by Bryan Scheidler
This week Marvel released the premiere issue of their next comic in the relaunched Star Wars universe, Princess Leia #1. As awesome as the Darth Vader series is, this is the series I was most interested in. Like the other Star Wars comics recently launched this one also takes place after Episode 4. The reason I was most interested in this book is that during this time, we really don't know too much about Leia. This book was hopefully going to clear up who Leia was and what happened to her between Episodes 4 and 5.
First off, the art is this book is great. I realize what people think of the art is subjective, but I think it is fantastic. Terry Dodson's art makes you feel like you are right in the middle of the Star Wars universe. I should note how important this is, especially for me. If the art is distracting for whatever reason then it takes me out of the story, this book does not have that problem. I also want to point out how great the ships look. A big part of Star Wars is the ships and the X-Wings and the transport we see are perfect. Like I said before, this book looks and feels like Star Wars.
This book doesn't just give us nostalgia though, we also get a brand new character, rebel x-wing pilot Evaan. From the very beginning of this book it is very clear who Evaan is and what she is all about. She is brave, loyal, and brilliant and she is probably my favorite part of this book. One of the biggest critiques of the Star Wars Universe is that there are too few women of significance in the story. Mark Waid the writer of this series seems to have set out to fix that problem because Evaan is not only a fantastic character, she will be very significant. This is only the first book, but it is the potential that I can see for this character that disappoints me that she isn't in Episodes 5 or 6.
This brings us to the main character, Princess Leia. Unfortunately I was a little underwhelmed with her in this first book. She seems to be completely out of character from what we know of her in the movies. She doesn't come across as one of the leaders of the rebellion. She really feels more like a symbol for the rebels to parade around, not the person who was helping deliver mission orders to the group of x-wing pilots, or the spy helping to deliver the death star plans. It feels like a step backward for the character. Of course the point of this book could be that Leia is supposed to learn from Evaan about responsibility and honor, but those are things I never felt Leia lacked.Despite the curious decisions surrounding Leia herself, I am still looking forward to more of what this book has to offer. From the amazing art to learning more about the awesome new character Evaan, this book does have a lot to offer. Hopefully in issue #2 we will get the decisive Leia that we know from the movies.
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