SWNN Review: Marvel’s Chewbacca #1

chewbacca coverUm…okay. Yesterday, while recording The Resistance Podcast, we brought up the issue of quality over quantity. About a year ago this time, there was barely ONE book in the new Star Wars canon. Today, there are several, as well as my tired fingers can tell you, many comics. We discussed that we may eventually hit a point of quality versus quantity.  In my opinion, Marvel’s Star Wars Chewbacca #1 is a cautionary sign that quantity may someday eclipse quality.

 

 

I did not like this issue. At all. The artwork by Phil Noto is the only redeeming quality of this book. The end of this issue is slightly intriguing, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. In all honesty, I set the bar pretty low for this series in general, and Chewbacca hit the mark. Must have hit it pretty close to the mark to get me all riled up like this.

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The issue begins with a young girl, Zarro, and her father, going into indentured servitude to pay of a debt to a menacing looking character called Jaum.

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If you read A New Dawn, his character is kind of what I imagined the villain of that story to have looked like. The only way to pay their debt is for Zarro and her father to enter into hard labor, harvesting the larva of Adelm Beetles.

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Zarro’s father manages to get her out of the deep caverns and tells her to runaway and never return. Let me guess…she’s not going to listen.

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As soon as Zarro is free, she begins to plot how she will free her father and the other indebted, poor souls trapped harvesting bug eggs. Whoever is going to help her? I bet a big Wookie laying on a bed of flowers with a stupid grin on his face could help, Zarro.

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Can you guys tell I didn’t like this issue?

Chewbacca has departed Yavin on his own secret mission, but the A-Wing-like ship they gave him turned out not to be so great, landing him on the same planet, which is called Andelm-4, as Zarro. Yes, the two of them, Zarro and Chewbacca, become acquainted.

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Zarro learns Chewbacca is familiar with the bondage of forced labor. Since Chewbacca has nothing better to do, he’s going to help Zarro free her father. Guess that secret mission can wait?

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Jaum turns out to be a broker of beetle larva. Guess what sinister entity wants to purchase it from him in mass quantities? The freakin’ Empire! That’s who!

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I apologize for the sarcastic tone, but this really has Star Wars Holiday Special written all over it. Save your money and wait to see if the following issues bring anything more interesting to the table. Shattered Empire #3 is great, though.

 

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Kyle Larson lives in Portland, Oregon. When he's not running trails, he's reading and writing.

Kyle Larson

Kyle Larson lives in Portland, Oregon. When he's not running trails, he's reading and writing.

33 thoughts on “SWNN Review: Marvel’s Chewbacca #1

  • October 16, 2015 at 6:58 pm
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    No, it’s not as bad as the Holiday Special. It kinda resembles Droids/Ewoks TV shows to me…

    • October 16, 2015 at 9:11 pm
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      You need better standards. Lucasfilm had almost 40 years to learn from the Holiday Special.

      • October 16, 2015 at 9:43 pm
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        I didn’t say I liked it

        • October 17, 2015 at 4:17 pm
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          I choked back tears when the little Wookie gathered his toy bantha and replaced it’s head after the imperial troopers ransacked it’s room…

  • October 16, 2015 at 6:59 pm
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    lol, nice review. I did like the opening crawl though, about Chewbacca having destroyed the Death Star with the aid of his trusty sidekick, Han Solo. I was expecting the humor to carry through the book some more, it may be the only good writing element in this series…

  • October 16, 2015 at 7:39 pm
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    Yes I’m gonna pass on this one. I think they need to focus on the main series, vader, and shattered empire

  • October 16, 2015 at 7:40 pm
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    I’m not sure that I like the idea of characters in Star Wars having faux-hawks, and wearing message t-shirts. It seems out of place.

    • October 17, 2015 at 3:02 am
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      Almost reminds me of Jared Leto’s Damaged tattoo on his forehead. Which has grown on me, of course.

      I mean Star Wars is still a reflection of our world just put into a larger galaxy with strange creatures, aliens, space wizards/magic, spaceship battles, and politics.
      So, I don’t see why young girls in Star Wars wouldn’t be wearing shirts with printed text on them somewhere in the galaxy.
      Star Wars citizens can have a sense of pop culture too. 🙂

      • October 17, 2015 at 9:13 pm
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        The thing is, Star Wars has always had a timeless feel to it. Putting era specific hair styles and pop culture fashion trends in it, instantly dates it.

        Just imagine what the original trilogy would look like if Han Solo wore a leisure suit or if Lando had a jheri curl.

        • October 17, 2015 at 11:25 pm
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          Uhhh the original trilogy does have Era specific trends. Look at the OT’S clothing. Han Solo’s chest hair is begging to jump out in A New Hope. It’s still timeless yeah but there are some fashion trends that get put into the characters looks. Also the hair of Luke, and even Anak in in the PT.

  • October 16, 2015 at 8:02 pm
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    Anything with Chewbacca’s name on it is gold! Gold, Jerry!

  • October 16, 2015 at 8:12 pm
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    Shattered Empire was so good I forgot about how useless this one was. I forgive you marvel. At least it’s a Miniseries like Leia which also sucked. But after Lando I admit I was hoping for better. Chewbacca is awesome but little miss “trouble” t-shirt…I just don’t know. As the canon connoisseur I will no doubt read the other four issues but I did not enjoy it. Shattered Empire is awesome though. I’m still hoping for it to turn into an ongoing series.

    • October 17, 2015 at 2:55 am
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      Star Wars – Hit and a couple misses!
      Darth Vader – Hit! and a miss…
      Princess Leia – Mostly miss…..
      Kanan: The Last Padawan – HIT!!! HIT!!! HIT!!! I love this!!!
      Lando – Mostly HIT, good story!
      Shattered Empire – God damn hit!!!! HIT!! HIT!! HIT AGAIN PLEASE!
      Chewbacca – ………………. 🙁

  • October 16, 2015 at 8:30 pm
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    This issue was so boring and felt unneeded. Good review.

    • October 17, 2015 at 3:06 am
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      I really wish Marvel can start publishing Star Wars comics about more obscure characters like Zam Wessell or Syfo Dias. Yeah, I know Disney is paranoid of the prequel era, but it would be worth a shot because many characters aren’t fleshed out.

      • October 17, 2015 at 11:10 am
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        Nice reference to Zam Wessell, I always wondered how she/he/it was caught up in the assassination attempt (“it was only a job…”). Could see that making an interesting side story with insights into the relationship with Jango and his involvement with the clone program.

  • October 16, 2015 at 9:10 pm
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    What really bothers me about this issue is that Chewie can say more than “HRRAA” he said that close to 20 times! It just seems like filler, they didn’t know how to write Chewbacca so they made him say HRRAA over and over.

    • October 17, 2015 at 5:20 am
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      I think one of his better sounds would have to be “Hragh o hogh hogh”, like when he finds Han post-carbonite and starts hugging him, and Chewie answers his question about luke.

  • October 16, 2015 at 9:39 pm
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    Well at least chewbacca doing slave labor before meeting Han is canon now.

  • October 16, 2015 at 11:30 pm
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    Jaum same species as Snoke? 🙂

  • October 17, 2015 at 12:33 am
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    I can’t be the only one waiting for Marvel’s Jar Jar.
    Oh wait. Yes I can.

  • October 17, 2015 at 12:37 am
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    I’ve already written this all off as more EU nobody will really care about outside of the diehards. The movies will always be more core canon. I still might give that one book a shot. People seemed positive towards it. Name escapes me.

    • October 17, 2015 at 1:49 am
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      Lost Stars

      • October 17, 2015 at 7:13 am
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        Yes! That’s the one.

    • October 17, 2015 at 3:13 am
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      I would give Lost Stars a read and also The main Star Wars Comics are really good along with the first 6 issues is Vader. The YA novels about Han Luke and Leia were really good as well.

  • October 17, 2015 at 12:42 am
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    I mostly pirate the individual comics and then pay for the trades. I, much like the author, thought this was a complete waste of time. I got this for free and still felt like I got robbed.

  • October 17, 2015 at 3:16 am
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    I usually try to find a silver lining somewhere when I do these reviews. I try to live by one of the golden rules: If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it. The artwork really is the only thing I enjoyed about this book. There are so many more worthwhile stories/characters that could be elaborated on. This is such a waste of space, at least this lead off issue. I’ll eat my words if later issues bring it out of the tailspin of a mess this issue was, but I’m not optimistic…

  • October 17, 2015 at 4:57 am
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    The thing I don’t think most people understand about the NU or New Universe (as it is to me now) is that they are largely written for non-fans who have only seen the films maybe once or twice. The reading comprehension level is far lower than the majority of what we used to get but that’s true of most reading outside SW as well.

    • October 17, 2015 at 1:29 pm
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      Hmm, interesting point. Back in the day it was not uncommon (in my circle of primary school friends) for Star Wars viewings on VHS (google it kids) to exceed the life quality of the tape… the EU books were devoured to discover as much information as possible about Luke, Leia, Han and Chewie, to uncover their past and understand their future… this flood of “associated material” is diluting the experience – in my opinion – driven by the almighty dollar…

      • October 17, 2015 at 2:01 pm
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        Oh yeah. It’s totally short term thinking and even with the “story group” there are still continuity errors. Their main goal is to maintain interest in the films while with the old EU (or AU for alternate universe which is what I dubbed it) was all about making things connect and celebrating the saga with writers who grew up watching it. Seems like literally anyone can get hired to write the new shit and they probably have a low budget which is why most of their talent is largely inexperienced.

        • October 17, 2015 at 4:06 pm
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          Just can’t really understand why we’re getting saturated with *peripheral* material and yet being denied any real substance in regard to the *centrepoint* station that is TFA… what are they afraid of? Someone might escape and ruin the plot of ep 8 & 9 methinks…

          • October 18, 2015 at 2:16 pm
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            Great reference! Historically when they do that then it means box office turkey. Though this film could be worse than AOTC and will likely outgross TPM due to inflation, The three decade wait, and the curiosity of seeing what SW looks like after Jedi.

  • October 17, 2015 at 5:15 am
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    Oh, Chewbacca has a comic, and he’s NOT the main character. WOW.

    Why couldn’t he just be the main character?
    Because to me, this comic isn’t star wars – it’s E.T.

    Troubled kid makes an alien friend and the alien helps the kid conquer their life-problems. ET called, he wants his cigarettes and plot-gimmick back!

    Chewbacca should’ve been a silent-protagonist type. Like Master Chief in Halo, just one, awesome, badass dude, walking along, shit happens, he slow-mo explodes shit, everyone else explains the plot, while he just quietly nods “ditto” and punches a nuclear bomb in the face, but him being the main character, as in, the camera follows him and shows every detail of his nuke-face-punching, in detail.
    IS THAT SO MUCH TO ASK?!

    Instead Chewbacca’s Barnie, and i hate barnie.
    If they’re gonna do this whole ET jack frost snowman barnie bullshit, they may as well give Zarro a magic orb in which she can store Chewie so that she can take him to school without the principle getting upset, and whip him out of her back-pack when Greta the Bully comes around.

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