I liked the time Dr. Doom was replaced by his ward Kristoff, whose own mind had been supplanted by an earlier version of Doom's. When reviewing his past actions, the "new"Doom realized that one of his earliest plots against the FF (shooting the Baxter Building into space) had failed because of the involvement of his then-ally, the Sub-Mariner; reusing the same plan without the Sub-Mariner should yield much better results. And it did!

The Empire in Marvel's Star Wars knew it was on to something with its Death Star... First the original one, then the Tarkin, then the second one! If you don't succeed at first...

Yeah... Budgets, budgets... 

Star Wars Weekly #111
Cover dated: April 9th, 1980
Issue title: Unholy Alliance! (World of Fire!, Part 5)
Script: Chris Claremont
Artwork: Carmine Infantino (pencils)/Gene Day (inks)
Tones: Howard Bender
Letters: Jean Simek
Cover art: Carmine Infantino (pencils)/Bob Wiacek (inks)
Overall rating: 6½ out of 10




Plot summary: After being captured by Imperial Major Grau and his men, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia learn that the Imperials are stranded on the planet Alashan too. Grau suggests that the enemies search the planet together under a banner of truce, since they stand a better chance as a team against whoever or whatever it is that attacked them both. The Rebels procure medicine from the Imperials for their wounded comrade Mici Shabandar, before leaving the injured woman in the care of the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO, as they venture off into the wilds of Alashan to investigate.

After almost a full day's walk, the team finally locates the destroyed Rebel archaeological camp that Luke and Leia were originally sent to investigate. Just as they arrive, the team come under fire from the same powerful superlaser that destroyed their respective starships. Luke pulls Major Grau out of the way of the blast at the last moment, saving his life and gaining the Imperial's trust. Once the allies extricate themselves from the rubble of a rock slide caused by the blast, Luke quickly becomes concerned that the laser came from the direction of their wrecked ship, where Mici and the droids are.


Comments: The first thing I want to note about Star Wars Weekly #111 is that, after the opening truce-making scene between Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and the Imperials, writer Chris Claremont steers us into a scene with some pretty dark subject matter. We see Luke explaining to the critically injured Mici Shabandar that he and Leia are going off to search for whatever it is that's attacking them, prompting a frightened Mici to plead with him to stay with her. She explains that she knows how badly injured she is and that she's afraid she might die there, alone in the dark. The scene is very powerful, especially given the hints that Claremont gave us in issue #108 about possible romantic feelings that the pair have for each other. Carmine Infantino's art in this scene (with Gene Day on inks and Howard Bender applying the Zip-a-Tone) is really nice, with his compositional choices and brooding shadow work communicating the seriousness and emotional vulnerability of the scene excellently. This is some pretty heavy stuff for an action, sci-fi comic like this and warrants me including the entire page in my review...




As for the Imperials, we learn that Major Grau is clearly a somewhat honourable man and a pragmatist too, given that it was he who proposed the truce with the Rebels and handed Luke his lightsaber back after the young Rebel saved his life. However, it's also clear that not all of Grau's men share the desire to co-operate with the enemy: the cowardly Ensign Kyril Lopaki definitely dislikes the two parties working together and that plot point that will come to the fore in future issues.

Something else that I want to note about this issue is that, following the rock slide scene, one of Leia's distinctive "cinnamon buns" on the side of her head comes undone, much like they both did in issue #109. It's a weird look and it's also odd that this has happened twice in short succession. Leia's hair looking messy and dishevelled is becoming a reoccurring element of this story. Maybe she needs to start using stronger space-hairspray or something!




All in all, Star Wars Weekly #111 is another solid instalment of this story arc. It serves to move the story forward quite a bit, but despite the emotionally powerful scene featuring Luke and Mici, this issue lacks the gripping tenseness of last week's episode.

Continuity issues: None

Favourite panel:



Favourite quote: "Humans have so many emotions, Artoo. And most seem to cause them pain. I do not understand, but I'm glad I have none. And yet -- I can't help wondering sometimes... what it would be like." – C-3PO ponders the human condition with R2-D2.

Star Wars Weekly #112
Cover dated: April 16th, 1980
Issue title: A Creature in the Stars! (World of Fire!, Part 6)
Script: Chris Claremont
Artwork: Carmine Infantino (pencils)/Gene Day (inks)
Tones: Howard Bender
Letters: Jean Simek
Cover art: Carmine Infantino (pencils)/Bob Wiacek (inks)
Overall rating: 7 out of 10




Plot summary: On board the wrecked star-cruiser Staraker, the critically wounded Mici Shabandar and the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO are shaken by a series of laser blasts that excavate the ship from the solidified lava in which it is buried. With the ship now accessible, a large creature approaches the airlock, prompting R2 to shock Mici into bio-stasis in order to trick the alien predator into thinking that she is dead. The creatures enters the craft, but sensing no organic life it soon departs, preventing Mici from being slain.

Meanwhile, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, along with Imperial Major Grau and his men, locate an underground tunnel amid the carnage of the Rebel archaeological site that they are investigating. They also discover records that allude to the archaeologists having discovered a huge underground city, with tunnels leading to it. However, an artificial barrier prevented them from entering the subterranean metropolis. The archaeologists decided to go ahead and break through the barrier, leading Leia to ponder whether they unwittingly released the beings that killed them. As the Rebels and Imperials enter the tunnels to investigate, they are unaware that they are being stalked by a ferocious alien creature.


Comments: With this instalment of the "World of Fire!", Chris Claremont takes the already suspenseful plot and ratchets up the tension another notch, with the introduction of a genuinely threatening, bloodthirsty alien creature. Artist Carmine Infantino wisely shows us very little of the alien at this stage, other than a glimpse of scaly hand or clawed foot. When the creature attacks an Imperial stormtrooper towards the end of this issue, the savage ease with which it slices through the soldier's armour is quite gruesome and really made an impression on me as a kid (see my favourite panel below). I think my only complaint about this issue, plot-wise, is that R2-D2's sudden ability to shock Mici Shabandar into some kind of death-like bio-stasis seems awfully contrived and also fairly improbable.

While we're on the subject of Mici, this seems like the perfect time for me to address something about this character that I've alluded to in recent reviews. When I read this storyline as a kid, I assumed that Mici was black-skinned and of African-American appearance, since Infantino seems to be drawing her that way in the comic, with regards to her facial features and hair. It's also how the unknown colourist of the front cover of this very issue depicts her. However, when "World of Fire!" was reprinted in the U.S. in Marvel Illustrated Books: Star Wars #2 – World of Fire, the front cover (which is painted by Earl Norem) depicted Mici as being Caucasian in appearance (that's her standing between Luke and R2)...








In addition, the back cover artwork of this U.S. paperback reprint, which was coloured by Ken Feduniewicz, also depicts Mici as being Caucasian...




Now, Claremont had already introduced one black-skinned female into the Marvel Star Wars universe, with the appearance of Katya M'Buele in his story from Star Wars Annual #1, so it's tempting to assume that Mici was meant to be dark-skinned as well. However, it could be that the unknown colourist who worked on the cover of Star Wars Weekly #112 got it wrong and perhaps Mici was always intended to be Caucasian. On the other hand, given that the story was reprinted in the U.S. some two and a half years after its initial publication in the UK, perhaps it's more likely that it's simply a colouring mistake on Noreem and Feduniewicz's part. Or maybe it's something altogether more interesting and controversial: could it be that perhaps Marvel thought a Caucasian Mici on the cover of Marvel Illustrated Books: Star Wars #2 – World of Fire would appeal more to American Star Wars fans than an African-American character? That's probably unlikely, given the fact that by October 1982 (when this paperback was published) Lando Calrissian was already firmly established as a much loved African-American hero from the Star Wars franchise. Myself, I feel sure that Mici was meant to be of African-American appearance, but I'd love to know for sure and get to the bottom of this.

Continuity issues: None

Favourite panel:



Favourite quote: "Dead is dead, Luke. Once it happens, 'how' it happens doesn't really matter anymore -- to the dead." – Major Grau grimly comments on the carnage at the Rebel archaeological site.

Star Wars Weekly #114
Cover dated: April 30th, 1980
Issue title: Betrayal! (World of Fire!, Part 8)
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: 6½ out of 10




Plot summary: As Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Imperial Major Grau and his men explore a mysterious underground city, an alien creature stalks them from the shadows. Leia is attacked by the creature, as she walks along an elevated causeway, but Luke comes to her rescue by grabbing the princess and jumping off of the walkway with her in his arms. As the pair plunge towards their deaths, Luke snags a nearby tower with his grappling hook and rope, swinging to safety and saving them both.

Elsewhere, Grau and Sergeant Anarine are chased through the city by the alien, after setting off an ineffective trap for the creature. The beast corners the pair, but seconds before it attacks, it teleports away. Meanwhile, Leia manages to find a clue to the creature's weakness in some ancient hieroglyphs, prompting her to rush to the city's control centre with Luke. Once there, the two Rebels are confronted by the treacherous Imperial Ensign Lopaki, who is intent on killing them both to further his reputation and advance his military career.

Comments: Star Wars Weekly #114 is a really action-packed comic, full of daring escapes, blaster shoot-outs and the constant threat of the marauding alien creature. Carmine Infantino's artwork does a great job here of conveying the fast pace and swashbuckling heroics of Chris Claremont's script, while Gene Day's inking seems to be back on point, after looking decidedly weird at times in the last issue. The sequence in which Luke Skywalker throws himself and Princess Leia off of a high causeway and swings to safety, with the princess in his arms, is somewhat reminiscent of the pair's daring swing across the Death Star chasm in the original Star Wars movie. Of course, the free fall and grappling hook escape sequence in this issue stretches credibility a little, but it's exactly the sort of Errol Flynn style daring-do that informed the original Star Wars trilogy and besides, c'mon, this is comic books!

It's nice to see Claremont's sub-plot about Ensign Lopaki's treachery come to a head in this issue, although, as we shall see next week, this sub-plot is somewhat squandered in the end. Still, having Lopaki threatening Luke and Leia at gunpoint serves as an effective cliffhanger. Something that bugs me in this issue is that it's never adequately explained why the alien creature teleported away, just before killing Major Grau and Sergeant Anarine. I suppose that the monster must've realised that Luke and Leia were in the city's central control room and were therefore a threat that needed dealing with immediately. However, the speed and ease with which this monster has dispatched all those that it has attacked before means that it would've surely only taken seconds to finish off these two Imperials. The fact that it left them alive seems unlikely and somewhat of a contrivance on Claremont's part, simply because he wanted the pair to survive the encounter.

Continuity issues: None

Favourite panel:



Favourite quote: "Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa -- I arrest you in the name of the Emperor, for the crime of high treason!" – Ensign Lopaki attempts to apprehend Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia at blaster point.

Star Wars #35
Cover dated: May 1980
Issue title: Dark Lord's Gambit
Script: Archie Goodwin
Artwork: Carmine Infantino (pencils)/Gene Day (inks)
Colours: Nelson Yomtov
Letters: John Costanza
Cover art: Carmine Infantino (pencils)/Bob Wiacek (inks)
Overall rating: 7 out of 10




Plot summary: Among the ruins of a Rebel refuelling station, Darth Vader finally learns that the name of the boy who destroyed the Death Star is Luke Skywalker. Scheming to get his revenge, Vader enlists the help of Ulric Tagge and his younger sister, Domina, who is a member of the religious group The Order of the Sacred Circle. The group wield great influence throughout the Galaxy, but have so far remained neutral in the Galactic Civil War. However, with the Imperials making overtures to the Order, Domina calls on the Alliance to dispatch a representative to persuade the group to side with the Rebellion. Luke is chosen for the mission and sent with R2-D2 to the Order's home planet of Monastery, while Han Solo, Princess Leia, C-3PO and Chewbacca secretly wait in orbit above the planet in the Millennium Falcon, in case Luke should run into trouble.

Once on Monastery, Luke comes face to face with Darth Vader, who is there to represent the Empire. Luke wonders if he's out of his depth, undertaking such a diplomatic mission, but Domina reassures him that he is the Rebellion's best hope for persuading the Order to side with them. However, unbeknown to Luke, Domina is in league with Vader and is intent on extracting revenge on the boy for his involvement in the apparent death of her brothers, Baron Orman Tagge and Silas Tagge.


Comments: Archie Goodwin sets up a really interesting story in this issue, which is the first part of the Red Queen story arc and the first appearance of the mysterious Sister Domina Tagge. Darth Vader's scheming manipulations, in which he keeps the near-dead bodies of Baron Orman Tagge and Silas Tagge (who readers assumed had died last issue) in suspended animation, in order to ensure the support of Ulric Tagge, who is in line to become the next Baron, are a lot of fun to read.

I must say, it's great having Vader back in the comic series and he's certainly a big presence here, having learned that it was Luke Skywalker who destroyed the Death Star. Unfortunately, Goodwin's narration tells us that Vader finds Luke's name almost anticlimactic when he first hears it and there's no mention at all of the Dark Lord recognising the name "Skywalker" or of him realising that Luke is his son. Goodwin also reminds the reader that Vader was the killer of Luke's farther, which as far as Luke and the audience is concerned is true at this point.

Of course, when this comic was being written, the fact that Vader was Luke's father would've been a closely guarded secret and, even if the guys at Marvel had known about it, they certainly wouldn't have been allowed to allude to it in this pre-Empire Strikes Back comic. Still, it's cool that this story represents the first time in the Marvel comics chronology that Luke and Vader have come face to face, meaning that their duel on Bespin Cloud City in The Empire Strikes Back was not their first encounter.

While we're on the subject of things that don't quite align with what we later learn in the movies, we get another one of those uncomfortable incestuous moments that pop up all too frequently in this era of the Marvel series, when Princess Leia overhears Luke on the laserwave link pondering where he stands with the princess, in terms of her romantic feelings for him. As if that isn't bad enough, we also get Leia throwing Domina Tagge some jealous looks, when it becomes apparent that Luke is quite taken with the mysterious redhead. But, just as I always say whenever these slightly awkward moments arise, no-one reading or writing this comic would've had any idea at the time that Luke and Leia would turn out to be brother and sister.

As for Domina, she's a very interesting character of Goodwin's. In fact, I'd have to say that she's probably the most interesting member of the entire Tagge family. She's a complex creation, being something of a manipulative seductress, with killer good looks, as well as a priestess in the Order of the Sacred Circle, and a femme fatale, secretly intent on seeing both of her brother Orman's arch enemies, Luke and Vader, dead. We'll learn later that Domina also has some limited ability with the Force, having received training from Darth Vader himself, but more of that in my review of next issue.

Something else worth noting in this comic is that we see Luke leading a squadron of X-wing fighters as the commander of Blue Squadron. I believe that this is the first time we've seen Luke leading an X-wing squadron like this in the comics. Of course, in the original Star Wars movie Luke was in Red Squadron (although it was referred to as Blue Squadron in the novelization and comic adaptation), so I'm not sure if this is a continuity gaff and it should be Red Squadron or whether it's reasonable to assume that Luke is in an altogether different squadron now. After all, he's not in Red Squadron when we see him in The Empire Strikes Back, but is instead the commander of Rogue Squadron (although Rogue Squadron was essentially formed from the remains of Red Squadron, shortly after the Battle of Yavin). Regardless of all that, it's certainly pretty cool to see Luke leading a flight of X-wings against the Empire.

Something else that I think is cool in this comic is the way in which Goodwin has Leia mention a previous mission in which she hurt her leg. It's a seemingly throwaway line, but I like it because it simultaneously shows us that some time has passed since the Omega Frost saga and also that we're not going to see every single significant event in the central cast's lives in the comic. As such, it gives the impression of these characters having a larger life than what we see on the comic page.

Incidentally, Leia hurts her leg in Alan Moore's later story "Tilotny Throws a Shape", which is set around this same time in Star Wars continuity and will be published in Marvel UK's The Empire Strikes Back Monthly #154 in February 1982. I'm not sure if this was a case of Moore deliberately attempting to fill the gaps and explain how Leia hurt her leg or whether it's just a coincidence. But regardless, "Tilotny Throws a Shape" serves as a very neat explanation for Leia's leg injury.

All in all, Star Wars #35 is a pretty gripping issue that sets up all the characters for the coming story arc very well and you really get a sense of things accelerating towards the events of The Empire Strikes Back. Carmine Infantino's artwork is pretty nice, for the most part, with some excellently composed or staged panels. However, his shaky grasp of Star Wars technology and spaceship design, as well as his overbearingly angular artistic tendencies are as annoying as ever to me. In addition, Infantino seems to have taken to drawing Darth Vader's face mask much wider than it should be, leaving the Dark Lord looking as if he's been filmed in a 4:3 aspect ratio, but watched back in widescreen.

Continuity issues:

• On the cover, Luke Skywalker's lightsaber is coloured red, when it should be blue/white.
• When Darth Vader learns that the boy who destroyed the Death Star is named Luke Skywalker, he shows no recognition of the name at all, despite it being his son.

Favourite panel:



Favourite quote: "Strange. My family placed me in the order so I could maintain my innocence...be free of the Galactic Empire's many intrigues. Yet here I am, deep in an intrigue of my own...ready to betray the order." – Sister Domina Tagge reflects on the chain of events that have led her to form an alliance with Darth Vader.