Star Wars #17
Cover dated: November 1978
Issue title: Crucible!
Script: Chris Claremont (plot)/Archie Goodwin (script)
Artwork: Herb Trimpe (pencils)/Al Milgrom (inks)
Colours: Marie Severin
Letters: Rick Parker
Cover art: Dave Cockrum (pencils)/Bob McLeod (inks)
Overall rating: 9 out of 10




Plot summary: As he pilots the Millennium Falcon through deep space, Luke Skywalker's mind drifts back to his former life on Tatooine. He remembers how he and his friend Biggs Darklighter, along with the other teenagers from around Anchorhead, used to race their skyhoppers through the twisting, treacherous maze of Beggar's Canyon. After one particular race held in honour of Biggs' leaving to go to the Imperial Academy, the festivities were interrupted by a damaged landspeeder crashing nearby. Among the wreckage, Luke and the others found a wounded militia scout, who warned them of an impending attack by the Sand People.

While the rest of the gang attempted to hold off the attacking Tusken Raiders, Luke and Biggs departed in Luke's skyhopper to warn the local population of the danger. However, the pair were attacked by a Tusken Raider and Biggs was wounded by a poisoned gaderffii stick. This left Luke with no choice but to fly him through the dangerous caverns of Diablo's Cut, in order to get Biggs the urgent medical assistance he required and to warn the locals of the marauding Sand People. Skywalker managed the feat, but not without wrecking his skyhopper. As Luke snaps out of his daydream, he reminds himself of how fortunate he is to have realised his ambition of leaving Tatooine and becoming a Rebel hero.


Comments: Just like issue #16, this is another fantastic done-in-one story and has always been a firm favourite of mine from Marvel's Star Wars run. It's also another fill-in issue, since the final page of last month's comic promised us a story entitled "The Empire Strikes", but we won't get to read that particular adventure until next issue. Just like "The Hunter!", this story initially passed me by when it came out in 1978 and I had to wait until it was re-printed in late 1983 in Marvel UK's Return of the Jedi: Winter Special before I read it.

The first thing to say about this issue is that almost the entire thing is a flashback to Luke Skywalker's life on Tatooine, prior to the events of the Star Wars movie. The story is set around a celebration skyhopper race for Luke's childhood friend Biggs Darklighter, who is leaving Tatooine for the Imperial Academy. The basic plot was devised by Chris Claremont, who is famous for his celebrated run on Marvel's Uncanny X-Men. Overall, the story is a fairly good one, even if it is a little inconsequential, in terms of Marvel's Star Wars series overall. However, the real draw here is not the plot necessarily, but the opportunity to glimpse events from Luke's life before he crossed paths with C-3PO and R2-D2 and that's what makes this comic such an interesting read.

Archie Goodwin's scripting is on top form again and he writes Luke and Biggs' friendship very well indeed. We see the brotherly closeness of the "two shooting stars that'll never be stopped" and the characterisation of the pair is totally in line with the Star Wars novelization and the deleted Anchorhead scenes from the film itself, which would eventually see the light of day on the 1998 Star Wars: Behind the Magic CD-ROM and the 2011 Blu-ray release of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. I also like that Goodwin has Luke being the first pilot to successfully navigate Diablo's Cut in a skyhopper because it shows us just how good a pilot he's become and just how strong the Force is within him, although he doesn't know it yet. Also, it's kinda neat that we see exactly how Luke managed to crash his skyhopper, since this incident is briefly mentioned in the novelization. It also explains why Luke didn't use the craft to search for the runaway R2-D2 in the Star Wars film.

Something else that I want to highlight about this issue is how cool it was back in the day to finally see such things as womp rats and T-16 skyhoppers (womp rats were only mentioned in the movie and the most we saw of a skyhopper was Luke briefly playing with a model one). As a kid, finally getting to see Luke race his T-16 down Beggar's Canyon, as I'd read he had in the Star Wars novelization, was a great thrill. It's important to note this because, at their best, the Marvel comics excelled at showing us young Star Wars nerds of the late '70s and early '80s things that we'd only ever read about or heard mentioned in the films. This was one of the major draws of the comic series, in my view.

As fascinating and well written as Goodwin's script is, there's a fairly big continuity glitch in one particular scene in this story, in which Luke's Aunt Beru reminds Uncle Owen that he once "let a brother leave without saying good-bye." This is clearly a reference to Luke's father, who wouldn't actually be named as Anakin Skywalker until the release of Return of the Jedi in 1983. The continuity issue gets worse a panel or two later when Beru explains to Luke that Owen depended on his father staying on the moisture farm with him, instead of leaving to be a Jedi. Since the release of the prequel trilogy we now know that this isn't at all how things transpired. However, this story was written back in the days when Obi-Wan Kenobi's comments to Luke in the film, about how his uncle didn't agree with his father's ideals and thought he should have stayed on Tatooine, could be taken at face value. In fact, in the Star Wars novelization, Kenobi even flat out states that Owen Lars thought Luke's father should have concentrated on his work moisture farming instead of leaving, so we probably shouldn't be too hard on Goodwin.

As for the art in this issue, it's simply gorgeous. Herb Trimpe is probably best known for his work on Marvel's The Incredible Hulk, but from the evidence here, it's a real pity that he couldn't have drawn more issues of Star Wars (this was to be his one and only contribution to the series). He's excellent at capturing that certain Star Wars-y feel, with his Sand People and Banthas in particular looking absolutely perfect. I also like how Trimpe captures the unending vastness of the parched desert plains of Tatooine.

Trimpe manages to cram a lot of story into this issue too, with a fairly densely packed panel layout, especially for a Bronze Age comic. There's a dynamic, kinetic energy to his action sequences, which really captures the "Faster! More intense!" mantra of George Lucas's directorial style on Star Wars. This is especially true of those panels in which Trimpe shows the skyhoppers swooping down into the canyons of Tatooine or Luke thundering across the desert landscape in his landspeeder. You can almost "see" or "feel" the movement in some of these panels...








The sequential flow and pacing of the art is good and Trimpe's staging is excellent. There's also some very nicely detailed backgrounds in this comic. Al Milgrom's inks are very sympathetic and the combination of the two artists makes for some really pleasing artwork. Trimpe also gives us a glorious full-page recap of the events of the Star Wars movie in this issue, just as Walt Simonson did last month. I think my only slight complaint of Trimpe's artwork would be that his depiction of Aunt Beru looks quite a bit younger than the actress who played her in the original Star Wars film. But that minor quibble aside, his art is quite simply the best we've seen in this series so far, in my opinion. Dave Cockrum's front cover is also pretty nice and certainly quite striking.

Like last issue, I feel that this is quite a bold comic for Marvel to have put out in late 1978, in that it consists almost entirely of a flashback sequence from before Luke got drawn into the Rebellion. The plot is fascinating, the scripting tight and the art really good looking. I said in my review of Star Wars #16 that I felt it was the best comic to have been published in this series so far, but issue #17 is even better. It looses a point for the big continuity error mid-way through, but nonetheless, this is exactly the kind of comic that I'd recommend for someone who had never read any of Marvel's original Star Wars run.


Continuity issues:

• Aunt Beru reminds Uncle Owen that he let Luke's father leave Tatooine without saying goodbye and she also later intimates that Luke's father once worked on the Lars' moisture farm. The prequel trilogy makes it clear that neither of these things are correct.

Favourite panel:



Favourite quote: "Gangway, hotshot, I'm making my move!" – Biggs good-naturedly taunts Luke as his skyhopper pulls ahead of his friend's.