STORY STUDY - MEDIUM: COMICS/GRAPHIC NOVELS - “The Star Wars”
I swear, it’s only a coincidence that the posting of this week’s topic just so happened to fall on the week of the 40th anniversary of the release of a science fantasy film that changed the game in cinema and influenced the entire world in one way or another.
A lot of the famous films and franchises that have huge followings often have VERY different details about them when they were initially conceived. Star Wars is no different.
Written by J.W. Rinzler, art by Mike Mayhew, and based on the original rough draft screenplay by George Lucas, The Star Wars, tells the story similar to that of Star Wars: A New Hope: Rebels, Jedi, an evil empire, and a giant space fortress that must be destroyed in order to achieve peace. However, the pieces in play are a little… different.
(A little warning: MAJOR spoilers for the comic AND for some of the films.)
The Star Wars still features an opening text crawl. The final version establishes that rebel spies have gained a victory against the evil empire with the stealing of the Death Star plans; in the comic, the crawl establishes the history of the Jedi, the nickname of warriors called Jedi-Bendu, their rival warrior sect, the Knights of Sith, and how the Jedi are being hunted by the New Empire.
The overall story involves General Luke Skywalker and his padawan, Annikin Starkiller, who are tasked with protecting princess Leia and her twin brothers, Biggs and Windy, from the evil Galactic Empire led by General Darth Vader. They employ the help of an old friend of Skywalker’s, Han Solo, to escape the current planet they are on, Aquilae.
After a successful spaceship fight and crash-landing onto Yavin, the home planet of the Wookiees, Leia is kidnapped by the empire. Skywalker, Solo, and a tribe of Wookies, led by a prince of a tribe of Wookiees, Chewbacca, attack an outpost run by the empire.
Annikin sneaks onto the Space Fortress where Leia is held, where he encounters Vader and a Knight of the Sith, Prince Valorum.
There was a LOT I had to skip over, but that is the overall gist of it. I do have to mention two droids who escaped the Space Fortress as it was being attacked, C3PO and talking R2-D2.
There is also Annikin’s father, Kane Starkiller, who is “more machine now, than man,” who, ultimately, serves as the dying mentor that Ben Kenobi served in Star Wars, even though, here, Luke Skywalker is the mentor, and he lives by the end of the story.
I don’t normally start the bad first, but I do feel it’s best to start this way.
As anyone can tell, it’s a miracle how this draft was able to be shrunk down to the final product that exists today.
While it is fascinating to see what would’ve happened if The Star Wars was filmed, it’s very easy to see it wasn’t, or at the very least, it was necessary to make more rewrites. From a script standpoint, it’s very confusing and hard to follow.
The additional time spent on the Empire and the Rebels’ point of view of the battle is unnecessary, and takes away from the main characters.
As for our main characters, it feels like they saying exposition more often than behaving like actual characters. When they ARE characters, it’s unappealing or boring. Probably the best character in this is Han Solo, who is consistently positive and brave throughout the story.
The artwork for this book is amazing. Mayhew still retains the aesthetic of the Star Wars universe, while new things to it that would be in the original film if it had a bigger budget: a spaceport that looks like an outdoor version of the Star Tours ride at Disneyland, Han Solo’s green makeup skin, a tribe of Wookiees, half bird/half dinosaurs that Stormtroopers ride on, etc.
Some of the panels I noticed in The Star Wars went on to show up in later Star Wars films: the hovering tanks are in The Phantom Menace; the forest planet of the Wookiees and their subplot of attacking an outpost is reminiscent of the climactic scene on the forest moon of Endor in Return of the Jedi; Prince Valorum having a change of heart is what Darth Vador did, also occurring in Return.
The opening panel feels like the beginning of Rogue One.
Even Kane Starkiller and his mostly robotic body seem to be the rough draft of what eventually became Saw Gerrera. (This comic finished its run in 2014, two years before the release of Rogue One.)
If you’re a science fiction/fantasy fan looking for a comic to read, I would not recommend The Star Wars, unless you are mainly looking for beautiful artwork.
However, if you are a Star Wars fan, and you want to learn more about its story roots, I do recommend picking up the paperback of this story. It’s familiar, yet different enough to be its own thing.
Personally, I’d say yes to any opportunity where you can compare the final product with the rough draft. You learn a lot from what you can create if you have the courage to get rid of what’s unnecessary.
May the Force of others be with you, and check it out.
Happy 40th anniversary, Star Wars.
