Star Wars #2 (Marvel)

writer: Jason Aaron

artist: John Cassaday

A curious thing happened to Star Wars comics recently.  No, I don't mean leaving Dark Horse for the first time in a quarter century, returning to the Marvel fold in conjunction with the franchise being in the hands of Disney and on the heels of Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens.

No, they've become popular.  It's kind of a slap in the face to Dark Horse.  The debut issue of the flagship in Marvel's launch (like the new films, there are spin-offs for individual characters as well) sold like hotcakes, an instant collectors item the likes of which comics in general haven't seen in years.  At my local comics shop, people were buying two and three (etc.) at a time.  I never even saw the first issue.

So here I am with the second.  What're the results?  It doesn't even seem important that the writer is Jason Aaron, an acclaimed member of the Marvel fold whom I personally still know best from his Vertigo series Scalped.

Aaron has placed his series in the aftermath of A New Hope.  Luke wears the yellow jacket he rocked in the awards ceremony.  The Rebellion is trying to capitalize on the destruction of the Death Star.  And Darth Vader ain't happy.  He also doesn't seem to know who Luke Skywalker is.

At first it didn't really bother me, but the more I think about it, this is a sizable plothole.  I mean, Vader isn't just some shmoe, he's a Sith, a practitioner of the Force.  You might explain the gap as Vader's apparent disinterest in either of his offspring, or perhaps simply his understandable confusion about how exactly Revenge of the Sith ended, whether he has offspring at all.  And yet, there's a real argument to be made that he would have known in an instant who the mysterious pilot was, a confusion from the end of A New Hope he would've cleared up much more quickly.

That's the central element of the issue, and whether or not you go along with it probably defines what you think of it.  They'll obsess over it if they're not primed to accept just about anything.  The minute they have reason to reject even one thing, something like this would drive them crazy.

I suspect most fans just won't care.  For me, it's reason enough to give up.