Our coverage continues of the Marvel Star Wars comics published between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi! In this episode, Henry Bernstein joins The Irredeemable Shag to discuss Marvel STAR WARS #48 (June 1981), by Larry Hama, Carmine Infantino & Carlos Garzon! In this issue, entitled “The Third Law”, Princess Leia applies for a space loan, and Darth Vader tries to ruin her credit score. It’s a story of predatory lending! Finally, we wrap up with YOUR listener feedback from the previous episode!
- 00:00:30 – Introductions
- 00:11:05 – Guest’s origin with Star Wars comics
- 00:14:25 – Guest’s favorite Star Wars expanded universe character
- 00:17:15 – Star Wars #48 cover discussion
- 00:22:30 – Star Wars #48 interior discussion
- 01:08:35 – The Golden Plif Award
- 01:13:30 – Your listener feedback from the last episode
- 01:35:25 – Sign off
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I don’t love this cover. The Leia half is good. Darth Vader looks like he lost his mask and had to borrow the Shredder’s. However, Now I’m picturing Princess Leia battling Count Chocula what a thought. The plot of this sounds like a random Scify Channel movie or Green Lantern comic.
“Show me on the 12″ Chewbacca doll where this comic touched you.”
I think you guys were a little harsh on this issue, one that I always enjoyed even though, yeah, the premise that Leia could interact with Vader with impunity is ridiculous. He would just take out his light saber, slash her in two, and [light saber swoosh sound] STORY OVER.
As a kid reading the comic as it came out, I had some dim appreciation that Marvel was limited as to what they could do in between the movies. So seeing two of the big characters directly interact was a real treat. Maybe if I dug the comic out and re-read it that would change. So I won’t be doing that.
Always happy to hear Henry on the network!
First things first, congratulations on making the episode far more entertaining and enjoyable than the comic it was about. This was a really fun listen.
As ridiculous as the premise seems, there is some actual validity to it. During the American Civil War there were Confederate States with their own banks and economies. Sure Emperor Palpatine had declared himself ruler of the Galaxy, but there were undoubtedly planets that did not recognize his authority. It would make sense that a rich and powerful planet may in fact back the Alliance. There would not only be potential monetary gain, but also political gain should the Rebel Alliance win. Not to mention Princess Leia was in fact STILL a princess. She would still have powerful allies and hidden wealth that the banking planet might want to curry favor withhold.
That being said, this story was a TERRIBLE idea for a comic book! What Star Wars fan cared about cosmic loans? It would have been WAY over my head when this issue hit the stands.
I believe I’ve read this issue once. Back in the 90s when I had gone back to pick up all the Marvel Star Wars issues I skipped when they originally came out. I skimmed over the story before listening but I just couldn’t get myself to read it.
One last observation. While we didn’t know Vader and Leia were father and daughter when this story was written, had she known of their relationship, would she have asked him to co-sign the loan?
This comic sounds like a filler but . I feel like this somthing that you’d have to have leia do cause let’s face it . Of the named main cast she’s probably the only you could use for banking story . Luke probably knows nothing about banking . He wanted to be a a pilot so if his uncle tried to teach him that stuff, it probably just flew over his head.
Luke can fix stuff and be basic teenager before he started Jedi training. I wonder who built the fake finance officer? Maybe Luke can build droids like his dad we just never see him do it on screen .
Here’s a secret question: if you took three characters from the Sonic the hedgehog comics and throw them in Star Wars comic for what if style adventure who would you choose and what era of the comics and what adventure would they go on ?
Here’s mine
I’d choose 2 hero’s and 1 villains
1. Belle tinker (good robot from the IDW sonic comics )
2. Charmy bee
3. Villain egg pawn ( stealth variant)
Time line some time after Hans magnificent 7 so Jackson can be there pilot with the rabbits foot. Because if you have little bee and puppet girl they need a giant green meat eating rabbit as there pilot.
And they would essentially be bounty hunters trying to find there way home but getting involved with some of the other members of Hans 7 . And the rebels call the series sega Star Wars .
Incase you’re wondering where the idea came from it’s because I’ve been reading sonic the hedgehog comics.
Great episode! I am so glad that you call out the wonky anatomy for Leia on the cover. In particular, it looks like she’s twisting her body because she’s pooping out an old man. What kind of food do they eat in Alderaan?!
Sometimes the best episodes come when covering the worst issues and this was the case here. You two were clearly having so much fun and it made for a really fun listen.
Great episode!
Thanks to Henry, I’m now expecting a new line of T-shirts in your merch store with a logo proclaiming “Another childhood ruined by the Irredeemable Shag!”
The main thing I got from this issue was a reminder how hardcore Leia is. It’s baked into her character, so it’s not like I forgot that. But it’s one thing to zap stormtroopers with your blaster, and another to send one guy to the center of a planet, and squash a second who was a butterfly! I’m sorry, but DAMN! Just shows again how awesome she is.
Excellent listening, Shagg and Henry!
Another fun episode about a Star Wars comic that I never read. Shag and Henry make it sound “interesting” enough in a Mystery Science Theater 3000 way that now I want to read it! And, as a true (red, white, and) blue fan of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, Larry Hama can do no wrong in my eyes. Wait. He’s responsible for Bucky O’Hare who might actually be “related” to Jaxxon?!? Oh, Larry, just stick to Snake Eyes, Scarlett, and company! I mean, nothing spells Star Wars to me like “taking out a space loan.” And the twist ending within the twist ending between Vader and Leia makes it sounds even more confusing. Regardless, thanks for the chuckles.
Hi Shagg, I’ve been a bit remiss in commenting recently so I’m going to cover my thoughts on the last two episodes in one go. Starting with Droid World and the fantastic cover. You seemed surprised that Frank Miller was drawing a Star Wars cover but it’s slightly less surprising when you remember that in the early 80s he was a member of Upstart Associates where he shared a studio with Howard Chaykin, cover inker James Sherman and Walter Simonson who was about to take over as Star Wars artist and was married to the editor of the issue Louise Jones. That’s quite a connection. You also talk a bit about the art fluctuating in the level of detail. Do you think it’s possible that this was a pre-Empire story that was adjusted post Empire? Most obviously all the appearances of Luke Skywalker look more like Gene Day’s art than Carmine Infantino. This being older work would also track with Carmine Infantino being back at DC on a number of issues that had already been published at this point (including a Brave and the Bold issue teaming Batman and Firestorm which I seem to recall listening to a podcast about).
Onto The Third Law, Larry Hama can join JM DeMatteis in being a great writer who wasn’t good at writing Star Wars. I suppose we shouldn’t be that surprised that he wrote a finance-based comic as his late 80s Bullpen Bulletins Profile said his ultimate ambition in comics was to write an Uncle Scrooge McDuck story. In fact it could be argued that the Darth Vader of this issue has some Duckish qualities. I also have to point out that Viscount Tardi is named after the French comic book writer/artist Jacques Tardi which is unlikely to be a coincidence. You also comment on the layout differences between the two issues. I know from interviews that Archie Goodwin was providing layouts for the issues of Star Wars that he wrote. From the description they were similar to the ones Keith Giffen produced on JLI. So you would expect a difference from Goodwin layouts on Droid World to Infantino layouts on The Third Law. But there are a couple of choices that don’t feel very Infantino-ey. Particularly the Leia inset panel when the smuggler is killed. I know Hama has been asked if he provided layouts for his GI Joe run and he said he didn’t but is it possible that he drew layouts for the story as that was how Carmine was used to working on Star Wars. These two stories and the Cody Sunchilde story are a great display of the role of an inker. Seeing how different Infantino’s work looks inked by Tom Palmer, Gene Day and Carlos Garzon shows just how much an inker influences the look of a comic. I’m glad to say that it’s my favourite of those three who goes on to be the regular inker over the rest of the Empire to Jedi run as we’re going to get some of the best art to ever appear in comics.
I initially read most of this era in Marvel UK’s Return of the Jedi weekly which reprinted it at a larger size and mostly in black and white so you really could see the majesty of Tom Palmer’s work. I’m so looking forward to rereading The Crimson Forever and then the Michelinie/Simonson/Palmer issues along with you which are among my favourite comics of all time.