Between Marvel’s original run on “Star Wars” and Dark Horse’s run, as die-hard fans know, there was the oh-so-brief Blackthorne Comics run in honor of the 10th anniversary of the first film: Three issues of “Star Wars 3-D” in 1987-88. (If the 3-D aspect isn’t important to you, you can find these issues collected in Dark Horse’s “Wild Space Volume 1.) Len Wein wrote the first two issues, but he was no hack writer that Blackthorne tapped to crank out cheap scripts to back the 3-D hook. Wein was an industry legend known for his work on “Swamp Thing” and “Wolverine.”
Given his history with the company, Wein presumably was familiar with the Marvel “Star Wars” run, but since this was before the Internet and even before West End Games began to codify the “Star Wars” universe, it’s possible he didn’t know about the Goodwin/Williamson newspaper strips. As such, all of Issue 2 is a non-canon “Infinities” yarn about the Rebels’ transition from Yavin to Hoth. Some of Issues 1 and 3 are affected by this alternate take on the Rebels’ movements as well, although I think those issues are salvageable in terms of Expanded Universe canon.
In fact, Michael Stackpole gives a nice nod to Issue 1 in his novel “Rogue Squadron,” where he chronicles the Lars farmstead’s ownership transition from Throgg to the Darklighter family. In “Star Wars 3-D” Issue 1, Luke – guided by the Force — gifts the deed to a down-on-his-luck smuggler named Throgg.
Between Marvel, the Russ Manning strips and Blackthorne, Luke returns to Tatooine as often as an in-state college kid comes home to do his laundry for free. Luke had already visited the abandoned farmstead in Marvel Issue 31 (“Return to Tatooine”): “I still miss you both very much,” he reflects, thinking about Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen as he looks at the ruined homestead. And in Manning’s “Classic Star Wars: The Early Adventures” Issue 4, Luke initially tells Alliance command: “I am not going back there! … Tatooine … just saying the name makes me queasy! … Too many memories!” Then in Wein’s story, he looks at his aunt and uncle’s graves and says: “Didn’t realize coming back here would be so painful.” Either Luke has a tendency to block out his return visits or (more likely) each individual writer thought they were chronicling Luke’s first return to Tatooine.
Issue 2, “Havoc on Hoth,” contradicts Archie Goodwin’s superior newspaper strip arc about the Empire’s destruction of the Yavin base and the flight to Hoth. In Wein’s version, the Rebels abandon the Yavin base ahead of the Empire’s visit, and they learn about Hoth because Han happens to know that it’s a smugglers’ hideout planet with lots of useful caverns. Interestingly, the issue ends with a teaser to the next issue: “Kessel is Another Name for Chaos,” but either that story got scrapped or Issue 3 was significantly re-worked.
Issue 3, “The Dark Side of Dantooine,” by John Stephenson, doesn’t have major continuity glitches, but it does push the limits of Force powers like we’ve never seen before. Darth Vader somehow sets a Force trap on Dantooine, where Luke and Leia are buying black-market supplies for the Hoth base from an Ortolan. A bunch of floating Jawa-looking creatures promise to teach Luke the ways of the Force and goad him into tapping into the Dark Side. This allows Vader to meet Luke in a dreamscape, where they have a lightsaber duel. Leia – in a precursor to “Dark Empire” – then pulls Luke back to reality. I admire Stephenson’s ambition in trying for a dream-like Luke-Vader fight, but not so much the execution. And it’s rare that I ever comment on lettering, but the lettering is distractingly bad here, with lots of unnecessary word-breaks at the end of lines.
Although the setting of Dantooine is random (perhaps it was originally supposed to be Kessel, thus explaining the inaccurate teaser), it’s interesting to note that this issue marks the first EU story set on the planet, which a panicked Leia offered up as a target to Tarkin in “A New Hope.” Here, it’s portrayed as a place with a thriving black market. Future stories, such as the novel “Star Wars Galaxies: The Ruins of Dantooine,” would give additional traits to the planet.
All told, “Star Wars 3-D” is a curious mixed bag of stories that are crucial to the lives of the main characters yet somehow don’t carry much weight. The reason for this is that they tread ground that had already been covered – most notably the apocryphal Issue 2, but Issues 1 and 3 also have a sense of déjà vu because Luke had visited home and experienced near-misses with Vader in previous yarns set between Episodes IV and V. Unfortunately, we might have a similar sense of “been there, done that” when Disney begins to pave over the Legends canon all across the timeline.