SWNN Review: Marvel’s Chewbacca #2

Chewbacca 01Today, I want to try and look at the glass half-full in the Chewbacca series. In case you missed last weeks review, yours truly was not crazy about the idea of a series based around a character who has no form of speech other than growling and roaring. I am still scratching my head as to why Marvel would do it, but I think I see where they are going with it now, and I get it…

 

The artwork by Phil Noto is very unique and I love the vintage era it takes me back too. It’s just a few shades darker than water color and it reminds me of 1970’s Saturday morning cartoons. These books are very well laid out and nice to look at. It’s a fresh look for Star Wars and I hope they bring Noto back for more SW series. His skills deserve a story with a little more…I think you get the backhand of what I’m trying to say.
Chewbacca 02Chewbacca has agreed to help a young girl free her enslaved father and the rest of her people that are buried deep beneath the surface mining beetle larvae. This specific beetle larvae is very effective in Imperial blaster power cells. I think I got that right.
Chewbacca 03The plan is simple. The girl gets recaptured with a tracking device. She maps out the mine and Chewbacca climbs down a vent to go “Wookie” on the captors and free the people. What could go wrong? A claustrophobic Wookie, that’s what.

 

Yes, every mighty Wookie has their flaw, and Chewbacca is no exception. He does not care for tight spaces like vent shafts leading to underground mines. It is not without good reason, though. We get a glimpse of what Chewbacca’s time in the bondage of slavery was like, and let’s just say his sleeping quarters have a lot to do with his phobia. Makes that cell in the bowels of Jabba’s Palace seem a lot smaller now, eh?
Chewbacca 04This Jaum character is not nice at all. He doesn’t seem particularly menacing, more like a Scooby Doo villain.
Chewbacca 05Evil doers, surface and subterranean, beware. Chewbacca has a droid and he will take you on in a knife, gun, or lightsaber fight with it and probably win. Yes, I’m making fun of this issue now, so I should probably stop.

 

Chewbacca does manage to make it into the mine and get the captives close to escape. Then this happens.

 

What I do like is that we are seeing first hand the suffering and oppression of people on a small world that isn’t small enough to be missed by those who would exploit it to the Empire. We often hear about it, but I feel like this series is trying to show us that through the eyes of Chewbacca, a survivor of it himself. An ‘A’ for effort, but I still feel like this is missing the mark. It’s certainly a step-up, but you aren’t missing anything.

 

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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.

12 thoughts on “SWNN Review: Marvel’s Chewbacca #2

  • November 3, 2015 at 7:55 pm
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    Chewie doesn’t care much for trash compactors either.

  • November 4, 2015 at 12:09 am
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    It’s spelled “Wookiee,” with ee.

  • November 4, 2015 at 3:43 am
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    I think a Chewbacca novel is a great idea but this series shows that it simply doesn’t work without a half-way decent writer.

    • November 4, 2015 at 12:17 pm
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      The parting comment sums it up – “you aren’t missing anything”… an insight into the real reason why Disney paid an obscene amount of money for Star Wars – read: flood the market with anything and everything merchandise related… cover all bases, whether young/old, male/female, Wookie/non Wookie… I know you have my point already, but I have to state this is why GL ultimately failed with Star Wars – it became mainstream and (more importantly) EXPLOITED…

      • November 4, 2015 at 12:49 pm
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        Oh yeah! Especially with 6 films in 6 years. 3 films in 6 years is pushing it, They should have saved the spinoffs till after the trilogy was over.

        • November 4, 2015 at 1:22 pm
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          Oh dear, why when I read trilogy my brain flashed tragedy… Ben, why didn’t you tell me?…

          • November 4, 2015 at 1:26 pm
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            Haha! Disney was making cheapquels to it’s animated films from decade ago up until a few years ago so I can totally see them making more Star Wars films long after everyone reading this is dead

          • November 4, 2015 at 1:30 pm
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            I mean, if only we could draw things out, allow uncertainty and wonderment to power our imaginations… not the fickle expectations of the next (rapidly approaching) release of comic/book/figure/lego/poster/spinoff movie/cereal… (yes “serial” pun intended…)

          • November 4, 2015 at 1:37 pm
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            Yeah, It’s all about the tie-in market now. We won’t see any truly great standalone stuff till after 2020 at the earliest.

  • November 4, 2015 at 1:41 pm
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    Lol. I’d like to see them reopen the KOTOR timeline again while they are at it.

  • November 4, 2015 at 1:53 pm
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    Haha! Mine too! It’s hard not to think of the old EU when picturing the character’s backstories or reading the new EU. It’s all the same canon to me so long as nothing else contadicts it.

    • November 4, 2015 at 2:32 pm
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      That sums me up I guess, I will hold onto my treasured past while embracing the new future… and that treasured past includes (most importantly) GL’s awkward gestation of the ANH/ESB story… I accept that some plot holes are best left alone, however where would we be as humanity if we didn’t ask questions… And how I love the fluid storyline that resulted in the magic of E4-6… if JJ and Co can reproduce that magic I will be one of the most impressed. I just wish Disney could show some restraint with this whole “sidebar” nonsense and allow people to spend more time “dreaming”…

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