Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jun 4, 2015 11:01:20 GMT -5
Star Wars Weekly #108Cover dated: March 19th, 1980 Issue title: Star Terror! ( World of Fire!, Part 2) Script: Chris Claremont Artwork: Carmine Infantino (pencils)/Gene Day (inks) Tones: Howard Bender Letters: Irving Watanabe Cover art: Carmine Infantino (pencils)/Jack Abel (inks) Overall rating: 6½ out of 10  Plot summary: Having escaped from the Empire's starship construction facility on the planet Foundry with the experimental warship the Staraker, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, R2-D2, C-3PO and Mici Shabandar receive an emergency transmission from General Dodonna. He informs them about the archaeological team on the dead planet of Alashan that the Rebels have lost contact with and also tells them that the scouts sent to investigate the loss of communication have gone missing too. He reveals that the Rebel archaeologists were looking for ancient technology that could be weaponised by the Alliance in their fight against the Empire, but there is now a concern that this technology could fall into the hands of the Imperials. Upon arriving at Alashan, the Staraker is intercepted by a squadron of Imperial TIE fighters. The Rebels manage to destroy the enemy craft, but an Imperial cruiser appears from behind a nearby moon, cutting off the Staraker's escape route. Just as all looks lost, a beam of energy shoots upwards from the surface of Alashan, destroying the cruiser. Comments: This issue sees the two plot lines from the last instalment of the story combine, as Luke Skywalker and the others are redirected from their mission to bring the stolen Staraker back to the Rebel base on Yavin 4, and are instead sent to investigate the strange happenings on Alashan. Chris Claremont's writing is pretty solid for the most part and his dialogue is a little better than it was in the previous issue. He also gives us a pretty good cliffhanger ending, with a powerful, Death Star-esque laser lancing up from the planet Alashan and destroying the Imperial cruiser that is attacking the Staraker. It's such an awesome show of might, that the reader can't help but wonder if the Staraker will be its next target. It also makes you wonder how all this connects to the ancient Alashanian technology that Dodonna mentioned, and therefore ratchets up the story's air of mystery a notch. As for the new female character that Claremont introduced last issue, Mici Shabandar, it's clear from what we've seen so far that she's very much in the Princess Leia mould, insofar as she's good with a blaster and more than able to look after herself in a fight. She's also apparently a skilled computer tech and droid mechanic. As this issue opens, Mici has changed out of the 1940s influenced, "Rosie the Riveter"/"We Can Do It!" style disguise that she wore last issue and into what seems to be tight-fitting trousers and a low-cut, billowy blouse, with metal cups over her breasts. Later, it appears as if the blouse is discarded altogether and Mici is naked from the waist up, save for the metal boob cups. If so, that's a fairly daring outfit and it certainly got my attention when I first encountered this story as an 11 or 12-year-old. Alternatively, it could be that Mici's wearing a skin-tight body suit, with the metal cups over the top of that suit. Certainly when this story arc was re-published in the U.S. in Marvel Illustrated Books: Star Wars #2 – World of Fire, the back cover artwork suggested that this was the case. However, the rear cover was coloured by Ken Feduniewicz and I'm not sure that I trust his colouring – or the Earl Norem painted front cover either – because Mici is depicted as Caucasian in both illustrations and there's a question mark in my mind over whether or not Claremont intended her to be black-skinned. More on that matter in my review of Star Wars Weekly #112. See for yourself: is Mici supposed to be naked from the waist up, save for the metal breast cups, or is she wearing a skin-tight, full body suit?  While we're on the subject of Mici, there appears to be some kind of underlying mutual attraction between her and Luke coming to the fore in this issue. Of course, given what she's wearing, it's hardly surprising that Skywalker's interested!  Carmine Infantino's artwork here is on a par with last issue and I must say that Gene Day's inking has been very nice in both instalments of this story so far. I'm not always the biggest fan of Day's inking on this series, but the level of detailing he brings to this arc is exquisite and happily there's a lack of the overly-harsh or ugly facial expressions that we sometimes get when he inks Infantino. Simply put, his efforts here make the "World of Fire!" the best looking of any of the Marvel UK exclusive Star Wars stories thus far. Continuity issues: None Favourite panel:  Favourite quote: "This ship is a dream! I tell you, Princess -- she could give Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon a run for their money." – Luke Skywalker enthusiastically comments on how well the Staraker handles.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jun 7, 2015 7:02:42 GMT -5
Star Wars Weekly #109Cover dated: March 26th, 1980 Issue title: Molten Doom! ( World of Fire!, Part 3) Script: Chris Claremont Artwork: Carmine Infantino (pencils)/Gene Day (inks) Tones: Howard Bender Letters: Irving Watanabe Cover art: Carmine Infantino (pencils)/Bob Wiacek (inks) Overall rating: 6 out of 10  Plot summary: Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, R2-D2, C-3PO and Mici Shabandar have journeyed to the planet Alashan in the stolen Imperial warship Staraker to investigate a sudden loss of communication from a Rebel archaeological team. After an Imperial cruiser that intercepted them is destroyed by a mysterious blast of energy from the planet's surface, the Staraker itself comes under fire, resulting in Mici being badly injured. As Luke attempts to land the damaged ship, he sees a vision of Obi-Wan Kenobi telling him to trust the Force. With his former mentor's guidance, Luke manages to crash land the ship into a lava field. As the Rebels slowly regain conciousness after their crash, Leia tends to Mici's wounds, while Luke attempts to leave the Staraker in order to ascertain how badly damaged the ship is. However, the ship's exit hatch will not open because the lava that they have landed in has cooled and solidified around the craft, effectively burying the Rebels alive. Comments: As in previous instalments of this story arc, Carmine Infantino's artwork is really good here. He uses some inventive panel composition and "camera angles" to enhance the Staraker's disorientating plunge towards the planet Alashan's surface and there's also some really nice shadow work in the aftermath of the crash. In particular, I love how Infantino has C-3PO's lighted eyes pierce through the gloom of the darkened spaceship interior on page 5. I also like the fact that, as a result of the crash impact, Leia's famous "cinnamon bun" hairstyle has come undone, leaving her with a pair of pigtails instead, which makes a nice change. Of course, all of Infantino's annoyingly angular tendencies are still present and the Staraker is still one of the ugliest starships I have ever seen, but in terms of successfully conveying the excitement and atmosphere of Chris Claremont's script on the comic page, Infantino does a superb job here. There are yet more gripping plot twists in this comic, with our Rebel heroes finding themselves entombed in solidified lava at the issue's conclusion, which makes for an excellent cliffhanger. We also have Mici getting badly injured by an explosion on board the Staraker, which serves to heighten the sense of threat in this already fairly suspenseful story. Of course, like a red-shirted security officer on Star Trek, one could argue that the character of Mici is only here to be put in peril and therefore increase the air of danger in the story, but Claremont has written the character well enough in her relatively brief appearances so far, that the reader actually does care what happens to her. Something else worth noting in this issue is that Luke once again hears the spirit voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi, just as he did recently in issue #33 of the regular U.S. Star Wars series. Elements like this from Marvel's Star Wars comic play nicely into events seen later in The Empire Strikes Back, when Obi-Wan's Force ghost appears to Luke on Hoth and Dagobah. On the downside, after three instalments of "Word of Fire!", I can't help feeling that Claremont is dialling it in here, in terms of his dialogue. It's not that the dialogue is terrible or anything, but it's a little cringy in places or slightly out of character here and there, and certainly not up to the standards of his writing in Star Wars Annual #1. Overall though, this is another very readable instalment of this above average story arc. Continuity issues: None Favourite panel:  Favourite quote: "It's bad, Luke. The crash plastered her against the forward bulkhead. She has broken bones and internal injuries -- she needs a hospital." – Princess Leia worriedly relays the extent of Mici Shabandar's injuries to Luke Skywalker.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jun 7, 2015 16:34:34 GMT -5
Say Confessor, did you read Marvel Preview #15, featuring Star-Lord? The art is by Infantino and Wiaceck, very much along the lines of the Star Wars comics, with slightly modified star destroyers and stormtroopers. I must say that even if I bemoaned the fact Infantino's designs didn't really look like what we had seen in the movie, there was a certain uniformity to his ships and buildings that added a lot of authenticity to the comic and I eventually grew very fond of his Star Wars style!
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jun 8, 2015 5:52:58 GMT -5
Say Confessor, did you read Marvel Previw #15, featuring Satr-Lord? The art is by Infantino and awiaceck, very much along the lines of the Star Wars comics, with sligtly modified star destroyers and stormtroopers. I must say that even if I bemoaned the fact Infantino's designs didn't really look like what we had seen in the movie, there was a certain uniformness to his ships and buildings that added a lot of authenticity to the comic and I eventually grew very fond of his Star Wars style! No, I've not read that issue, roquefort. I'll have to see if I can check it out. Interestingly, that issue of Marvel Preview predates Infantino's work on SW by about a year, and Infantino and Wiacek's partnership on the series by around 18 months. I have read the few issues of John Carter: Warlord of Mars that Infantino penciled and those issues definitely had a comfy, nostalgic vibe for me because of my familiarity with Infantino's Star Wars stuff (even though I only read them for the first time about 5 years ago). Of course, as I'm sure you know, issues #53 and #54 of Marvel's Star Wars comic featured some old, unused John Carter pages of Infantino's, retooled as a SW tale. I know exactly what you mean regarding Infantino's "uniformness". His SW universe definitely has a very distinctive look to it. As a kid, his un- Star Wars-y art used to really annoy me, but as an adult I really appreciate what a fine comic artist and skilled storyteller he was. Plus, of course, Infantino's art reminds me of being a child, pure and simple, so I enjoy it for that reason nowadays too. |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jun 8, 2015 16:19:48 GMT -5
It's one of the best reasons to appreciate an artist's work, if you ask me!
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Post by thwhtguardian on Jun 8, 2015 21:39:00 GMT -5
I just got Wild Space Vol.1 in the mail today so hopefully I can catch up with your reviews of Star Wars Weekly
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jun 9, 2015 7:11:57 GMT -5
I just got Wild Space Vol.1 in the mail today so hopefully I can catch up with your reviews of Star Wars Weekly Ah, cool! And I think the Pizzazz strips are in there too (although they're hard going). |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Jun 9, 2015 15:41:23 GMT -5
I just got Wild Space Vol.1 in the mail today so hopefully I can catch up with your reviews of Star Wars Weekly Ah, cool! And I think the Pizzazz strips are in there too (although they're hard going). Yeah, it starts out with them and then moves on to Star Wars Weekly. I leafed through it yesterday and I was slightly sad it didn't include some of the interviews advertised on the covers of Star Wars Weekly. I mean I understand why the micronauts and Guardians and the Galaxy strips aren't included but extra star wars content would have seemed to have fit. |
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Post by lindario on Jun 13, 2015 5:45:37 GMT -5
Nooo! Someone deleted my answer to your timeline comment at May the Force thread! In case you didn't get to read it, I'll repeat its main points briefly.
The word choice "most" of all post-Empire comics was a bit overkill on my part. Shira Brieh/Lumiya-saga, search for Tay Vanis, the Iskalon storyline and most of all post-Jedi comics, including the entire Nagai crisis, are all still there, because I feel they are important and natural parts of my 'lil comic continuity. Search for Han Solo, the Tarkin and Crimson Forever trilogy on the other hand I axed despite their undeniable quality because they either conflicted with other stories or didn't advance the overall plot.
About the stories you mentioned, nothing personal against Jawas of Dooms. It's a fun ride, but there are multiple reasons for why I left it out. Chanteuse of the Stars on the other hand I find to be the weakest point of Marvel's Star Wars run. However, there's also a timeline related reason for its erasing that's not affected by my personal taste.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jun 13, 2015 6:55:18 GMT -5
Nooo! Someone deleted my answer to your timeline comment at May the Force thread! In case you didn't get to read it, I'll repeat its main points briefly. Your post wasn't deleted. There's something funny going on with Proboards at the moment. Your old post should be restored sometime soon. There's an announcement about it here... classiccomics.boards.net/thread/2177/missing-postsThe word choice "most" of all post-Empire comics was a bit overkill on my part. Shira Brieh/Lumiya-saga, search for Tay Vanis, the Iskalon storyline and most of all post-Jedi comics, including the entire Nagai crisis, are all still there, because I feel they are important and natural parts of my 'lil comic continuity. Search for Han Solo, the Tarkin and Crimson Forever trilogy on the other hand I axed despite their undeniable quality because they either conflicted with other stories or didn't advance the overall plot. About the stories you mentioned, nothing personal against Jawas of Dooms. It's a fun ride, but there are multiple reasons for why I left it out. Chanteuse of the Stars on the other hand I find to be the weakest point of Marvel's Star Wars run. However, there's also a timeline related reason for its erasing that's not affected by my personal taste. Interesting that you have your own personal Star Wars comic continuity going on. I like that! ...and no offence taken over "Jawas of Doom". I think that, generally speaking, the Marvel comics published between The Empire Strikes Back and Reurn of the Jedi are the best of that run, although there are certainly certain issues published before and after that that are really good too. The Tay Vanis and Iskalon story arcs were wonderful indeed. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jun 14, 2015 18:31:36 GMT -5
Star Wars #34Cover dated: April 1980 Issue title: Thunder in the Stars!Script: Archie Goodwin Artwork: Carmine Infantino (pencils)/Bob Wiacek (inks) Colours: Petra Goldberg Letters: Joe Rosen Cover art: Carmine Infantino (pencils)/Bob Wiacek (inks) Overall rating: 6 out of 10  Plot summary: Following his defeat in a lightsaber duel at the hands of Luke Skywalker, Baron Orman Tagge is now in a semi-catatonic state and being kept sedated on board the Tagges' Mining Explorer, on the orders of his brother Silas. Meanwhile, on board the Millennium Falcon, Han Solo, Princess Leia and Chewbacca are leading the Rebel Fleet toward the strategically important supply planet of Junction, under the impression that the Tagge's Omega Frost weapon is to be used against the world. However, the Tagges instead plan to use the Omega Frost on the Rebel fleet as it races through an asteroid corridor on its way to the planet. Having escaped from the Tagge's ship in a stolen Imperial TIE fighter, Luke finds that his craft has been sabotaged, forcing him to eject before he crashes into an asteroid. With no way of warning the approaching Rebel fleet that they are entering a trap, he locates and destroys one of the towers that generates the Omega Frost effect, thwarting the Tagge's plan just as the fleet is entering the weapon's range. Realising that they have been lured into a trap, the Rebels change course and attack the Mining Explorer, destroying the ship and apparently killing Silas and Orman Tagge. Comments: The Omega Frost story arc wraps up with this issue, which plays out as a pretty straight forward slice of space opera. Archie Goodwin's writing and scripting is reasonable here, with his characterisation of most of the core cast being good, but it's far from his best work on the series. In particular, some of Han Solo's dialogue is a little too corny for it to be totally in character. This is a shame because I noted an issue or two back that Goodwin's writing of the Corellian smuggler had improved of late, but it seems to have taken a turn for the worse here. On the plus side, there's some nicely written and very in character bickering between the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO. The issue opens with Han leading the Rebel fleet in the Millennium Falcon on a mission to save the planet Junction and it's a scene that is unintentionally reminiscent of Lando Calrissian's later leading of the Rebel armada in Return of the Jedi. Interestingly, Goodwin has Princess Leia give Han a good luck kiss on the lips during this sequence, which means that, as far as the original Marvel comics continuity is concerned, their kiss on board the Falcon in The Empire Strikes Back was definitely not their first. With Baron Orman Tagge out of the picture, Goodwin takes the opportunity to give us more of an insight into Silas Tagge's character. His cold, scientifically-driven nature has been hinted at in earlier issues, but here we clearly see that, with his steadfastly logical mind, he has no time for trivialities like his brother's passion for family honour or supplanting Darth Vader as the Emperor's right-hand man. As such, Silas actually comes across as a more threatening character. However, he isn't totally without ambition because we learn that he does harbour a faint desire to become the next Baron Tagge. Goodwin does a nice job at the story's climax of showing that Silas's inflexibly scientific mind is incapable of thinking around a problem and giving decisive commands when things go against him in the heat of battle. It is as a direct result of this indecision that Orman and Silas apparently perish at the end of this issue, although, as we know in comic books, the death of a villain is almost never as final as it seems...  One problem I have with the Omega Frost superweapon is that spaceships are obviously already shielded against the extreme cold of space, so I'm not sure how effective the device would actually be against the Rebel fleet. Also, the way in which artist Carmine Infantino depicts the weapon being used shows icicles hanging down from the frozen starships and asteroids, despite the lack of any gravity...   I think the problem with the Omega Frost from a storytelling point of view is that, when he came up with the idea, Goodwin was probably thinking how cool it would be to have a device that could suddenly freeze swathes of boiling desert on the arid planet of Tatooine...and rightly so! It's a very dramatic device within the environs of Tatooine. However, once you transport it to the vacuum of space, it becomes much less striking and possibly problematic from a scientific point of view. We know from information gleaned from the comics themselves that the Omega Frost will work on anything containing moisture – even if it's only tiny microscopic amounts of moisture (presumably the metal hull of a Rebel star-cruiser contains enough minute traces of water for it to be vulnerable to the weapon). But how would the weapon work against a starship that is already designed to withstand extreme cold? Luckily, the Classic Comics Forum's resident molecular biologist and all round crazy scientist Roquefort Raider has attempted to provide an explanation... "I try to rationalize it this way: a machine can not generate cold; what it does is move heat from a point to another one. Why do spaceships not freeze? Space and its vacuum may not be warm, but they're also a pretty good heat insulator since heat can only dissipate from a spatial body by radiation. A well insulated spaceship would not radiate much, and so wouldn't freeze in space if it had some way to replace the small a amount of heat lost by radiation. What the Omega Frost device must be doing is actively shunt a body's heat to some place else (let's say in hyperspace, why not?), and so it might be able to suck all heat out of a spaceship no matter how well it is insulate, or how efficient its heating system.
I would suppose that the Omega Frost does not work on any type of material, but is somehow much more efficient on water molecules than on anything else. Perhaps it has to do with water being easily agitated in varying magnetic fields, as is the case in a microwave oven; The Omega Frost "beam" (whatever it might be) might agitate water molecules and shunt their energy into hyperspace while the metal hulls would just reflect the beam into space. I'm just making things up using real physical properties, you understand; I have no idea how such a thing could be made to work in real life!" That sounds reasonably plausible to me and a big thank you to Roquefort Raider for the explanation. Your Marvel "No-Prize" is in the post, my friend. Aside from the aforementioned icicle problem, Infantino's artwork in this issue is quite reasonable, in spite of the ever-present artistic idiosyncrasies that I always make mention of in my reviews. Bob Wiacek's inking serves to take some of the hard, angular edges off of Infantino's penciling and Petra Goldberg's colouring is, just like last issue, very good indeed. In addition, the Infantino/Wiacek cover is probably one of the most memorable of the entire series and must have really leapt out at kids from the spinner rack back in 1980. Overall, issue #34 of Star Wars is probably the least impressive part of the Omega Frost storyline, but it still manages to function as a reasonably satisfying conclusion to the arc. Unfortunately there are a few sub-standard or goofy elements, like Infantino's space icicles, Han's corny dialogue, Luke managing to slow himself down in the vacuum of space using the momentum generated from igniting and repeatedly re-igniting his lightsaber, and the possible ineffectiveness of a device that flash freezes things in an already sub-zero environment. Nonetheless, the action and excitement quota here is pretty high, with some explosive space battle sequences and a gripping race against time, as Luke tries to disable the Omega Frost weapon before the Rebel fleet is destroyed. Structurally, I also love that the issue ends before we actually see Luke getting rescued from the surface of the asteroid on which he's stranded. That's a nice little touch which re-enforces the notion of this story being just one of an ongoing series of adventures for the central cast. Continuity issues: - Luke ignites his lightsaber as a means of slowing his decent towards an asteroid in the zero gravity environment of space, but lightsaber blades do not provide any thrust and therefore would not slow his velocity.
Favourite panel:  Favourite quote: "Old smuggling hands say if you make it this far, odds are you'll go the distance. Providing nothing happens to change the odds. Old smuggling hands are fond of hedging." – Han Solo wryly notes that the odds of the Rebel fleet successfully navigating the Junction asteroid corridor are not entirely favourable.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jun 15, 2015 5:36:13 GMT -5
Regarding the Omega Frost, my memory is a bit hazy: was there any reason it was not used again?
One of my pet peeves in continuing series is when the bad guys come up with a new terrible weapon that the good guys manage to destroy in extremis (usually due to luck more than anything else) and then the bad guys just give up on it for no good reason *.
The Star Wars saga was not guilty of that when it came to the Death Star, but I can't recall what happened to the Omega Frost project.
* The lamest and laziest excuse we are often offered is "this was the only prototype and it can never be replaced". Yeah, sure... all the plans were aboard the prototype when it blew up, there were no back-ups anywhere, all the engineers involved in the project suddenly lost their memory and the powers that be are so angry that the idea failed that they never, ever want to hear about it again. Or something.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jun 15, 2015 6:23:59 GMT -5
Regarding the Omega Frost, my memory is a bit hazy: was there any reason it was not used again? One of my pet peeves in continuing series is when the bad guys come up with a new terrible weapon that the good guys manage to destroy in extremis (usually due to luck more than anything else) and then the bad guys just give up on it for no good reason *. The Star Wars saga was not guilty of that when it came to the Death Star, but I can't recall what happened to the Omega Frost project. * The lamest and laziest excuse we are often offered is "this was the only prototype and it can never be replaced". Yeah, sure... all the plans were aboard the prototype when it blew up, there were no back-ups anywhere, all the engineers involved in the project suddenly lost their memory and the powers that be are so angry that the idea failed that they never, ever want to hear about it again. Or something. No, it's pretty much as you suspect, it was never used again and no explanation was given for that. Obviously the Tagge ship which contained the Omega Frost technology was destroyed and the project's mastermind Silas Tagge was "apparently" killed. But, as you say, there must've been blueprints etc and, of course, Domina Tagge, Ulric Tagge and Casio Tagge were still at large, so why didn't they re-build or re-use the technology? As you say, the real reason that this never happened was because this is comic books and in comic books once the villain has been vanquished, the scary superweapon he's created is normally never seen again...unless you're from the Smythe family and we're talking Spider-Slayers. Another reason it was quietly forgotten might be because -- just like I said in my last review -- that Archie Goodwin designed the device to deliver maximum storytelling effect on the twin sun-baked planes of Tatooine. It's simply nowhere as near as interesting or visually impressive a weapon once it's taken out of a hot environment. |
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Post by dupersuper on Jun 16, 2015 3:46:56 GMT -5
Star Wars #34Cover dated: April 1980 Issue title: Thunder in the Stars!Script: Archie Goodwin Artwork: Carmine Infantino (pencils)/Bob Wiacek (inks) Colours: Petra Goldberg Letters: Joe Rosen Cover art: Carmine Infantino (pencils)/Bob Wiacek (inks) Overall rating: 6 out of 10  Plot summary: Following his defeat in a lightsaber duel at the hands of Luke Skywalker, Baron Orman Tagge is now in a semi-catatonic state and being kept sedated on board the Tagges' Mining Explorer, on the orders of his brother Silas. Meanwhile, on board the Millennium Falcon, Han Solo, Princess Leia and Chewbacca are leading the Rebel Fleet toward the strategically important supply planet of Junction, under the impression that the Tagge's Omega Frost weapon is to be used against the world. However, the Tagges instead plan to use the Omega Frost on the Rebel fleet as it races through an asteroid corridor on its way to the planet. Having escaped from the Tagge's ship in a stolen Imperial TIE fighter, Luke finds that his craft has been sabotaged, forcing him to eject before he crashes into an asteroid. With no way of warning the approaching Rebel fleet that they are entering a trap, he locates and destroys one of the towers that generates the Omega Frost effect, thwarting the Tagge's plan just as the fleet is entering the weapon's range. Realising that they have been lured into a trap, the Rebels change course and attack the Mining Explorer, destroying the ship and apparently killing Silas and Orman Tagge. Comments: The Omega Frost story arc wraps up with this issue, which plays out as a pretty straight forward slice of space opera. Archie Goodwin's writing and scripting is reasonable here, with his characterisation of most of the core cast being good, but it's far from his best work on the series. In particular, some of Han Solo's dialogue is a little too corny for it to be totally in character. This is a shame because I noted an issue or two back that Goodwin's writing of the Corellian smuggler had improved of late, but it seems to have taken a turn for the worse here. On the plus side, there's some nicely written and very in character bickering between the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO. The issue opens with Han leading the Rebel fleet in the Millennium Falcon on a mission to save the planet Junction and it's a scene that is unintentionally reminiscent of Lando Calrissian's later leading of the Rebel armada in Return of the Jedi. Interestingly, Goodwin has Princess Leia give Han a good luck kiss on the lips during this sequence, which means that, as far as the original Marvel comics continuity is concerned, their kiss on board the Falcon in The Empire Strikes Back was definitely not their first. With Baron Orman Tagge out of the picture, Goodwin takes the opportunity to give us more of an insight into Silas Tagge's character. His cold, scientifically-driven nature has been hinted at in earlier issues, but here we clearly see that, with his steadfastly logical mind, he has no time for trivialities like his brother's passion for family honour or supplanting Darth Vader as the Emperor's right-hand man. As such, Silas actually comes across as a more threatening character. However, he isn't totally without ambition because we learn that he does harbour a faint desire to become the next Baron Tagge. Goodwin does a nice job at the story's climax of showing that Silas's inflexibly scientific mind is incapable of thinking around a problem and giving decisive commands when things go against him in the heat of battle. It is as a direct result of this indecision that Orman and Silas apparently perish at the end of this issue, although, as we know in comic books, the death of a villain is almost never as final as it seems... One problem I have with the Omega Frost superweapon is that spaceships are obviously already shielded against the extreme cold of space, so I'm not sure how effective the device would actually be against the Rebel fleet. Also, the way in which artist Carmine Infantino depicts the weapon being used shows icicles hanging down from the frozen starships and asteroids, despite the lack of any gravity...   I think the problem with the Omega Frost from a storytelling point of view is that, when he came up with the idea, Goodwin was probably thinking how cool it would be to have a device that could suddenly freeze swathes of boiling desert on the arid planet of Tatooine...and rightly so! It's a very dramatic device within the environs of Tatooine. However, once you transport it to the vacuum of space, it becomes much less striking and possibly problematic from a scientific point of view. We know from information gleaned from the comics themselves that the Omega Frost will work on anything containing moisture – even if it's only tiny microscopic amounts of moisture (presumably the metal hull of a Rebel star-cruiser contains enough minute traces of water for it to be vulnerable to the weapon). But how would the weapon work against a starship that is already designed to withstand extreme cold? Luckily, the Classic Comics Forum's resident molecular biologist and all round crazy scientist Roquefort Raider has attempted to provide an explanation... "I try to rationalize it this way: a machine can not generate cold; what it does is move heat from a point to another one. Why do spaceships not freeze? Space and its vacuum may not be warm, but they're also a pretty good heat insulator since heat can only dissipate from a spatial body by radiation. A well insulated spaceship would not radiate much, and so wouldn't freeze in space if it had some way to replace the small a amount of heat lost by radiation. What the Omega Frost device must be doing is actively shunt a body's heat to some place else (let's say in hyperspace, why not?), and so it might be able to suck all heat out of a spaceship no matter how well it is insulate, or how efficient its heating system.
I would suppose that the Omega Frost does not work on any type of material, but is somehow much more efficient on water molecules than on anything else. Perhaps it has to do with water being easily agitated in varying magnetic fields, as is the case in a microwave oven; The Omega Frost "beam" (whatever it might be) might agitate water molecules and shunt their energy into hyperspace while the metal hulls would just reflect the beam into space. I'm just making things up using real physical properties, you understand; I have no idea how such a thing could be made to work in real life!" That sounds reasonably plausible to me and a big thank you to Roquefort Raider for the explanation. Your Marvel "No-Prize" is in the post, my friend. Aside from the aforementioned icicle problem, Infantino's artwork in this issue is quite reasonable, in spite of the ever-present artistic idiosyncrasies that I always make mention of in my reviews. Bob Wiacek's inking serves to take some of the hard, angular edges off of Infantino's penciling and Petra Goldberg's colouring is, just like last issue, very good indeed. In addition, the Infantino/Wiacek cover is probably one of the most memorable of the entire series and must have really leapt out at kids from the spinner rack back in 1980. Overall, issue #34 of Star Wars is probably the least impressive part of the Omega Frost storyline, but it still manages to function as a reasonably satisfying conclusion to the arc. Unfortunately there are a few sub-standard or goofy elements, like Infantino's space icicles, Han's corny dialogue, Luke managing to slow himself down in the vacuum of space using the momentum generated from igniting and repeatedly re-igniting his lightsaber, and the possible ineffectiveness of a device that flash freezes things in an already sub-zero environment. Nonetheless, the action and excitement quota here is pretty high, with some explosive space battle sequences and a gripping race against time, as Luke tries to disable the Omega Frost weapon before the Rebel fleet is destroyed. Structurally, I also love that the issue ends before we actually see Luke getting rescued from the surface of the asteroid on which he's stranded. That's a nice little touch which re-enforces the notion of this story being just one of an ongoing series of adventures for the central cast. Continuity issues: None Favourite panel:  Favourite quote: "Old smuggling hands say if you make it this far, odds are you'll go the distance. Providing nothing happens to change the odds. Old smuggling hands are fond of hedging." – Han Solo wryly notes that the odds of the Rebel fleet successfully navigating the Junction asteroid corridor are not entirely favourable. *snicker "It's a trap!"... |
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Post by The Captain on Jun 16, 2015 5:47:10 GMT -5
Regarding the Omega Frost, my memory is a bit hazy: was there any reason it was not used again? One of my pet peeves in continuing series is when the bad guys come up with a new terrible weapon that the good guys manage to destroy in extremis (usually due to luck more than anything else) and then the bad guys just give up on it for no good reason *. The Star Wars saga was not guilty of that when it came to the Death Star, but I can't recall what happened to the Omega Frost project. * The lamest and laziest excuse we are often offered is "this was the only prototype and it can never be replaced". Yeah, sure... all the plans were aboard the prototype when it blew up, there were no back-ups anywhere, all the engineers involved in the project suddenly lost their memory and the powers that be are so angry that the idea failed that they never, ever want to hear about it again. Or something. No, it's pretty much as you suspect, it was never used again and no explanation was given for that. Obviously the Tagge ship which contained the Omega Frost technology was destroyed and the project's mastermind Silas Tagge was "apparently" killed. But, as you say, there must've been blueprints etc and, of course, Domina Tagge, Ulric Tagge and Casio Tagge were still at large, so why didn't they re-build or re-use the technology? As you say, the real reason that this never happened was because this is comic books and in comic books once the villain has been vanquished, the scary superweapon he's created is normally never seen again...unless you're from the Smythe family and we're talking Spider-Slayers. Another reason it was quietly forgotten might be because -- just like I said in my last review -- that Archie Goodwin designed the device to deliver maximum storytelling effect on the twin sun-baked planes of Tatooine. It's simply nowhere as near as interesting or visually impressive a weapon once it's taken out of a hot environment. The Trask family and their Sentinels would like to say "hi". |
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