MARVEL COMICS – @Marvel
[The review was originally posted on Patreon.]
EDITORS: Dave Land; Mark D. Beazley (collection)
COVER: Lucas Marangon with Michelle Madsen
MISC: Lucas Marangon with Michelle Madsen; Lucas Marangon; Lucas Marangon with Dan Jackson; John McCrea and Jimmy Palmiotti with Dan Jackson
ISBN: 978-1-302-91490-5; magazine (Wednesday, May 2, 2018)
104pp, Color, $7.99 U.S., $10.99 CAN (Diamond order code – MAR180947)
Rated “T”
Tag and Bink are Star Wars characters that debuted in Star Wars humor comic books first published by Dark Horse Comics (which had the license to publish Star Wars comic books from 1991 to 2014). Tag and Bink were created by writer Kevin Rubio and artist Lucas Marangon and starred in two two-issue Star Wars spoof comic book miniseries.
The first was Star Wars: Tag & Bink Are Dead #1-2 (cover dated: October to November 2001), and the second was Star Wars: Tag & Bink II #1-2 (cover dated: March to April 2006). An earlier version of the story that appeared in Star Wars: Tag & Bink II #1 was published in Star Wars Tales #12 (cover dated: June 2002). Dark Horse initially collected Star Wars: Tag & Bink Are Dead #1-2 and Star Wars: Tag & Bink II #1-2 in a trade paperback entitled Star Wars: Tag & Bink Were Here (cover dated: November 2006).
Marvel Comics has regained the license to produce Star Wars comic books that it originally held from the mid-1970s to about 1990. In May 2018, Marvel published its own version of Star Wars: Tag & Bink Were Here, apparently released to coincide with the May 2018 release of the Star Wars film, Solo: A Star Wars Story. Tag & Bink were supposed to appear in Solo, but their scene was reportedly cut from the film.
Entitled Star Wars: Tag & Bink Were Here #1 and published in the comic book format, this standalone comic book reprints the story pages and cover art of Star Wars: Tag & Bink Are Dead #1-2, Star Wars: Tag & Bink II #1-2. It also reprints the Tag & Bink story in Star Wars Tales #12 (cover dated: June 2002) and also the cover art for Dark Horse's Star Wars: Tag & Bink Were Here.
Tag & Bink are Tag Greenly, a male human from the planet Corellia, and Bink Otauna, a male human from Alderaan. In the comics, writer Kevin Rubio presents the duo as playing a role or at least being present in pivotal moments depicted in the following Star Wars films: Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Return of the Jedi (1983), Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002), and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.
The title of Tag & Bink's first appearance, Tag and Bink Are Dead, is a direct reference to Tom Stoppard 1966 play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are minor characters in William Shakespeare's Hamlet, and in Stoppard's play, the duo's actions take place in the background or “in the wings” of the main events of Hamlet. In that manner, Kevin Rubio makes Tag & Bink the stars who view and comment upon the main events of the Star Wars story and sometimes play a pivotal role in main events.
For instance, as background players, Tag & Bink are rebel soldiers aboard Princess Leia's starship (the "Tantive IV") that is captured by Darth Vader's Imperial Star Destroyer at the beginning of the original Star Wars film. As players in a main event, Tag, in disguise as a storm trooper, is the trooper that shoots C-3PO during the “Cloud City” sequence of The Empire Strikes Back.
Writer Kevin Rubio plays Tag & Bink as being the most important Star Wars characters fans never knew existed. He is revealing their true roles in the epic Star Wars saga, but the hapless duo's fateful adventures and misadventures will make you wonder whose side they are on. Honestly, with these characters, Rubio offers some of the best Star Wars humor ever published in comic book form. Rubio cleverly weaves Tag & Bink into Star Wars moments – both major and minor, and he creates some inventive side stories and back stories. The scenes with Lando Calrissian are, quite frankly, quite nice.
Artist Lucas Marangon seems like the perfect collaborator for Rubio. Marangon is an excellent Star Wars cartoonist and comic book artist. He draws the characters, creatures, beings, costumes, sets, backgrounds, backdrops, ships, tech, environments, etc. with stunning accuracy, and does so while creating a humorous and comedic tone. Marangon's illustrations and storytelling are perfect for the Star Wars spoof that is Tag & Bink.
I recommend Marvel Comics' Star Wars: Tag & Bink Were Here #1 to fans of Star Wars humor and, of course, to collectors of Star Wars comic books. I am confident both groups will enjoy reading these truly funny Star Wars comic books.
8 out of 10
Below are the creator credits for the story material reprinted in Marvel's Star Wars: Tag & Bink Were Here #1:
Star Wars: Tag & Bink Are Dead #1 - “Episode IV.1: Tag and Bink Are Dead” (originally published by Dark Horse Comics; cover dated: October 2001)
STORY: Kevin Rubio
PENCILS: Lucas Marangon
INKS: Howard M. Shum
COLORS: Michelle Madsen
LETTERS: Steve Dutro
Star Wars: Tag & Bink Are Dead #2 - “Episode IV.1: Tag and Bink Live” (originally published by Dark Horse Comics; cover dated: November 2001)
STORY: Kevin Rubio
PENCILS: Lucas Marangon
INKS: Howard M. Shum
COLORS: Michelle Madsen
LETTERS: Steve Dutro
Star Wars: Tag & Bink II #1 - “Episode VI.1: The Return of Tag and Bink – Special Edition” (originally published by Dark Horse Comics; cover dated: March 2006)
STORY: Kevin Rubio
ART: Lucas Marangon
COLORS: Dan Jackson
LETTERS: Michael David Thomas
Star Wars: Tag & Bink II #2 - “Tag & Bink: Episode I – Revenge of the Clone Menace” (originally published by Dark Horse Comics; cover dated: April 2006)
STORY: Kevin Rubio
ART: Lucas Marangon
COLORS: Dan Jackson
LETTERS: Michael David Thomas
Star Wars Tales #12 – “The Revenge of Tag & Bink” (originally published by Dark Horse Comics; cover dated: June 2002)
STORY: Kevin Rubio
PENCILS: Rick Zombo
INKS: Randy Emberlin
COLORS: Dan Brown
LETTERS: Steve Dutro
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.
--------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment