Star Wars: A Long Time Ago Volume 3: Resurrection Of Evil [Paperback]

Book 3 of the Dark Horse Comics reprints of Marvel's Star Wars comics is a fine achievement in itself, and these books have never looked better! In fact, doing a back to back comparison with this trade paperback and the original comics will shock you as to how much improved these re-colored reprints are!

As for the issues covered in this volume (#39-53), there is a definite improvement in the overall quality: The art is getting away from the blocky (but well-liked by this reviewer) style of Carmine Infantino, which is still present, but the absolutely gorgeous art of Al Williamson and Walt Simonson is more striking and the characters look more like the onscreen actors from Star Wars. This is especially evident on the "Empire Strikes Back" adaptation featured in the first six issues of this volume.

The writing gets better with these issues, too. Archie Goodwin and David Michelinie have always been superb storytellers and they turn in some fine work here. I particularly enjoyed Michelinie's 2-part "Tarkin" story which blew me away as a ten year-old back in '81. Mike W. Barr's "The Last Jedi" is another story I liked as a kid, but it's even better and more poignant through adult eyes.

The Dark Horse reprints of the Marvel Star Wars comics are definitely worth getting, especially if you're wary of constantly digging out those old, yellowing copies from your original comic book collection. I'm so happy that someone saw fit to re-release these comics, which were so important to my friends and I as kids, almost as important as the movies! The Marvel books kept us entertained and inspired us to create our own characters that would inhabit our own small corner of the vast "Star Wars Universe."

Before the Star Wars Expanded Universe, there was the Star Wars comic book by Marvel. Between the first two movies, this was about the only way to experience the further adventures of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and all the rest. This volume begins with the 6 isssue adaption of The Empire Strikes Back, drawn by comics legend Al Williamson. The adaption is very faithful to the movie, and the artwork is some of the best seen in a Star Wars comic. The Empire adaption is followed by a series of stories drawn by Carmine Infantino, famous for his work on the Flash, Adam Strange, and Batman at DC. His artwork is more stylized than Williamson's, and my be tough for modern comic fans to get used to. The final story arc involves the Empire's building of a second battle station called the Tarkin (predating the plot of Return of the Jedi by a couple years). This is one of the best stories in the Marvel run, and marks the beginning of Walt Simonson's time as artist on the series.

If you were a kid during the seventies and grew up with Star Wars and comics, this will be a nostalgic blast from the past! I love it and plan on buying the other volumes in the series.

When it first acquired Star Wars, Marvel Comics wasn't sure how to handle the property but came to appreciate it, assigning some of its top talent to the book.

That show of appreciation continues here. Beginning with one of the finest adaptations ever (if not THE finest), "The Empire Strikes Back" by Archie Goodwin and the legendary Al Williamson does an incredible job of capturing the movie. My only complaint is the hand lettering Williamson prefers to do.

TESB ends with something of a cliffhanger (Han Solo has been frozen in carbonite and handed over to the bounty hunter Boba Fett), a fact which would give migraines to most scripters. Rescuing Han is a priority for Luke, Leia and Lando (sounds like a law firm). How do you deal with the fact that the book CAN'T let the heroes achieve this (an event reserved for the next film which won't appear for a couple of years), although they must try, without making it look like one failure after another?

The late Mr. Goodwin does an admirable job dealing with this conundrum. He realized that although a rescue was a priority for the heroes, it wasn't for the Rebel Alliance. They have other concerns, the main one being finding a base to replace Hoth, captured by the Imperials in TESB.

In this volume, Luke is captured by an Imperial probe droid that controls an entire rebel ship. Lando discovers a former hero of the alliance who has renounced violence. R2D2 and C3PO are sent to Kligson's Moon AKA Droid World, where no organic life is permitted. Princess Leia Organa plays a game of high stakes finance and diplomacy against Darth Vader on Aargau, a sort of Swiss bank of space. Luke encounters someone who may be "the Last Jedi," before succumbing to the Crimson Forever, a piece of Han Solo's past come back to haunt the rebels. The heroes join forces to defeat the Tarkin, a new superweapon without the flaw that allowed the Death Star to be destroyed, only to get caught in the crossfire of an attempted Imperial mutiny against Darth Vader. This volume closes with a tale by Chris Claremont of Leia crashlanded on Calia, which is suspiciously like Edgar Rice Burrough's Barsoom. Although this is only a two-part story, for some reason, the editors chose to end this volume halfway through the story.

"Resurrection of Evil" is Goodwin's swan song on this title. Carmine Infantino, who provided the majority of the art in this book, will do a few more tales next volume. Both men should be proud of their work in this book.

This volume also features the first story by team of David Michelinie and Walt Simonson, who will bring the title to even greater heights.