New 'Star Wars' comic adds to cinematic legacy

Jason Aaron's got a good feeling about this.

The renowned comic-book scribe usually scores the cream of the Marvel Comics crop working with the X-Men, Thor and various other superheroes, but writing Marvel's new flagship Star Wars series takes all that to another level, whether it's crafting a Darth Vader entrance, dreaming up lightsaber fights, figuring out how to script R2-D2 sound effects or having C-3PO insult everybody.

"I just want it to feel like Star Wars, the stuff that got me so excited when I was a kid first introduced into this universe," Aaron says, who's working on the comic with artist John Cassaday (Astonishing X-Men).

"I want it to feel like we're all going back to that moment, where we're all falling in love with the same cast of characters all over again."

Out today, the first issue stars George Lucas' prime-time players in a story arc set after the Battle of Yavin, the climax of the original 1977 Star Wars film. On the heels of their destruction of the Death Star, the Rebel Alliance is on the offensive and Han Solo, Chewbacca, Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker go undercover on an Imperial moon base to shut down a weapons factory churning out TIE Fighters and AT-ATs.

Suffice it to say, it doesn't take long before a certain A-lister from the Empire makes his presence felt.

"I want to do it Marvel style," Aaron says, "and Marvel style is to go for the biggest scenes, the biggest moments and the biggest characters you can grab."

With every phase of the comic, Aaron aims for it to seem like it's 1978 and "we had just been hired to produce the sequel to that original movie."

So the writer and Cassaday embrace the cinematic qualities even before the story really begins, from the "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…" opening and the double-spread title treatment to an opening crawl and a slow panning shot of a spaceship.

Cassaday especially has been key in making it really look like a Star Wars project, Aaron says. "He's pouring a lot of his long-running passion into it as well, and the book only looks better as things just get bigger and crazier as we go."

They do have strict parameters in what they can do with characters and relationships, however. Since it takes place before The Empire Strikes Back, Luke doesn't know Vader is the former Anakin Skywalker — and Vader is unaware his kid's running around — plus Luke and Leia don't know they're brother and sister.

But there are a lot of beats that happen off screen between the first two Star Wars movies, and that's getting much of Aaron's focus.

For example, Vader's on a quest to find the X-Wing pilot who blew up the Death Star and is strong with the Force. "It goes in some unexpected places," says the writer.

Aaron's also delving into Luke's continued development, his journey to become a Jedi and all the questions he has — those will be driving forces in the Star Wars comic.

"What does he do in all that time before Ben ever tells him, 'Hey, why don't you go to Dagobah?' " Aaron says. "He's in an interesting place in that he trained to be a Jedi for five minutes with this guy Ben Kenobi and now the guy's dead and gone and Luke's just left holding his father's lightsaber and loaded with questions.

"He knows he's destined for something special but he has no idea to get there. I love the idea of him trying to answer his questions and in a sense chasing after the legacy of his father."

The original trilogy focuses on the whole with Luke evolving from starry-eyed farmboy to space adventurer, and Aaron is focusing on how far his heroism truly goes: He frees slaves being held by the Empire, showing that he truly cares about others in the universe and not just Han, Leia and his Rebel friends.

Star Wars is a team book, though, and while Aaron will break up the characters into smaller groups at times, it's best when everyone's personalities bounce off one another. He recalls that when Luke and Han go undercover as Stormtroopers in the Death Star to rescue Leia in the 1977 movie, "you just fall in love with everybody."

Just because they capture the spirit of movies doesn't mean they're going to be slaves to the people, settings and situations that all Star Wars fans know. Aaron wants to inject a lot of fresh stuff into the mix, as well — the fourth issue features the debut of a major new figure never seen before in the franchise.

That's been a hallmark of his Marvel superhero career, he says, "but it's a different sort of giddy feeling to introduce a character who's standing alongside Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker and all these toys I played with as a kid."