Volume 2 here at Amazon, expected to be published in May.
