Script: Mike Baron
Pencils and Inks: Olivier Vatine and Fred Blanchard
Art Assists: Vincetn Rueda
Colors: Isabelle Rabarot
Lettering: Ellie De Ville
Cover Art: Mathieu Lauffray
This comic is the adaptation for the novel Heir to the Empire, so I won't be focusing too much on points that have been covered in the novel review. This review will focus on points unique to the comic.
First, the good. I really think they did a superb job of translating the book to comic form. Reading it directly after finishing the novel, I can't think of any huge, glaring obmission of any important scene. The dialogue was shortened and in some places changed somewhat, but that's to be expected. I was impressed by how much of the actual dialogue and story remained in this adaptation.
I really was not too impressed with the artwork, on the other hand. Of the movie characters, the one who came off looking most like herself was Leia, except for the artists giving her green eyes. I really did not like how Luke was drawn. He was quite ugly looking.
There were also a few errors I noticed here. Besides Leia's eyes being the wrong color, we also have Karrde drawn with long hair, when the novel describes him as having short hair. The Noghri, who are short and wiry, looked like huge, hulking brutes.
Then there's the continuity errors. The most glaring error in the entire comic comes is in issue #3 page 10. This takes place right after Han, Lando, Leia, and Chewie do the ship-switching. Leia and Chewie end up on the Lady Luck, and Han and Lando are on the Falcon. Thrawn is discussing with Pellaeon who is on what ship. Pellaeon first says to Thrawn that at least they know that Leia is on the Falcon because of her transmissions. That is correct so far. Thrawn then disproves that it was Leia, and says to Pellaeon, "Organa Solo and the Wookiee are aboard the Millennium Falcon." Whoops!
The other error of this type I noticed is towards the end, during the battle at Sluis Van. Wedge and Rogue Five are flying in battle, and they are near a Star Cruiser when Wedge spots one of Lando's mole miners. No one has told Wedge about these mole miners, and in the book he never calls them by name when he sees it attached to the bottom of the Star Cruiser. In fact, he has no clue what it is, and says as much to Rogue Five. So then, how come he thinks to himself in the comic that it looks like one of Lando's missing mole miners? Wedge is now omniscient, of course!
I know that this review may sound more negative than positive, but I don't really feel that way about the comic at all. The errors, except for the Thrawn one, are really minor and don't detract from the reading of the story. The artwork could've been better, but at least you can tell who is who. The plot and dialogue was very well done. I still believe one should read the novel, because there are things in the novel that cannot be translated over to comic form, but those who read the comic only will still get most of the pertinent info.
Reviewed June 23, 2000 by Kelly M. Grosskreutz.
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