The Star Wars #8

The Dark Horse Comics adaptation of the original George Lucas rough draft of Star Wars does indeed come to an end in this issue. Issue #8 doesn't appear to have an expanded page count. So either Dark Horse made an error in planning for how many issues this miniseries should run or Lucas had so many different ideas in how to wrap his story up that he failed to pace things out properly. It's got to be George Lucas' fault. I say this because so much happens in the finale compared to some parts of act one and two that drag out to a snail's pace. Star Wars was such a lucrative property for Dark Horse, if the publisher felt like a 9th or 10th issue was warranted, they would have approved an extension as this sort of thing happens all the time in order to boost sales. 

So what does happen in this closer:

* Annikin Starkiller infiltrates the Empire's Space Fortress in hopes of rescuing Princess Leia who's being interrogated under threat of torture.

*General Luke Skywalker and Han Solo somehow manages to teach a bunch of primitive Wookiees to fly Imperial fighters and organizes an assault on the gigantic space station.

* A new ally emerges.

* Lots of people die on both sides of the conflict.

*Lastly, we get an ending satisfying enough that should ticket sales be dismal, you feel like there was a happy ending. But you don't close things out too perfectly less the studios decide to green-light a sequel.

For those who finish this miniseries, you'll have to settle for option A. This was Dark Horse's swan song with the Star Wars franchise. With Disney buying Lucasfilm in 2012, the House of Mouse had plans for a new series of films as well as giving Marvel, which was also owned by Disney, carte blanche on publishing the further adventures of Luke Skywalker and company. In other words, Disney had no intention of looking backwards; nor were they willing to share a piece of the lucrative Star Wars pie.

Ironically, thanks mostly to the pandemic's crippling effect on the comic book market, Marvel had to source out some of its Star Wars catalog back to Dark Horse. Another irony, instead of giving them any of the established trilogies or the new generation series that was coming to movie screens, Dark Horse was given free reign to establish history of the Old Republic. While in 2014 it didn't look like 'The Saga of The Ophuchi', the proposed next chapter in The Star Wars, perhaps with multiverses being the main focus of the big 2 publishers and their visual arts media, maybe the time is right to continue the adventures of Annikin Starkiller...

I know I'd buy it.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.