Star Wars: Chewbacca (2015)

If you think that the reason I choose now to read the collection version of this 2015 Marvel miniseries is due to the untimely death of actor Peter Mayhew, buy yourself a cee-gar!  The death of the first actor to portray everyone's favorite Wookiee hit me, a literal life-long Star Wars fan (I was born in 1977), very hard. My second eldest child is actually named after the co-pilot of the Millennium Falcon (and yes, Chewie is a human boy!) 

Naturally, there's quite a bit of affection for the character in my family. Along with lighting a candle in front on a copy of Episode IV on DVD, I wanted to do something else in tribute to Mayhew. So, I decided to finally hit my local library and check out this book. 

The story takes place sometime very soon after the Battle of Yavin. Chewie is on a secret mission when he crash lands on a mining planet teetering on the edge of falling under the dominion of the Empire. All the Wookiee wants to do is buy the needed part to repair his fighter and complete his mission. But when he falls under the charms of an escaped slave girl, Chewbacca will risk everything to make sure this planet doesn't fall under the iron boot of the Empire like his beloved home world of Kashyyk!

The artwork of Phil Noto is very good. The X-23 artist uses a watercolor technique that gives the story a vintage feel. Chewbacca looks almost life-like. Though I did feel that the Wookiee's muzzle looked rather comical like a  Fu Manchu mustache. 

There was another element of Noto's art that was a tad confusing; that of Chewie's youthful companion, Zarro. In much of this 5-issue series, Zarro looks more like a 10-year old boy than a girl. It's not just because she has short hair. Zarro's face looks more masculine.

I'm wondering if Zarro was originally to be a boy. But Marvel, decided somewhere in final production to switch the character's gender. In some panels (and covers), Zarro looks like a young boy from Eastern Europe in about 75% of this book. The character just doesn't look consistent throughout. 

This mini was published during the Axel Alonso era in which Marvel Comics pandered diversity for the sake of sales and fan loyalty (and failed miserably.) So, I would not have put it past Marvel to decide that this story needed a feminine touch. Thus, in a massive rush to make deadline, Phil Noto had just enough time to touch up some panels but not all! I'd be interested to learn more about who was the model of Zarro and if my theory was right.

Gerry Duggan pens this story. I love his work on Deadpool. He's faithful to beloved source material while not being afraid of pushing the envelope. But this comic is one time that you needed Chewbacca's buddy Han Solo around. Nobody is around to interpret what Chewie has to say. I can understand id Gerry Duggan felt that by having Han around, this wouldn't be a Chewbacca solo tale. But this book needed someone around to help us understand what Chewie is saying; like maybe a protocol droid. As much as I've tried, I just don't speak Wookiee.

Speaking of being lost in translation- just what does Zarro's shirt say? I bet it's an awesome Easter egg. But as much as I don't know Wookiee, I speak even less Galactic Basic!

Star Wars: Chewbacca was a good read. But, it had some rough edges. But I enjoyed it. But if ever a book needed a director's cut style appendix about the art process (and maybe a Wookiee-to-English dictionary), this would be the book to need it.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.