Star Wars issue 11 "Star Search"

By gosh! It's been almost a month since posts! Part of that has to do with Thanksgiving break, part of that has to do with a million other things! I try to be weekly, but I won't always succeed. In the meantime, I've been putting out some podcasts to catch up to where I am now.

The historic Thomas/Chaykin run (albiet brief) is now over. We had some good and bad I'm a bit disappointed to see them go...even if it was years before I was born. I was very excited about getting to the team of Archie Goodwin and Carmine Infantino though! Archie Goodwin did the Star Wars newspaper strip for years and I enjoyed the reprints of those as well as reprints of his other Star Wars work. Carmine Infantino is a comics legend in his own right having helped create the Barry Allen version of Flash. I couldn't wait to get to these issues...so let's start.

Han and Chewie are leaving Aduba after the events of the last arc. We get the obligatory comic recap...

Click on the pictures if you can't read the captions.

I love Don Wan's magic wand. I guess Hedji did die afterall. That explains why all other reviews said he did. I swear it's hard to read that from the issue itself though.

Unfortunately they are captured by Crimson Jack and his crew (again) before they can make it back to Yavin. Han realizes that resistance is useless, so he let's the Falcon get captured. He hopes to lure Jack into a Rebel trap and get another reward. There is one kink in his plan though.

Good job Han! That solves some problems but creates others...or maybe it just creates problems.

A few things here...

1) Leia, the Empire already knows where your base is.

2) I thought Jack liked keeping people alive so he could rob them again? Guess ot.

3) Even Jack thinks it was dumb for Leia to go on her own. So why didn't the Alliance think so?

Chewie and Han are able to fight off some of the space-pirates.

Chewie has never looked more like a big walking carpet. Got to love how the space pirates are dressed as sea pirates. I guess pirate wear is universal in any era or setting.

Eventually he get's a gun pointed at Jack and they agreed to talk it out. Han says they'll never find the Rebel treasure if he kills him. Han retells the story of a "A New Hope" but alters the events by saying Leia fell in love with him. He goes in for a kiss with Leia and whispers to her to play along.

I think this could be considered Han and Leia's first kiss. I love how Archie Goodwin is hitting it out of the park with Han and Leia's banter! Spot on!

Leia screws up Han's plan but telling Jack and the others that the "Rebel treasure" is in the Drexel system (which is where Leia was going to look for Luke before getting captured). Jack buys it and starts heading towards the planet. Jolli leads Leia back to her cell while Princess Organa plays some mind games with the young pirate.

Joli's face on the top is hilarious. At this point in the series, it's become cliche for a character to think of another character, then we'll get a recap of the movie (for the millionth time) as we cut to that character. Note the irony that within a few issues Leia is a prisoner...again.

So what happened to Luke on Drexel anyway?

R2D2, what the heck are you doing?????

Luke and the droids decide to take their chances inside the sinking ship.

Massive exposition from C3Po. By the way, Carmine Infantino needs to practice drawing the droids.

To be honest I thought they were already in an escape pod before R2 took them to this one. They are able to get out right before the monster finishes off their ship.

And that gives us our cliffhanger!

Thoughts so far?

Archie hits it out of the park with Han and Leia's banter. Big plus. I'm not sure about Infantino's artwork. I don't hate it, but I'm still getting used to the style. It seems different from his Silver Age work. I'm sure he'll evolve just like Chaykin did though.

We'll return next week for...