Author: Ben Crofts

I suppose I could blame Cam Kennedy; after all, whatever else he might be accused of, few would disagree that the man nailed the art of drawing Star Destroyers and, perhaps more importantly, the art of drawing Darth Vader. Vader is one of Star Wars’ iconic characters but is deceptively difficult to nail. An example of this can be seen in Vader’s Quest, the story has art by Sir Dave Gibbons. Must be great, yes? There’s certainly nothing wrong with it technically, but Gibbon’s Vader does not look quite right, there’s something off. More recently I get the same sense from John Cassaday’s Vader, but not Salvador Larroca’s work in the companion title.

So if I were to give out a Darth Vader Art Award, who would be in the running and who would win?

Al Williamson (above)

A legend of comic art, Williamson’s contribution to SW was huge. He provided art for both The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi adaptations and did a brilliant newspaper strip with Archie Goodwin after that until 1984. The re-issues Marvel are doing, with recoloured art, of the movie adaptations should show off his art. His cover for Classic Star Wars #3, Vader looming over a starfield, with the Executor under construction is an excellent composition. The way he depicts Vader is one that communicates power and cunning and an absolute sense of confidence, with a measure of pettiness as he chokes officers for failure. Read More

Well, that was fast. A preview of Marvel’s second Star Wars issue went online last week ahead of it coming out this past Wednesday. Said preview blew a big plot moment by showing Luke versus Vader, or more accurately, Luke getting his arse kicked by Vader, who was on Maximum Contempt setting. There’s only one problem with this and that’s that these two aren’t supposed to meet until Cloud City. If Vader and Luke and previously crossed paths it removes a whole lot of power from that scene, and for what? What’s the creative return here for having them meet earlier save that someone thought it ‘cool’? Luke and Vader is cool… but on Cloud City.

Marvel and Jason Aaron are operating on the same principle that Lucas applied to his last re-edit, just because they can, they will. No matter that they’ll take those epic moments of the films and rip them to pieces – an extra duel or ten that happens between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, that has no effect on Cloud City, does it? Of course it does. Much as adding a pointless NOOOO robs the Vader scene in Return of the Jedi of its emotional impact because it renders it too obvious. Read More

One criticism made of my Frankenstein Continuity piece published a few weeks ago is that it was based on an assumption that the makers of The Force Awakens and more did not wish to work with the Expanded Universe. That would be correct, but what if they really did? My prior piece considered only that there would be no interest or only half-hearted corporate interest in creating a horror-style fix. A genuine desire to be collaborative would open up a litany of possibilities.

Now before anyone says that that did not, nor is going, to happen, I’ll say this: where would be the fun be in that? The point of articles like this is to have a bit intellectual fun and look at what might have been, and perhaps, in some cases, what still might be. Read More

“Igor! Is it done?”
“It is, master.”
“Look, it lives! My creation LIVES!”

Several months on from the Great Reboot, a set of questions linger over Star Wars fandom: Could the continuity have been made to work? Could there have been an excision point whereby a lesser part would be jettisoned to save the greater? Could the reboot have been avoided? The answers to these depend very much on how flexible you think filmmakers are willing to be and what kind of continuity SW should be.

I cannot say I was of the view it could never be done, but over time, I have become more skeptical and do not think it could be done and work for SW. The same moves would work for other franchises – Marvel/DC superheroes certainly, Transformers would likely pull it off, Doctor Who would find it laughably easy, but none of those are SW. So a further question is: What about SW stops these solutions taking effect? I will examine three excision points, points where a merge could be considered. The questions for each are those outlined above. Read More