Star Wars issue 12 "Doomworld"

We're back and so is the team of Archie Goodwin (story) and Carmine Infantino (art). How did they fare this time around? Let's find out!

If you want bigger pictures please click on them to enlarge..

Luke, Artoo and Threepio pick up where we left them off in the sinking escape pod. The sea serpants and their riders seem to be attacking or salvaging the sinking ship, but thankfully don't notice the escape pod while Luke watches with his space binoculars.



I'm going to have to agree with Threepio here, that is a really bad analogy. I get it Marvel, you're trying REALLY REALLY hard to make us remember the movie.

The new arrivals on the....water landspeeders....attack the dragon riders. They are able to scare the dragon riders off, but not before losing some of their skimmers. The lose disappoints them until they notice Luke and the droids...



Infantino, like Chaykin, sometimes make Luke look like He-Man as above. By the way, the guy in the first panel and Luke in the third panel look like twins. Maybe he was "the other" Yoda spoke of.



Once again, Luke is given a red saber. I've lost track, but is this the first time they've used the correct spelling for lightsaber?

Are these guys REALLY that stupid that they don't recognize robots? It's the friggin Star Wars universe! COME ONE!



Thanks for the exposition. At this point it's almost obligatory that we get a movie flashback once an issue. It just seems like it's Marvel saying, "Hey! Remember the movie? Wasn't that cool!"

Luke holds off the men for as long as he could with the saber, but he is in danger of being overpowered. Artoo has his own interjection...



There is so much to say about the above panel...so much....but yet words just fail me.

So Luke successfully commandeers the vehicle and demands to be taken to their governor. We get a nice full page of their base.



Remember, this is the 70's and full splash pages aren't as common as they are now. This is just cool and a triumph of Carmine Infantino. It looks straight out of a movie.

The governor, who looks strangely like a Napoleon cartoon, is ready to execute the men for the lost skimmers. They try to save face by showing them the robots and Jedi they brought back with them.



Interesting in-universe perception the galaxy had of the Jedi at the time. Remember, at this point Marvel (and our general public) knew very little of the Jedi and their backstory.

Luke convinces the governor only he could make sure he gets the true worth of the droids. He starts to think fast on his feet which reminds him of Han. As a result we cut back to Han's storyline.




Maybe Marvel has been doing this all along and I just noticed, but it looks like the Star Destroyer has four shield generators on top instead of the standard two! Weird!

Han and Jack are getting closer to the Drexel system and Han is trying to figure out what to do when Jack realizes he lied about the Rebel treasure being there. Leia didn't really think this lie through did she?

Jack proceeds to tell Han about how he came into possession of a Star Destroyer.




Look closely, are these the first appearance of Tie-Bombers?

Wookiepedia says the battle in question was actually the Battle of Toprawa. That's pretty cool and gives it some more history and ties.



I wonder if Goodwin knew who the backer was when he wrote this. It's interesting because that line WILL pay off much later down the line. Curious.

SPOILER: It's Jabba

The crew members interrupt the bonding moment between Solo and Crimson Jack to inform them Jolli has gone nuts and is attacking the crew.

Apparently Leia's mind games with her last issue had an effect. She started asking about kissing and some of the pirates got a bit fresh with her...which didn't sit well with Jolli.



Han getting slapped again is hilarious, although I'm really unsure how to feel about the Jolli kissing mind games storyline.

Chewbacca (who they say is 100 years old here...Wookiepedia says 200 is the correct age) pulls the ship out of hyperspace at Drexel.



Thanks Leia! What a position you've put us in!

Note the little....um....note on the side of the top panel that they forgot to edit out in post. It took me a few reads to notice it.

My overall thoughts? This has some of the better elements I loved from Archie Goodwin's newspaper strips (which haven't been published yet). Infantino is awesome and the full page pirate ship was a comic masterpiece. His faces are still a bit rough though. Just look at Han's face in that panel. I'm liking the story though and wish they would've done more to get Leia involved this issue.

So join us next time for...