The earliest Marvel U.K. “Star Wars Weekly” exclusives — while holding a cachet as “lost” stories due to not being part of the Marvel U.S. numbering system – were at least familiar: More yarns by Roy Thomas, Archie Goodwin and Chris Claremont. The Marvel U.K. exclusives from “The Empire Strikes Back Monthly” are another matter entirely: Eight dark tales of nightmare horror from the minds of Alan Moore, Steve Moore and Steve Parkhouse that were mostly collected in Dark Horse’s appropriately titled “Classic Star Wars: Devilworlds” Issues 1-2 (1996). One straggler, “Death-Masque,” wasn’t republished until 2013’s “Wild Space Volume 1” omnibus.
While I wouldn’t want all “Star Wars” yarns to be like “Devilworlds,” as a departure from the norm, I find them fascinating. Alan Moore is the mind behind “V for Vendetta” and “Watchmen,” and he brings a similar intelligent depth to his five “Star Wars” yarns. In “Dark Lord’s Conscience,” an empath aims to kill Darth Vader by exposing him to his most deeply buried memories. Unfortunately, the empath isn’t able to dredge forth Vader’s memories of slaying children in the Jedi Temple, but it’s still a great tale of the Dark Lord’s evil strength and cunning.
In “Blind Fury!,” Luke is similarly lured into a trap by an ancient Jedi-hating computer. It’s the most overtly Lovecraftian tale among “Devilworlds,” as Luke wades through a bunch of horrific creatures to face his foe. “Rust Never Sleeps” calls to mind the “Clone Wars” world where Darth Maul is dumped, except this garbage planet features all droids. With C-3PO on the scene (for some reason), it’s a nice meditation on the soulfulness of robotic beings.
“The Pandora Effect” calls to mind “Clone Wars’ ” Mortis episodes, as Han flies the Falcon through a “mathematician’s nightmare,” except that all the gods of this world are evil. Deities continue to be a go-to Moore concept in “Tilotny Throws a Shape,” where playful gods wipe out stormtroopers by sending them centuries into the past, allowing Leia to escape their clutches.
Steve Moore’s writing style is similar to Alan Moore’s character-oriented work, but more plot-heavy. “Dark Knight’s Devilry” (which, by the way, must be one of 100 tales during the Rebellion era where our heroes are captured by Imperials, only to somehow escape) is notable for having Luke lob a grenade at Vader and score a decent hit, similar to how Leia takes a chunk out of his armor in “Splinter of the Mind’s Eye.” (Spoiler alert: Vader survives.)
Until the “Wild Space” publication, “Death-Masque” was known as one of the rarest “Star Wars” stories, but it’s a pretty great yarn that would’ve fit in fine with “Devilworlds.” I assume Dark Horse just ran out of space in those two issues. In an extended riff on the Dagobah cave sequence, Luke is accosted by nightmare visions thanks to a telepathic monkey with a death’s head.
As odd as all the above stories are, there’s nothing strictly apocryphal about them, but Parkhouse’s “Flight of the Falcon” is another matter, even though it’s a solid “Infinities”-style yarn. Han poses as an Imperial test pilot and steals a prototype ship called the Millennium Falcon from a shipbuilding company called Millennium. The problem is that two years before this story came out, “The Empire Strikes Back” explained that Lando owned the Falcon before Han. Granted, on the final page of “Flight of the Falcon,” it appears that one of Han’s partners in crime is Lando, but it’s still a plot hole.
At any rate, the 2008 novel “Millennium Falcon” doesn’t incorporate this story, and even before then it had been established that the Falcon’s design is mass-produced (which makes sense, because if it was a stolen prototype, Han would lose the ship to the Empire the next time he gets boarded). For example, the “Thrawn Trilogy” and the “Wraith Squadron” books both feature decoy Falcons.
All of the “Devilworlds” yarns are weird, but not bad if you like “Star Wars” to venture outside the box now and then. Leia sums it up best in the final panel of the weirdest story, “Tilotny Throws a Shape”: “Forget it. I’m alive again. That’s all that matters. Stranger things have happened in space … although offhand I can’t think of any.”