Star Wars Monthly #159Cover dated: July 1982
Issue title:
Blind Fury!Script: Alan Moore
Artwork: John Stokes
Letters: John Aldrich
Overall rating: 5½ out of 10
Plot summary: On board his X-wing fighter, Luke Skywalker is blindfolded and practising his lightsaber skills with a floating group of training "remotes", imagining a host of grotesque creatures are attacking him. His training is interrupted by a distress signal, with a garbled female voice uttering the words "Garn" and "tower" before the signal breaks off. Realising that the planet Garn is nearby and remembering that he has heard of the planet before, but not recalling exactly where, Luke lands on the grim, diseased world close to an ominous looking tower. Upon entering the structure, a swarm of creatures, similar to those he imagined earlier, attacks him, before mysteriously disappearing. Pressing on, Luke hears a disembodied voice welcoming him to "the halls of his damnation", as he comes across the trapped spirits of long dead Jedi Knights in crystalline soul-snares, along with ancient Jedi skeletons.
Finally, Luke enters the tower's central chamber, in which he finds a dead humanoid sat within a see-through pyramid. The disembodied voice reveals that the body is that of Rur, High Shaman of the Terrible Glare. Luke suddenly remembers that it was his old mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, who told him about the planet Garn and a terrible war fought there between the Jedi and the Order of the Terrible Glare long ago. Rur explains that his body is dead, but his spirit is encoded within a computer and that the computer's sensors detected Luke's lightsaber. Determining that he must therefore be a Jedi, Luke was lured to Garn in order to be killed. Luke explains that the Jedi order is extinct and that the war that Rur's kind fought against the Jedi took place many thousands of years ago. Enraged by the realisation that he has been robbed of his opportunity for revenge, Rur uses his powers to bring the tower crashing down, as Luke barely manages to escape from the crumbling structure with his life.
Later, standing watching the burning ruins, Luke ponders Rur's blind hatred and obsession, while wondering whether there is a lesson to be learned here about his own desire for revenge against Darth Vader.
Comments: "Blind Fury!" is the fifth and final
Star Wars story penned by comics legend Alan Moore for Marvel UK. It's also a tale that I like quite a bit, despite the fact that it's a bit of a mess in places. For one thing, it's not terribly clear exactly when this adventure is set. Based on the fact that this issue was published two years after the release of
The Empire Strikes Back and that Luke Skywalker is wearing the same clothing he wore on Dagobah and Cloud City, it would seem that this story is post-
Empire Strikes Back. However, Luke tells Rur that there are no Jedi left and that his lightsaber was given to him by the last surviving Jedi before he died (i.e. Obi-Wan Kenobi). But what about Yoda? If this is a post-
Empire story, then Luke knows that another Jedi – a Jedi Master, no less – is alive and well on Dagobah. There's also the fact that at the story's end, Luke ponders his own obsession and single-minded desire for revenge against Darth Vader. The events of
Empire muddied the waters of Luke's hatred towards Vader somewhat, with The Dark Lord's revelation that he was Luke's father. So this dialogue also makes me think this is a pre-
Empire story, but as I say, it isn't totally clear.
Another problem I have is that we see Luke undertaking lightsaber practice, using a group of training "remotes", like we did in
Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. But Luke is supposed to be on board his X-wing fighter at the time. X-wings are small, one-man fighter craft, with nothing like the amount of room shown here for Luke to practice in. This goof isn't only problematic from a nit-picky,
Star Wars nerd's point of view either, because it's later revealed that it was Luke's use of a lightsaber on board his X-wing that first alerted Rur to his presence. Since Luke couldn't possibly have had room in his X-wing to undertake lightsaber practice, this is problematic from a plot point of view.
Another issue I have with "Blind Fury!" is that the ancient remains of the dead Jedi Knights that Luke stumbles upon are all dressed in barbarian-esque or fantasy-style armour. It would appear as if Moore and artist John Stokes took the "Knights" part of the Jedi's title a little too literally. Still, it's worth remembering that, within the comics continuity of the original Marvel run, there is some precedent to having the Jedi Knights actually wearing armour. Take Don-Wan Kihotay from the Star-Hoppers of Aduba-3 story arc in
Star Wars issues #8-10 for instance.
One other slight problem is that Obi-Wan Kenobi apparently had time to impart information about an ancient war fought between the Jedi and the Order of the Terrible Glare to Luke during the events of
Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. I guess we have to assume that it was done off-screen, sometime between Kenobi rescuing Luke from the Sand People and Luke and Obi-Wan's arrival at the Death Star. Really though, the idea that Kenobi had time to fill Luke in on the ancient history of the Jedi order during their brief time together seems a bit of a stretch, but it is technically feasible, I guess.
After all those nit-picky grumbles, I must say that Stokes's art is really great here. It has all the beautifully rendered detailing and brooding shadow work that we've come to expect from him on these Marvel UK
Star Wars stories. Moore's writing has its usual poetic and literary tendencies, while the story itself – continuity issues aside – is actually fairly interesting, giving us, as it does, a brief glimpse of ancient Jedi history. In common with some of the other Marvel UK
Star Wars stories from this period, "Blind Fury!" has a creepy, almost nightmarish quality to it too, which I kinda like. Plus, having Luke ruminate on his own obsessive hatred for Vader and the Empire at the close of this tale makes it fairly thought-provoking.
"Blind Fury!" would be the last Marvel UK produced
Star Wars story to be published exclusively for UK audiences. It was first published in America in Dark Horse's
Classic Star Wars: Devilworlds #1 in 1996, where its black & white art was coloured by James Sinclair. This colourised version was again re-printed by Dark Horse in 2013 in their
Wild Space, Volume 1 trade paperback and was then published again in the pages of Marvel's
Star Wars: The Original Marvel Years Volume 3 omnibus in 2015.
All in all, this isn't one of the best of the Marvel UK
Star Wars stories, but it certainly isn't the worst. The main attraction here for me is Stokes's atmospheric artwork, although my own nostalgic attachment to this story may bias me slightly, resulting in me giving it a slightly higher overall rating than it really deserves.
Continuity issues:
- Luke Skywalker is seen practising his lightsaber training on board his X-wing fighter, but X-wings are small, one-man craft with no room to engage in this type of activity.
Favourite panel:
Favourite quote: "Rur, I'm not a Jedi. There are no Jedi anymore. The last one gave me this lightsaber before he died. Trapped inside that computer you've lost track of time. That battle wasn't months ago, Rur. It was years. Thousands of years!" – Luke Skywalker informs the disembodied spirit of Rur, High Shaman of the Terrible Glare, that the Jedi are extinct and that his blind obsession for revenge against them is all for nothing.
