Star Wars fans complaining that shows like The Acolyte are moving too far away from the Original Trilogy need to be keeping an eye on the line of Star Wars comics that Marvel has been rolling out for the last decade. Those books are keeping the OT era very much alive – and now they’re revisiting one of the most stunning and harrowing moments in the entire Star Wars saga!
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The upcoming Star Wars #48 is part of “The Path of Darkness” storyline, which comes after the Rebel Alliance’s trial for Lando Calrissian. Now the focus is turning to Princess Leia, who is still torn between her duties as a Rebel leader, and her true heart’s desire to save Han Solo, who (at this point, between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi) is still a prisoner of Jabba the Hutt.
As you can see in some preview pages for Star Wars #48, the issue opens with an even darker look at the destruction of Leia’s home planet, Alderaan, as seen in Star Wars: A New Hope!
It’s clear from the preview pages (and opening crawl) that this surreal sequence is Leia having some sort of dream, in which she is wrestling with her guilt over the Alderaan’s destruction. She imagines herself on the Death Star with Grand Moff Tarkin and Darth Vader (as it happened in the film), but her dream goes further, actually having Leia be the one who pulls the lever that activates the Death Star’s superweapon and annihilates the planet, instead of the nameless Imperial technician from the film. Conversely, the other side of the dream has Leia as a little girl (as seen in Obi-Wan) with her father, Senator Bail Organa, and mother, Breha. Young Leia is present when the Death Star appears in the sky, experiencing the terror first-hand as her parents’ lives (and all Alderaanian lives) come to a sudden, violent, end.
The Star Wars films never really had the time or opportunity to delve into the obvious PTSD that Leia would experience from that moment. Tarkin tortured her, forced her to both break her oath to the Rebellion and give up their base on Dantooine, and still made her watch as he still destroyed her homeworld, despite her compliance. Even though Leia bounced back with Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Chewbacca and the Rebellion, destroying the Death Star, the situation with Han – and once again having to choose between duty and personal feelings – would surely be triggering to her.
So again: Star Wars fans complaining that The Acolyte and the new era of films aren’t re-caputring the magic of the Original Trilogy or its characters: the Marvel Comics line are here doing the work of fleshing out those familiar characters and plot beats between the films, beautifully.
STAR WARS #48
LAST CHANCE FOR SOLO! LEIA ORGANA has put the galaxy’s freedom before all else, including her lost love, HAN SOLO. With the growing threat of the second DEATH STAR looming over THE REBEL ALLIANCE, should she try to save him… while she still can?
Written by: Charles Soule
Art by: Jethro Morales
Cover by: Stephen Segovia
Page Count: 28 Pages
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(L-R) Neel (Robert Timothy Smith), Wim (Ravi-Cabot Conyers), KB (Kyriana Kratter), Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) and Jod (Jude Law) in Lucasfilm’s STAR WARS: SKELETON CREW, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
