From the Examiner files: 2015 review of Marvel Comics' remastered adaptation of 'The Empire Strikes Back'
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| (C) 2015 Marvel Comics and Lucasfilm Ltd. Cover art by Adi Granov |
Star Wars – Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (2015 Remastered Edition)
Based on a screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, and on the story by George Lucas
Writer/Editor: Archie Goodwin
Artists: Al Williamson and Carlos Garzon
Colorist: SotoColor
Editor-in-Chief: James Shooter
Cover Artist (2015): Adi Granov
As the countdown to the release of Disney/Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens nears the
four-month mark, Marvel Worldwide (which is also owned by the Walt Disney
Company) continues the “remastering” of its Classic Trilogy comic book
adaptations with Star Wars – Episode V:
The Empire Strikes Back. Published in hardcover on August 11, this
oversized graphic novel (OGN) follows the publication of Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope by three months. In November,
Marvel will complete its remastering of the saga when it publishes Star Wars – Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.
As the Imperial forces
regroup from the Death Star’s destruction, they target the new Rebel base on
the ice planet Hoth. Will Darth Vader’s troops find Luke Skywalker, or will a
wampa get Luke first? Meanwhile, feelings run high in the galaxy’s greatest
love triangle as bounty hunters target Han Solo. Luke seeks out the great Jedi
Master Yoda on swampy Dagobah, but the Emperor has designs on turning the young
Rebel hero. As the battle begins for Skywalker’s soul, will his fear lead to
anger, hate and the dark side? It’s all heading to one of the greatest
confrontations of all time. Prepare for a grave disturbance in the Force! – Publisher’s
blurb, Star Wars – Episode V: The Empire
Strikes Back
The Comics – Then and Now
When Lucasfilm gave Marvel the go-ahead to adapt the
screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, George Lucas requested that
the comic’s publication be delayed to preserve the element of surprise prior to
Empire’s release on May 21, 1980.
Marvel agreed, and the first issue (Star
Wars #39) was not available until after the movie was in theaters. (This
was in sharp contrast to Marvel’s release of Star Wars #1, which was released several weeks before Star Wars premiered on May 25, 1977.)
As was the case with Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin’s 1977 Star Wars adaptation, Goodwin and
artists Al Williamson and Carlos Garza didn’t have director Irvin Kershner’s finished
film to based their work on. Instead, Lucasfilm’s Diana Attias gave the Marvel
trio one of the drafts of the Brackett-Kasdan script and access to
pre-production paintings by Ralph McQuarrie and still photographs taken during
principal photography in London’s Elstree Studios and on location in Finse,
Norway.
According to Goodwin’s 1980 behind-the-scenes essay,
Lucasfilm was extremely cooperative during the three months’ of prep time for
Marvel’s five-issue adaptation. Attias and her staff would send Goodwin the
latest available changes to Empire’s shooting
script. In addition when Yoda made the transition from Ralph McQuarrie’s
initial design to makeup artist Stuart Freeborn’s finished puppet,
Lucasfilm
provided Marvel with top-secret photos of the diminutive Jedi Master.
As Goodwin wrote 35 years ago, sometimes the updates reached
Marvel’s New York office a bit late:
Our original concept
of Yoda was based on one Ralph McQuarrie painting (all that was available at
the time). Sometime after Al and Carlos had turned in the pages involving the
little Jedi Master, photos of the way he’d finally look in the finished movie
reached Diana; she raced the new version to us. The paperback book, which had
the earliest publication date, had already gone to press, but Al and Carlos
were able to make adjustments in the character for the super special and the 50₵
comic version. And honest, folks… We didn’t come up with this just to drive
collectors into buying more than one version.
Because of the inherent limits of adapting one medium
(motion pictures) to another (comic books), Goodwin’s version is not a
frame-by-frame reproduction of Kershner’s 129-minute long movie. The Battle of
Hoth, a set-piece sequence that pits Darth Vader’s force of Imperial
All-Terrain Armored Transports (AT-ATs) and snowtroopers against Rebel
snowspeeders and ground troops, is depicted in a handful of pages distributed
among issues #40 and #41 (Chapters Two and Three of this book).
On a similar vein, due to on-the-set changes in the shooting
script, there are differences between
the finished film and Marvel’s comic adaptation. These include:
·
An abridged version of Vader’s discussion with
the Emperor (whose holographic rendition is not clearly shown in the comic)
about the “son of Skywalker”
·
The scenes of Luke’s training with Yoda include
material which was not in the final film, especially a sequence in which the
Jedi trainee undergoes lightsaber training with remotes
·
Some scenes with Han Solo and Princess Leia,
especially those set in Bespin’s Cloud City, feature dialogue and scenes that
were changed or even deleted during the film’s production
·
Events are compressed, and some of the more
humorous scenes involving R2-D2 and C-3PO are absent.
As is the case with Marvel’s May
2015 remastered edition of Star Wars –
Episode IV: A New Hope, colorist Carl Gafford’s 1980 pastel-style coloring
has been redone by New York’s SotoColor studio. Purists who liked Gafford’s
original work, as well as that of Glynis Oliver’s coloring in later reissues,
may not like SotoColor’s revisionist style. However, other Star Wars fans and younger comics aficionados might embrace the
remastered inking, which reflects a 21st Century sensibility and
adds visual unity and coherence to the book.
Following the format of the Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope remastered
edition, Empire is divided into six
chapters, each of which corresponds to the following original issues:
- Star Wars 39: The Empire Strikes Back: Beginning
- Star Wars 40: The Empire Strikes Back: Battleground Hoth
- Star Wars 41: The Empire Strikes Back: Imperial Pursuit
- Star Wars 42: The Empire Strikes Back: To Be a Jedi
- Star Wars 43: The Empire Strikes Back: Betrayal at Bespin
- Star Wars 44: The Empire Strikes Back: Duel a Dark Lord
Each chapter is marked by a
reproduction of its corresponding issue’s original cover art. As is the case
with the 1977 comic book covers, the 1980 adaptation’s cover art is often
fanciful and only reflects the theme of the story, not its content.
In addition to an introduction by
actor Billy Dee Williams, Star Wars –
Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back includes a section devoted to pinup art
created by various Marvel artists and guest contributors. Some of the art is
done by Al Williamson and Carlos Garzon, but other in-house artists featured in
this section include Joe Jusko (The Hulk),
Bob Layton (Iron Man), Marshall
Rogers (Daughters of the Dragon Marvel
Preview) and humorist-comic artist Fred Hembeck.
The book also features a section
devoted to covers of Marvel’s British weekly
edition, which split the U.S. monthly
edition into two issues each. This necessitated the creation of extra cover
art, which was drawn by Carmine Infantino and inked by Gene Day and Dan Green.
The pinup art section at the end
of Star Wars-Episode V: The Empire
Strikes Back closes with a selection of art from the original pre-colored
draft of Star Wars #39 and covers for
various Marvel and Dark Horse Comics reissues. The book also comes with a code
for digital copies for Apple iOS and Android devices.
As is the case with Marvel’s
earlier remastered version of Star Wars, the 2015 reissue of The Empire Strikes Back is a nifty addition to any Classic Trilogy
fans’ book collection. As mentioned earlier, the new coloring scheme by Chris
Sotomayor’s New York studio may displease purists, but Marvel did a nice job
with this collectible slim hardcover.
Book Specifications
- Series:
Star Wars
- Hardcover:
144 pages
- Publisher:
Marvel (August 11, 2015)
- Language:
English
- ISBN-10:
0785193677
- ISBN-13:
978-0785193678
- Product
Dimensions: 7.2 x 0.7 x 10.9 inches
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