Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Volume 10

Reprints Avengers 89-100
Written by Roy Thomas and Neal Adams.
Penciled by Neal Adams, Sal Buscema, John Buscema and Barry Windsor-Smith.
Inked by Sam Grainger, Sal Buscema, George Roussos, Tom Palmer, Neal Adams, Alan Weiss, Tom Sutton, Joe Sinnott, Syd Shores and Barry Windsor-Smith.

Summary:
The Avengers battle aliens, gods and Inhumans in a star-spanning epic of the Bronze Age!

On the planet Hala, the villainous Ronan The Accuser takes power over his people, the Kree, and forcibly overthrows its proper ruler, the Intelligence Supreme. Ronan's first act is to activate Sentry 459, a giant robot.

Ronan dispatches the Sentry to Earth to kill the Kree Captain Mar-Vell, AKA the superhero Captain Marvel. Thankfully, the Avengers are protecting Mar-Vell. Vision, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch battle the Sentry, but the robot captures Mar-Vell and teleports him away from the Avengers.

Avengers Wasp and Yellowjacket are conducting research in the Arctic Circle, near Alaska. They notice a strange tropical island among all the ice. When Yellowjacket investigates this, he's shot with some sort of ray. It's the work of Ronan, who has set up a base on the island.  Fearing that her husband has been killed, Wasp contacts her fellow Avenger Goliath, who in turn calls the rest of the team to the Arctic. 

The Avengers learn that Ronan blasted Yellowjacket with an Evo-Ray, which causes Pym to de-evolve into a brutal, savage caveman. Ronan intends to de-evolve all life on Earth, which will make it easier for the Kree to conquer or destroy the planet.

During the battle, Ronan receives an emergency transmission from outer space. The Skrull Empire, eternal foes of the Kree, have launched an all out war against Ronan's people. Ronan flees Earth to join the battle. The Kree-Skrull War has begun! The Avengers find themselves caught in the middle of two alien races who are determined to slaughter each other.

The Avengers decide to keep Ronan's actions on Earth secret from public knowledge, believing that it would cause panic and paranoia. When the Kree activities are uncovered, the Avengers are in hot water for keeping secrets. A sense of dread about alien invasions takes over the public consensus. Captain Mar-Vell is suspected of being part of the Kree invasion. This leads to the formation of the Commission on Alien Activities, headed by H. Warren Craddock.

Mar-Vell wants to turn himself in to the commission, believing it will calm the anti-alien sentiments and take heat off the Avengers. His friend Carol Danvers disagrees and takes Captain Marvel to a farm owned by her friends in Upstate New York. Mar-Vell's friend Rick Jones has a vision that Captain Marvel will be attacked when he arrives at the farm. Rick and Mar-Vell have a unique connection (Rick used to "swap atoms" with Mar-Vell, so the Kree captain could appear on Earth), and he fears his friend is in grave danger.

Craddock calls the Avengers into a hearing, where they are made to look like traitors. Original members of the Avengers Thor, Iron Man and Captain America are embarrassed by this development. They tell Wanda, Pietro, Vision and Goliath that they have disgraced the Avengers and the team is dissolved!

Shortly after this, Vision arrives at the mansion. The android is near death. After Ant-Man saves Vision, he tells the Avengers that he, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver were attacked by three cows who turned into members of the Fantastic Four in Upstate New York.

But this version of the FF have different powers than Vision expected. The heroes decide to investigate these strange cows.

The Avengers battle the Thing, Human Torch and Mr. Fantastic. After a brief fight, the heroes learn that their opponents are actually Skrulls. They also discover that the Cap, Iron Man and Thor who dissolved the Avengers were also Skrulls.

Captain Marvel, Quicksilver, and Wanda have been captured by Super-Skrull, who possesses all the powers of the Fantastic Four. Super-Skrull takes the heroes to the Skrull homeworld in the Andromeda Galaxy, hoping to regain the favor of Skrull Emperor Dorrek.

When he arrives at the emperor's throne room, Super-Skrull is promptly stunned and imprisoned.

Emperor Dorrek forces Captain Marvel to construct an Omni-Wave Projector. Such a device could wipe out the Kree. Mar-Vell is forced to construct the projector when Dorrek threatens to kill Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.

Back on Earth, H. Warren Craddock has decided to arrest the Avengers. He sends a brigade of Mandroids to the Avengers' mansion. Mandroids all wear weaponized armor created by Iron Man's alter ego Tony Stark. Iron Man's unexpected knowledge of the Mandroid armor helps the Avengers win the day.

The Avengers then blast off into space, determined to save their friends and battle Skrull and Kree alike.

In the middle of all this, Rick Jones is captured by the Kree, taken to Hala and brought before Ronan. He taunts Rick and mocks Earthlings as primitive creatures who are beneath his contempt. However, Ronan tells Jones that Earth is important strategically, since it is the exact midpoint between the Kree and Skrull homeworlds. Due to its location, the Kree will either conquer Earth...or destroy it!

At the same time, the Avengers capture a Skrull spaceship and defeat the crew. The Vision interrogates one of the Skrulls, demanding to know the whereabouts of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. Vision gets carried away, beating the Skrull within an inch of his life. The Avengers intervene and save the Skrull's life. He tells the heroes that Earth is doomed, since a Skrull ship is headed towards Earth. The ship is carrying a nuclear warhead powerful enough to wipe out all of humankind.

Rick is imprisoned with Intelligence Supreme. The fallen Kree leader tells Rick that he has an important role to play in the war and zaps Rick with a bolt of energy. This gives Rick the power of the entire human race. Intelligence Supreme suggests that Jones' memories of reading comic books from the 1940s could help him bring peace between the Skrulls, Kree and Earth.

What will Rick Jones do with his newfound powers? Can Rick and the Avengers possibly save Earth from two alien races bent on its destruction?

After the war, the Avengers have little time to relax. A man who calls himself Mr. Talon is stirring up crowds of people, encouraging them to commit acts of mass violence.

When the Avengers arrive to quell the violent mobs, Thor recognizes Talon as Ares, Greek God Of War! Thankfully, Hercules has returned to the Avengers' ranks. But Hercules is suffering from amnesia.

While the Avengers are probing Hercules' mind at their mansion headquarters, the heroes are attacked by two Olympian Warriors named Bia and Kratos. They capture Hercules and take him to Mount Olympus.

Ares has also gone to Mount Olympus where he's joined by the Enchantress, one of the Avengers' oldest foes. The Avengers call every hero who has ever served as an Avenger to Olympus. They will need everyone they can get if they hope to rescue Hercules and defeat Ares. 

Review:
At this point, it's hard to say anything new about the Kree-Skrull War. I'd put off reviewing it, focusing on less-famous storylines. But the recent release of Captain America: Civil War got me thinking it was time to review this volume of Marvel Masterworks. 

Story:
Roy Thomas is credited as writer, but in his introduction, he gives Neal Adams co-plotting credit.  In any case, this is a great story that deserves its "classic" status.

There's lots of drama, action and character development.

Ronan's threat to de-evolve Earth feels like a legit "end of the world" scenario. The Avengers are under siege from the Skrulls, Kree, Ares, the Enchantress and their own government for the entire book!

Of course great superhero stories require great villains, and Ronan The Accuser certainly fits the bill. The Skrull's Emperor Dorrek is also as evil as they come. The Super-Skrull is a minor player in this book, but he's always been one of my favorite villains. As far as I'm concerned, any story can be improved by the presence of Super-Skrull!

But it's a tribute to Thomas and Adams' storytelling that not every alien here is evil. The Intelligence Supreme helps Rick Jones and Skrull Princess Annelle begs her father not to go to war.

While readers of this story know Earth won't be destroyed, Thomas' script keeps adding layers of tension to the story. These tales also give us early indications that the Vision and Scarlet Witch would eventually become romantically involved.

Thomas' script is full of pop culture references. The characters mention Joe Cocker, Crosby, Stills & Nash (the names of three ants who help Ant-Man!), and the silent movie Metropolis. This helps lighten the mood, so that the story isn't all doom, gloom and paranoia.

The Commission on Alien Activities is an obvious allegory for Red Scare-era investigatory entities such as the House Committee on Un-American Activities and the Senate Internal Securities Subcommittee.  H. Warren Craddock's behavior resembles the actions of Sen. Joseph McCarthy. This will seem obvious to any student of history, but such allegories didn't appear very often in comic books of the early 1970s.  Roy Thomas deserves kudos to adding Craddock's committee to the story, it adds a bit of realism to the story.

Making Rick Jones the hero of the story is also a nice touch. Rick served as sidekick to Hulk, Captain America, Mar-Vell and the Avengers during the 1960s and early 70s. Jones always wanted to be a superhero and in this story he gets to save three planets from destruction.

If there's anything to criticize about the Kree-Skrull War, it's that the Inhumans portion of this story doesn't add a whole lot. Most Bronze Age Inhumans stories involve Maximus seizing control (or at least attempting to seize control) of Attilan. This one is no exception.  

The Ares story that follows is a comparably weak follow-up. It's not bad, but any story that followed the Kree-Skrull War was guaranteed to be a bit of a let down.

Art:
The first four issues reprinted in Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Volume 10 feature pencils by Sal Buscema embellished by three inkers (including himself). Sal does a fine job drawing aliens, fight scenes and cavemen. I love Sal's depiction of the helicopter crash in these images:

Neal Adams (pencils) and Tom Palmer (inks) take over the art duties after Sal and this is some of their finest work. Ant-Man's journey into the Vision is one of the most memorable stories of the Bronze Age and that's because Adams and Palmer make the Vision's insides look like something out of a sci-fi movie (it's an homage to films like Journey To The Center Of The Earth and Fantastic Voyage). Here are two gorgeous pages from "Journey To The Center Of An Android":

I also love this Triton splash page from Adams and Palmer:

Great stuff.

Sal's brother John Buscema succeeds Adams and finishes the Kree-Skrull War, with Palmer staying on as inker. It's too bad Adams couldn't finish this saga, but "Big John" and Palmer were always great together. Here's a nice example of their work in this book:

Barry Windsor-Smith provided pencils on the Ares story. He's a great artist, but I've never been crazy about his art in superhero stories. But Windsor-Smith provides some good art here, even if his work (like the story he penciled) is a bit of a step down from the previous tale. I've always liked this splash page he drew that features the Black Knight. 

Extras:
Roy Thomas wrote a new introduction where he discusses the creative process behind these issues. Walt Simonson and Tom Palmer created some new Kree-Skrull War pages that were published in a 1983 reprint of the storyline and their work is reprinted here. The book also contains several pages of Adams' original artwork.

How Does It Look?:
I have never owned any of the original issues that are reprinted in Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Volume 10. However, I found a scan of the splash page for Avengers #92 posted on one of my favorite blogs, Diversions Of The Groovy Kind. Below you'll see that page paired up with the splash page as it looks in this book:

Left: Original page from Avengers #89;
Right: How it appears in Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Volume 10.

It looks pretty good to me. I don't notice any strange re-coloring.

Rating:
Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Volume 10 contains a story that lives up to its hype 45 years after it was first published. When it comes to creators, it doesn't get much better than scripts by Roy Thomas combined with art of Adams, Windsor-Smith, Palmer and the Buscema Brothers.

J.A. Morris' rating:

4 Sals!

Superman Vs. Shazam

Reprints All-New Special Edition #C-58, DC Comics Presents #33-34, 49, DC Comics Presents Annual #3
Written by Roy Thomas, Joey Cavalieri, Gerry Conway, Paul Kupperberg, Julius Schwartz and Gil Kane.
Penciled by Rich Buckler, Gil Kane.
Inked by Dick Giordano, John Calnan and Gil Kane.

Summary:
On Mars, a sorcerer known as Karmang The Evil lives a solitary existence. Thousands of years ago, he tried to discover the secret to immortality. His attempt made him immortal, but killed off everyone else on Mars. He hatches a plan to resurrect them. Karmang wants to force a collision between two planets, Earth-1 and Earth-S. This collision will generate enough energy to bring his fellow Martians back to life. 

Using his sorcery, he brings two super-villains to Mars: Black Adam, arch foe of Shazam (AKA, Captain Marvel) and Quarrmer, who recently battled Superman.

Karmang sends them to the Earths of their foes where they will activate a device called the space-time engine that will force each Earth towards the other. Quarrmer and Black Adam will also get Shazam and Superman to fight each other so they're too distracted to save their home planets from destruction.

Superman is surprised when Captaian Marvel shows up in Metropolis and challenges him to a fight. The fight is brief, but before Shazam flies off, he zaps Superman with a judgement ray. This causes the Man Of Steel to lose all judgement and sends him into a berserker rage, focused on nothing but fighting Shazam. We learn that "Shazam" was really Black Adam in disguise as the villain activates a "space-time engine" and leaves it in Metropolis.

Superman's cousin Supergirl witnesses this and is concerned. She has never seen Kal-El in such a rage and wonders why the two heroes want to kill each other. Supergirl follows her cousin as he pursues Captain Marvel.

In the New York City of Earth-S, Captain Marvel is attacked by Superman. A fight similar to the one on Earth-1 ensues, with Shazam being blasted with a judgement ray. "Superman" was actually Quarrmer masquerading as the Man Of Tomorrow and he activates the space-time engine that will propel Earth-S towards our planet. Captain Marvel is out for blood and heads for Earth-1.

Mary Marvel, sister of Captain Marvel, wonders what's happened to make Shazam so enraged and follows him to Earth-1.

Captain Marvel and Superman engage in one the greatest brawls any Earth has ever seen. They punch and throw each other across the United States, from Niagara Falls to the Grand Canyon.

Supergirl and Mary guess that impostors must have caused Superman and Shazam to fight each other. They deduce that Black Adam and Quarrmer must be the culprits. This leads them to Mars where Mary Marvel and Supergirl go after Karmang.

Earth's time is running out, the heroes have only two hours before Earth-S and Earth-1 will collide and be destroyed.  Can the heroes come to their senses and stop fighting each other in time to thwart Karmang's plot and save two Earths?

Sometime later, Clark Kent is working at the Daily Planet when he hears trouble and rushes off to change into Superman. Clark is shocked to find that he's wearing the red and gold costume of Captain Marvel! He uses a passageway to Earth-S to visit Shazam and finds that the World's Mightest Mortal is wearing a Superman costume!

The heroes learn that it's the work of Superman's mischievous enemy, Mister Mxyzptlk, the imp from the fifth dimension. In addition to causing the costume-switch, Mxyzptlk has cast a spell which traps Superman on Earth-S.

But Mxyzptlk isn't working alone. He's teamed up with Shazam's old foe Mr. Mind, the worm-like alien genius, as well as the super-strong, barbaric King Kull, another adversary of Captain Marvel. Kull states that he plans to kill every human bein on Earth. His strength has been increased by Mr. Mind, making King Kull deadlier than ever.

If Shazam and the Man Of Steel want to triumph over their enemies, they'll need the help of Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel Junior and...last but not least Hoppy, the Marvel Bunny!

Subsequently, when Superman saves an ancient Egyptian temple from an explosion, he unwittingly releases Black Adam into the world. The villain attacks New York City and declares himself the new ruler of Earth. Superman battles Black Adam, but after a brief exchange, the Man Of Steel makes a tactical retreat.  

Their fight is observed by a young man named Billy Batson. On Earth-S, his counterpart is the alter ego of Captain Marvel. But on Earth-1, Billy is just a normal kid and Shazam only exists as a comic book character. He confronts Black Adam and even shouts "Shazam" in vain hopes he will turn in to Captain Marvel. Black Adam laughs at the boy.

Black Adam seems more powerful than ever. Superman finds a way to get Shazam to Earth, knowing it will take their combined power to stop Captain Marvel's deadliest foe. But young Billy Batson will also prove to be a valuable asset in their battle.

Finally, Captain Marvel's foe Dr. Thaddeus Bodog Sivana attacks Metropolis in a giant robot.  Superman is able to stop the robot, but Sivana escapes.

When the villain returns to Earth-S, he cooks up his deadliest scheme yet. Sivana creates a device that will give him the powers of Shazam.

The device works and Dr. Sivana becomes Captain Sivana! In addition to his scientific genius, Sivana is now one of the most powerful beings who ever lived.

Shazam will need to enlist the assistance of the Marvel Family and the Supermans of two Earths if he wants to defeat Captain Sivana!

Review:
The material reprinted in Superman Vs. Shazam is exciting and should appeal to fans of both characters.  It also features scripts and art from some of the greatest comic book talents of all time.

Story:
The plot of the first story, written by Gerry Conway, is a bit thin, but it's lots of fun. It basically consists of "two extremely powerful heroes fight each other." But that's okay, and I thought that Mary Marvel and Supergirl were written well in the story.

Conway and Roy Thomas co-wrote the two-part tale from DC Comics Presents 33-34 and it's another good story. Mxyzptlk has long been one of my favorite DC villains (I even had his Mego doll when I was a kid!) and he's very entertaining in this tale. When Mxyzplk objects to Kull and Mr. Mind killing people, it's a good reminder that not all super-villains are bent on world domination and oppression.

I also appreciated the presence of Hoppy, the Marvel Bunny. Is he a bit silly? Sure, but adding a "funny animal" character helped lighten the mood in a story about characters trying to kill or conquer.

The final portion gives us a story credited to Roy Thomas, Gil Kane, Joey Cavalieri and legendary DC editor Julius Schwartz. Normally, when I see a story credited to four people, I expect the worst. Thankfully, that is not the case here. It's another great brawl issue, with Captain Sivana slugging it out with Shazam and the Supermans of Earth-1 and Earth-2.

It was published in DC Comics Presents Annual #3. Bronze Age annuals were often mediocre but this is a great story.

Art:
Rich Buckler penciled most of this book and his art is good throughout. The art in the first story features Buckler's pencils inked by Dick Giordano. They give us page after page of fantastic art. When Captain Marvel and Superman are under the influence of the judgement ray, Buckler and Giordano do a great job depicting the heroes as psychotic madmen. Their facial expressions are almost scary. Lots of great action and fight scenes by two of the Bronze Age's best artists.

Buckler and Giordano also provide the art on tale that features Mxyzptlk, Mr. Mind, and King Kull.  Buckler's style had changed quite a bit since the first story, but it still looks good. John Calnan embellished Buckler on the next reprinted story. It's not bad, but it's the weakest art in the book. Black Adam just doesn't look right when depicted by the Buckler/Calnan team. 

Comics legend Gil Kane penciled and inked the Sivana story. Kane is one of my favorite artists, but this is near the end of his career. Kane's work here is good, even if it looks a bit rougher than his best work. Of course, Kane was a master of odd perspectives and he doesn't disappoint in that regard.

How Does It Look?:

I found this scan, from All-New Special Edition #C-58 on the internet:

This is how it appears in the tpb:

J.A. Morris' rating:
Superman Vs. Shazam features two of the greatest heroes of all time fighting each other and teaming up against great villains and is recommended. Fans of Rich Buckler's art will especially enjoy this tpb. It's also a good way to introduce the uninitiated to the quirky and amusing world of Shazam.

.5

3 and a half Sals.

Star Wars: A Long Time Ago...Volume 1: Doomworld

 
Reprints Star Wars #1-20
Written by Roy Thomas, Howard Chaykin, Don Glut, Archie Goodwin and Chris Claremont. 
Penciled by Howard Chaykin, Carmine Infantino, Walter Simonson, Herb Trimpe.
Inked by Tom Palmer, Frank Springer, Terry Austin, Al Milgrom, Steve Leialoha and Bob Wiacek.  

Note from J.A.:
The first six stories reprinted in this tpb are Marvel's adaptation of the first Star Wars movie. Since most of you are familiar with how that ends, my review begins with stories Marvel created for their ongoing comic book series. I should also mention this book is out of print, but is available from online vendors.

After the destruction of the Death Star, Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie and the Droids go on to further adventures!

Han Solo and Chewbacca bid farewell to Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and the Rebel Alliance. The space smugglers need to pay to Jabba the Hutt so they can get the bounty off their heads. Han believes his reward for rescuing Princess Leia should cover his debt.  

However, right after their departure, they're captured by a pirate named Crimson Jack, an old acquaintance of Solo. Jack takes all their reward money and Han and Chewie are forced to land on a desolate planet called Aduba-3.

While hanging out in the local cantina, Han is approached by a local moisture farmer named Ramiz. He asks Chewie and Han to protect his village from a criminal named Serji-X Arrogantus and his gang of Cloud-Riders. Serji-X has been exploiting local farmers, shaking them down for money and kidnapping their wives and daughters. Ramiz and the other farmers will pay Han and Chewie. They need money, so they agree to protect the village.

They hire a colorful bunch of "star-hoppers" to help fight Serji-X:
Jaxxon, a six foot tall anthropomorphic rabbit.  
Jimm, the Starkiller Kid, a local farmboy who dreams of having grand adventures. Jimm reminds Han of Luke.
FE-Q9, Jimm's devoted droid who goes by the name Effie.
Don-Wan Kihotay, a somewhat delusional old man who carries a lightsaber and thinks he's a Jedi Knight.
Amaiza, an old friend of Han's who has a history of piracy and smuggling.
Hedji, one of the last living Spiners. Hedji's body is covered with quills, which he can propel at his enemies at will.

Serj-X and his thugs attack Han's gang and engage them in a shoot-out. Effie is destroyed and Don-Wan is injured and knocked out of the battle. One of the local farmers, an elderly man known as the Old One, wants to help fight Serji-X.

Old One claims he has the power to awaken a giant monster that will do his bidding and rid the village of Serji-X. However, when he succeeds in bringing the monstrous behemoth to the battle, the Old One can't control it. It attacks Han's star-hoppers and Serji-X's gang.

The behemoth attacks!

Can Han and Chewbacca's team defeat both Serji-X and the behemoth?

While Chewie and Han are on Aduba-3, Luke Skywalker, C-3P0, and R2-D2 are searching for a planet where the Rebel Alliance can build a new base of operations. Luke believes he's found a planet for the base in the Drexel system. When Luke contacts Princess Leia to give her the news, his ship's communication system suddenly goes dead and he is forced to land on Drexel. Skywalker learns that Drexel's surface is covered with water. He is taken prisoner by a man called Governor Quarg. Luke is to be killed, but his skills as a mechanic prove useful to the Governor.

Leia sets out to investigate Luke's disappearance but is captured by Crimson Jack and his pirates. Han is also captured, but convinces Jack that he can lead him to a treasure on Drexel if he releases him and the Millennium Falcon.  

Luke is able to escape and befriends some Drexel residents known as the Dragon Lords, who ride the planet's sea dragons. Skywalker learns that Quarg rules Drexel with an iron fist and the Dragon Lords are leading a revolt against the governor.  

Once Han, Leia and Chewbacca manage to escape from Crimson Jack's clutches, they are reunited with Luke, Artoo and Threepeeo on Drexel. They all join forces with the Dragon Lords and battle Quarg. Can the heroes defeat Governor Quarg and escape from Drexel? And if they get past Quarg, Crimson Jack's ship is still waiting for them in space!

Later, a Bounty Hunter named Valance leads a raid on a hospital. Valance is prejudiced against droids and sets out to destroy all droids working in the hospital. Don-Wan Kihotay, Han's ally from Aduba-3, happens to be a patient at this hospital. Valance's thugs hear Don-Wan muttering deleriously about his time spent teaming up with a farmboy and Han Solo. They think Don-Wan is talking about Luke, who has an imperial bounty on his head.  

Valance discovers that Jaxxon and Amaiza also worked with this farmboy and goes after them. During a firefight with the star-hoppers, Valance learns that his bounty can be found on Aduba-3. Thankfully, Amaiza and Jaxxon arrive on Aduba-3 before the bounty hunter and warn Jimm. If Valance wants to take out Jimm, he'll have to go through the other star-hoppers first!

Sometime after that, Luke is practicing his Force skills on the Millennium Falcon. While meditating, he suddenly goes into shock. Leia and Han are worried and set out for the nearest medical facility. They don't have long to find one, since the Imperial fleet, led by Commander Strom, is in hot pursuit of the Falcon.  

Thankfully, they arrive at a giant space station called the Wheel, where Luke can receive medical treatment. The Wheel houses one of the most popular casinos in the universe. It's also one of the few places that doesn't allow Imperial interference, which is why Han selected it. 

The Wheel is managed by a former Imperial Senator named Simon Greyshade. Leia has a bad feeling about this, since she frequently sparred with Greyshade when they both served in the Senate. Commander Strom contacts Greyshade and tells him the passengers of the Falcon have stolen profits from the Wheel. Upon hearing this lie, Greyshade is more than willing to help Strom capture the Rebels.

Will Luke get the medical attention he needs? Will the Rebel heroes convince Greyshade that they did not steal from the Wheel? Will they manage to get out of the Wheel alive?

Plus, a story of Luke's life on Tatooine, before he joined the Rebel Alliance!

Review:
I read some of these stories when they were originally published back in the 1970s, but many of them were new to me. They're all lots of fun, and it's important to remember that the writers had only one movie to use for source material. Lucasfilm put strict limitations on what stories the creative teams could tell. Marvel wasn't even allowed to use Darth Vader for a while (he does NOT appear in this tpb). Later Star Wars comics and novels had 20-30 years of backstory and continuity to mine.

Story:
As I said at the beginning, I'll focus here on the original stories.  But the adaptation has some noteworthy aspects. It was completed before the final cut of Star Wars was ready.  The creative team had seen a rough cut, but mostly had to rely on a script and still photos, so the adaptation contains scenes and dialogue that were cut from the film.
For instance, Luke's interaction with Biggs at Tosche Station was deleted from the movie, but can be seen here.

Biggs tells Luke of his plans to join the Rebellion.

Another deleted scene with Jabba the Hut (yes, spelled with one "t") also appears here, but it's not the Jabba we know from Return Of The Jedi. Marvel (and Lucas, for that matter) didn't know what Jabba would look like, so they just used one of the Cantina aliens.  In this era of DVDs and Youtube, the deleted scenes are easy to watch. But for years, the comic book had the only depiction available.

Han is confronted by "Jabba."

The first new story in this book, written by Roy Thomas is basically a retelling of the plot of The Seven Samurai. Han and Chewie gather a rag-tag band of misfits to protect farmers. This makes sense, since Star Wars was based on the film The Hidden Fortress, which, like Seven Samurai, was also directed by Akira Kurosawa.

Lots of new characters are introduced in the first tale. Detractors of Marvel's Star Wars series love to point to the presence of Jaxxon, the 6-feet tall anthropomorphic rabbit, as a sign that these stories were bad. I disagree. I think Jaxxon is a great character who brings lots of humor whenever he appears.  Plus, he's a great fighter.

Don't EVER call Jaxxon a rodent!

Thomas gives two other characters humorous names. Don-Wan Kihotay is an obvious (but funny) reference to Cervantes' Don Quixote as well as the literary figure Don Juan. Serji-X Arrogantus' name is a tribute to legendary cartoonist Sergio Aragones. Serji-X is even drawn to resemble Aragones.

After Thomas, another comics legend, Archie Goodwin takes over the writing duties. Goodwin's stories are just as good. Both writers also give us stories that deal with prejudice against droids. This is something briefly mentioned in the movie (droids aren't allowed in the Mos Eisley Cantina), so it's interesting to read stories that expanded on that idea.

My personal favorite is the story reprinted from Star Wars #16, featuring Valance's hunt for Jimm.  Outside of a brief recap of the Death Star battle, it features no characters from the movie. Jaxxon, Amaiza and Jimm carry the story and show they were strong characters in their own right. Valance is a great villain and he would later return to battle the "normal" cast of Star Wars characters. It's a credit to Goodwin's script that I read this tale twice before I noticed that Leia, Luke, Chewie and Han weren't in the story.

The book ends with the multi-part Wheel story. It makes sense that the Star Wars universe would have tourist destinations like casinos and Goodwin creates another good original character in Senator Greyshade.

Another memorable story is "Crucible," written by Chris Claremont. Luke flashes back to his life on Tatooine, shortly before his friend Biggs left for the academy. This was the first time we got a backstory for any of the main characters. It's an action-packed tale, featuring a race through Beggar's Canyon and a shootout with Tusken Raiders!

If there's anything to criticize, it's the four-part story that takes place on Drexel. The Quarg and the other residents of the water planet aren't that interesting and the story drags after a while. Also, the Tatooine flashback features another scene of Uncle Owen yelling at Luke and accusing him of laziness. Did Luke and Owen have any positive interactions?

The only other problem is that this tpb ends in the middle of the Wheel storyline, meaning you'd need to buy the next volume to find out how the story ends.

Art:
The art in the first issue of Star Wars isn't very good. I'm guessing they were facing a serious deadline and it looks rushed. After that, the art is always solid and sometimes great. Howard Chaykin pencils the first 10 stories reprinted in Doomworld and he's embellished by a variety of inkers. I thought Chaykin and Tom Palmer were the best penciler/inker combination in this book.

Carmine Infantino takes over penciling duties about halfway through the book. His style in the 70s is a bit of an acquired taste. When I first read these stories I wasn't crazy about his depiction of Han, Leia and Luke, but it's grown on me over the years and Infantino does a great job drawing Drexel's sea dragons.

T

erry Austin and Bob Wiacek each do a nice job inking Infantino.

Walter Simonson drew the Valance vs. star-hoppers story and it looks great. You can see Simonson's art developing here, beginning to look more like his classic 1980s Thor art.

Luke's flashback tale features pencils by Herb Trimpe inked by Al Milgrom. Trimpe always did a great job with "military"-style vehicles and he does a nice job depicting Luke's T-60 and other ships.

One thing I noticed was that every artist had a difficult time drawing Chewbacca. Most of them made him look more simian than he should, or drew his hair too long.  But this didn't bother me too much once I got used to the artists' styles.

How does it look:
Here's a scan from my 38 year old copy of Star Wars #7:

And here's how the same pages look in this tpb:

Looks fine to me.

Star Wars: A Long Time Ago...Volume 1: Doomworld is a fun trip back in time to an era when Star Wars was fresh and brand new. While some of these stories might seem silly by today's standards, this tpb is full of great action and drama. Recommended both to fans who saw Star Wars when it was brand new and to those weren't born yet when these stories were first published.

J.A. Morris' rating:

.5



3 and a half Sals.