VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia
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MANGAKA: Akira Fukaya and Tikashi Kisaki; Haruichi; Subaru; Akira Himekawa
ORIGINAL NOVEL: Ken Liu
TRANSLATION: Satsuki Yamashita
EDITOR: Fawn Lau
COVER: Akira Himekawa
ISBN: 978-1-9747-1584-8; paperback; 5 3/4 × 8 1/4 – trim size (January 2020); Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”
212pp, B&W, $14.99 U.S., $19.99 CAN
The Star Wars media and merchandising franchise has been hugely popular over the time since the debut of the original film, Star Wars, some 43 years ago in 1977. Some of that popularity is the reason that there has been, except for a few years, at least one comic book publisher producing Star Wars comic books since 1977.
One of the latest is Star Wars: The Legends of Luke Skywalker: The Manga. This is a single-volume graphic novel containing four manga short stories set in the Star Wars universe. The Legends of Luke Skywalker: The Manga focuses on four characters who have encounters with the elusive Jedi Luke Skywalker. The stories is this book are adapted by Japanese manga artists: Akira Himekawa, Haruichi, Subaru, and the writer-artist team of Akira Fukaya and Takashi Kisaki from The Legends of Luke Skywalker. This is the 2017 young adult novel by award-winning author Ken Liu's that is also part of the Journey to Star Wars: The Last Jedi book series.
The writer-artist team of Akira Fukaya and Takashi Kisaki starts the volume off with “The Starship Graveyard.” The story stars a young gunner aboard a Imperial Star Destroyer who finds himself face to face with a mysterious rescuer who may or may not be the legendary enemy of the Galactic Empire, Luke Skywalker. Haruichi's story is “I, Droid,” in which a newly enslaved construction droid finds himself in the company of an unusual pair of droids that seem to know one another. They may also have a connection to someone who might save them all, Luke Skywalker.
In “The Tale of Lugubrious Mote,” Sabaru chronicles the adventures of a “mole-flea of Kowak” and how he helped Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker during a legendary moment in Star Wars history. Finally, the manga-ka duo, Akira Himekawa (The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess), take readers into the “Big Inside” of an “exogorth” [The “giant space slug” in The Empire Strikes Back is an exogorth.] In the story, a young biology student and Luke Skywalker must escape from inside a creature from which few beings escape. Along the way, the duo will discover the “Master Weavers” of “the Luminous Mist.”
THE LOWDOWN: I have been looking forward to reading Star Wars: The Legends of Luke Skywalker: The Manga since I first heard of it a few months ago. I have not read Ken Liu's original novel, and I don't plan to. I have nothing against Liu, and I am not at all familiar with his work. I simply have not read any Star Wars novels that have been published since The Walt Disney Company revamped the Star Wars line of novels to make every one of them fit in “Star Wars canon.”
The Star Wars: The Legends of Luke Skywalker: The Manga graphic novel is a good read. The stories are not great, but Liu managed to create a version of Luke Skywalker that feels authentically fearsome, legendary, mysterious, and unknown. That is no small feat as, obviously, Luke Skywalker is so familiar to fans of Star Wars. In fact, Luke Skywalker has been my favorite Star Wars character ever since I first encountered him over four decades ago.
The art in “The Starship Graveyard” is rough, even ugly at times, but the story is fun to read. The heroic arc of the young Imperial gunner is quite captivating. “I, Droid” is okay, but I can see fans of Star Wars droids really getting into it, although it doesn't do much for me. “The Tale of Lugubrious Mote” is a fun, throwaway, and ultimately nonsensical spin and take on the part of the film, Return of the Jedi (1983), that deals with Jabba the Hutt. I would describe it as a young readers' Star Wars “Legends” or non-canon story rather than as a young adult tale.
By far the best story in Star Wars: The Legends of Luke Skywalker: The Manga is Akira Himekawa's “Big Inside.” It reads like one of those weird stories that Marvel Comics published in its Star Wars comic book series from the 1970s and 80s. The art is beautiful, of course, because Himekawa always delivers beautifully, drawn, lyrical art that conveys a sense of history, magic, mystery, and romantic adventure. “Big Inside” has all that and also feels like a non-canon Star Wars story because of its mystical take on “the Force.”
Honestly, I would not recommend this Star Wars manga to all fans of Star Wars comic books, unless I knew what kind of Star Wars comic books they liked. I would, however, recommend Star Wars: The Legends of Luke Skywalker: The Manga to any readers always on the lookout for Star Wars manga.
I READS YOU RECOMMENDS: Fans of Star Wars manga and fans of Luke Skywalker will want to try Star Wars: The Legends of Luke Skywalker: The Manga.
6 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.
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