Good afternoon,
Today's focus is the third issue of Marvel's adaptation of the first Star Wars film. The cover showed Han Solo, Leia Organa, Chewbacca, and Luke Skywalker blasting their way through a cadre of Stormtroopers. The tale was titled "Death Star!" The issue had a publication date of September 1977.
The story began on the large Imperial space station, which was now orbiting Leia's home planet of Alderaan. Grand Moff Tarkin urged the princess to provide him with the location of the Rebel base. She finally uttered that the Rebels were on Dantooine. Tarkin was somewhat satisfied with the response and continued with the operation. He summoned the firing crew, who aimed the massive cannon at the planet, completely obliterating it in a matter of minutes.
The loss of life on that world was soon felt by Obi-Wan Kenobi. While on board the Millennium Falcon with Solo, Chewbacca, Skywalker, and the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO, he felt a disturbance in the Force as Alderaan's inhabitants cried out and were suddenly silenced. After a moment, he then instructed Luke to continue with his Jedi training exercises.
Chewbacca and Artoo were involved in a game of dejarik (also referred to as holochess). It was a match the astrodroid was excelling at, until his Wookiee companion became angered. Threepio then suggested a new strategy: let the Wookiee win, for fear that a loss might cause him to tear the droid's limbs from its body.
Meanwhile. Luke used his father's lightsaber to defend himself from shocks fired by a floating remote. It wasn't until he put on a helmet with the blast shield down at Kenobi's urging that he was able to ward off the attacks. He'd just taken his first step into a larger world.
Before long, the ship exited hyperspace. They left lightspeed in the ruins of what had once been Alderaan. Han was alerted to the appearance of a TIE (twin ion engine) fighter that sped past them. He raced to follow the craft, which was heading toward what appeared to be a small moon.
Kenobi correctly identified the moon as a space station. By the time Han and Chewbacca could react, the Falcon was caught in a tractor beam, moving them ever closer to the massive complex. They had no choice but to be reeled in.
Tarkin and Darth Vader were soon informed that the ship matched the markings of a vessel that had blasted its was from the Mos Eisley spaceport on Tatooine (as seen last issue). A minute earlier, one of the Imperial officers told them that scout ships had been to Dantooine and found the remains of a Rebel base, which had been abandoned for quite some time.
Vader presumed that the now captive ship might have been trying to return the stolen data tapes to Leia. That would delay her execution, at least for the moment, anyway. Han instructed his passengers to duck down into the storage compartments that he'd installed for smuggling while an Imperial scanning crew came to inspect the ship.
Chewbacca and Han made short work of the crew and the Stormtrooper guards. Solo and Luke put on the Stormtrooper armor and made their way to a control tower. From there, Threepio was able to determine where the tractor beam could be deactivated and showed the locations on a map.
Kenobi went off to accomplish that goal. It was something he had to do alone. Before leaving, he told Luke that their paths were different and that the Force would always be with the young lad. Han wasn't happy about sitting there and waiting to be picked up. Artoo excitedly beeped about having located the princess.
Luke convinced the smuggler to go rescue her. He devised a plan where they pretended to be transferring Chewbacca to another cell. The guards weren't fooled, but the trio made short work of them before finding which cell Leia was being kept in.
Skywalker went to find her, while Han and Chewie stayed back, preparing for more soldiers. Leia was a bit dismissive of the short Stormtrooper until Luke removed his helmet and explained that he was there with Kenobi and the R2 unit. The duo soon joined Solo and the Wookiee in a firefight with more Stormtroopers, one that seemed to have cut off their only escape path.
Well, we're halfway through the adaptation already. This issue stays pretty close to the script in the movie, although the artwork by Howard Chaykin and Steve Leiahola is a bit messy in spots. This was the part of the story where the action really picked up, and I think this issue did a pretty good job of portraying that.
Tomorrow, I'll recap the fourth issue of this adaptation. We'll see Luke, Han, Chewie, and Leia go from the frying pan and into the fire as they attempt to escape from the Imperials. There'll also be the first-ever lightsaber battle from the film series. Until then, have a great week and don't forget to be kind to one another.
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