Layout: Simone Buofontino
Inks/Clean Up: Igor Chimisso
Character Studies: Igor Chimisso
Background/Settings: Massimo Rocca, Davide Turotti
Characters: Kawaii Creative Studio
Cover: Eric Jones
Star Wars created by George Lucas.
IDW Publishing’s graphic novel adaptation of Star Wars: The Force Awakens comes in at a compact length of under 80 pages. It’s a mostly faithful shot for shot recreation of the 2015 film in comic book form. A few scenes are omitted or their order is occasionally flipped to move things along. No new material is inserted into the film’s story. There is a price to pay for such economy. The comic adds nothing of note to the source material, other than the novelty of seeing it in the hands of an alternative set of artistic sensibilities. And the book’s directive to tone down the violence results in an anemic reading experience. The supposably high stakes (the fate of entire worlds hang in the balance) don’t come across as dire enough to possess any urgency on the page.
For anyone just looking for a printed version of the film to carry around, the half-dozen illustrators listed at the back of the book do a good enough job with the film’s futuristic technology and exotic locales. But everything feels cramped, which is a big problem for a narrative dependent on enchanting the reader with its fantastic setting. Events move briskly without allowing for some breathing room to admire what's taking place. Comics is a medium that manipulates the reader’s sense of time, but this comic’s pacing feels disjointed as it races from scene to scene.
And when some scenes or lines of dialogue are streamlined, this has a negative impact on the story’s character beats. The whole plot is basically a race to find the last jedi Luke Skywalker. But that objective seems to get lost as former stormtrooper Finn and scavenger Rey stumble from place to place. When they finally run into infamous smuggler (or is he a Rebel Alliance hero) Han Solo and copilot Chewbacca, the emotional impact of the meeting is so deeply underplayed that Han seems remarkably unconcerned considering that these two strangers he just met might be holding the key to finding Luke.
But the book isn’t really interested in adult comic book nerds. The pseudo-Disneyfied cartoon designs for the characters indicate IDW is trying to corner a younger demographic for the Star Wars franchise. So key elements like elaborate dogfights with spaceships or whatever implied sexual tension that would launch a thousand ships are put aside for “BEEBEE-ATE” and Rey behaving like the plucky hero. In this respect, she’s an acceptable role model.
