[CaptainCrunch]

So out of having not much better to do, I broke down and bought the 8 book series of comics based around The Star Wars the original script written by George Lucas. Its a facinating look at how Lucas' concepts for a GFFA evolved into what we saw as a New Hope.


I would almost recommend that anyone that's a star wars fan pick it up because its so completely different then the movies. Sure there's a Death Star and a Emperor and Darth Vader does make a sort of appearance in it, and we get some characters in name only but other then that its a completely different story in a lot of ways because of a New Hope Completely bizarre.


The first thing that you notice is that there are Jedi, though they're called the Jedi Bendu, and there are Lords of the Sith. The Jedi were a sect of warriors who's main job was to protect the Emperor. The Sith were their rivals. While there was a Force, it didn't really manifest itself in the same way as we saw in the movies. There were no chocking people from across the room, throwing objects at each other with their brains. Instead the Jedi and the Sith were just warriors bound to different codes.


The other thing that stands out is that well um, Light Saber's weren't a special mystical weapon. Frankly everyone was stumbling around the galaxy with one, the Storm Troopers, and even Han Solo had one.


In terms of characters you do see familiar faces. There was Anikan Star Killer, who was the son of Kane Starkiller a former Jedi-Bendu. Early in the story the StarKillers including Anikan's brother were ambushed by a Knight of the Sith who kills Anikan's brother. We also see Kane who is more machine then man sacrifice himself later.


We meet Luke Skywalker an old grizzled and somewhat bitter General, later Anikan serves under him almost like an apprentice though Luke is not a Jedi.


We meet Princess Leia of Aquilae the plucky hero's side kick who eventually becomes the Queen when her father dies.


Han Solo was in there too, however he was a 7 foot green alien that looked like Zeb from Rebels. He didn't know how to pilot a ship, but he swung a mean light saber.


We also meet Owen and Lar's Beru who are two anthropologists who live in harmony with the wookies.



On the Villain's side of things we do have Emperor Palpatine who decides that the Empire has to attack Aquilae for its cloning technology and to punish them for leaving the Empire.


We have Darth Vader who is not a Knight of the Sith, instead he's just a general that doesn't have a mask but wears a helmet that looks like Vader's helmet from the movie. He makes sporadic appearances and shows he's evil by trying to brain wash Leia to make her compliant to the Emperor's designs.


There is Lord Valorium who is a Dark Lord of the Sith there to keep Vader in Line, but in the end he betrays Vader and saves Anikan because he feels the Empire has acted without honor.


There is a Death Star but its not a planet killer, instead its basically just a floating fortress that can bombard planets. Its destroyed in the end Luke Skywalker leads a fighter raid using stolen Imperial fighters piloted by Wookies with Chewbacca who never meets Han.



While the plot line is completely different and at times insane, there are some similar scenes to the movie. R2D2 and C3PO are in the movie as they escape from the Death Star during an attack. C3PO is a loyal Imperial Droid but they do walk across the desert, but outside of that they really don't have a significant role. Luke does infiltrate the Death Star to save Leia, however in this case he's captured, and Darth Vader orders his execution, which is when Valorum betrays Vader and saves Luke.


Oh and when the death Star is blowed up, Vader dies. The Emperors plans are thwarted and Leia becomes the Queen with Anikan as her loyal body guard.


The art work itself is everything you'd expect out of a Dark Horse comic.



Oh and did I tell you that Star Destroyers were tiny one man triangular fighters.


Leia falls head over heels with Anikan, but when she makes a move he tells her to get lost because he's dedicated to becoming a Jedi. I'm not exaggerating when he almost in not as many words tells her to go F$$$ herself. Later on though they do work out, which if put in perspective of today's Star Wars is a even creepier father daughter romance instead of a brother sister romance.


However just to go deeper into the crazy, earlier on Anikan is sent to pick up Leia from space college because of the impending attack by the Empire. But Leia informs him that she's not leaving and Anikan punches her in the face knocks her out and throws her in his speeder like a bag of potatoes/


Oh and R2D2 speaks plain English is a sarcastic and grumpy little Tin Can who is not as lovable and endearing as the R2D2 that we got later.


Alderaan does not get blown up, in fact in this script it is not a planet of well meaning humanists with no military. Its the seat of a vast Empire and home to the sinister Emperor who is not so much sinister as he is a run of the mill mustache twirling weak Emperor.


Its interesting to read this from the standpoint of getting a view into Lucas' head and how this script evolved into the movie that started off the GFFA.