Wednesday, April 25, 2012

The Lesser-Known EU: Infinities: Return of the Jedi

This is another guest post by Amara Z who was nice enough to do yet another review of the last of the Star Wars: Infinities comics

Star Wars Infinities – The Return of the Jedi



The last version of this series is The Return of the Jedi. This was probably my least favorite of the three. The comic didn’t vary that much from the movie to make it very interesting, the art was pretty bad if not awful, there was so much going on at times it was occasionally hard to follow, and some of the things that happened are just too bizarre for words. I actually debated how to organize the review. I thought about listing just the differences from the movie (it would be a very short list), but I’ll go through it like I did the others. I will probably go a little out of order of the events, though, since they sometimes did a lot of switching back and forth between storylines.



* SPOILER ALERT * – this contains spoilers. So if you were planning to read these for yourself, then nothing to see here. Move along; move along.

The big change, if you can call it that, is that the plan to rescue Han from Jabba’s palace fails miserably.  The comic opens with Leia dressed as Boushh and she is negotiating the price for her “captive” Chewbacca. Unfortunately, Threepio is incapacitated while she is talking with Jabba and negotiations stall. Leia eventually reveals herself and threatens Jabba with the thermal detonator, but she’s shot in the arm, and drops it while it’s activated. Everyone has to run for it and Jabba and Threepio are the only two that don’t make it out in time. Even Han, still in carbonite, is removed from the palace before it blows up, but unfortunately, Boba Fett has him. Leia tries to rescue Han from Fett, but when she fires, she misses and hits the controls of the carbonite instead. Definitely cringe worthy and it will play into later events.

At least we get a nice pic of Leia in this particular sequence. I just kind of liked it. She looks ready to kick some butt.


The others regroup with Luke and decide to split up to search for Han – Luke by himself and Lando, Leia, and Chewie. From here, we end up with two different story threads.  I’ll start with Luke. While Luke searches for Han, Yoda and the Force ghost of Obi-Wan have been wondering why Luke has not returned to Dagobah yet. Apparently Yoda is dying and time is running out. Luke feels Yoda die through the Force and abandons his search for Han to go to Dagobah.

By the time Luke gets there, it’s too late and Yoda is gone. It doesn’t seem to matter much as Luke is able to commune with the Yoda’s Force ghost and still finds out about his parentage and family and that he needs to face Vader. The only real difference from the movie is that the Emperor feels Yoda die in the Force as well and dispatches Vader to capture Luke on Dagobah. Vader manages to do so and Luke is taken to the second Death Star to meet with the Emperor. Yeah, real different from the movie. On the upside, Luke sends a couple of messages to the Alliance for Leia before he’s captured.

Meanwhile, Leia, Lando, and Chewie have been searching for Fett and finally find him. He’s going to sell Han to the Imperials. The comic says they are “on a forest world on the edge of the galaxy,” but it looks a lot like Endor to me. You be the judge.


That's just one several odd things in this comic. Leia gets to play sniper, though, which I thought was cool.

 Leia and crew get Han back, but of course it takes a major fire fight to do so. At least Fett kills himself with his own detonator. (Ha!)

They get Han back to the Rebel fleet and he is thawed out by a doctor there. It’s actually kind of sad at first because the doctor talks about the damage to the carbonite unit and everyone is looking so guilty. At least Lando gets a funny line in about Han.



I’ll have to admit I saw the page of the doctor wanting to see Leia alone as a preview page on the web. And it’s what interested me in this version of the series. I wanted to see if it would go in the direction I thought it would and it did. The doctor informs Leia due to the length of time in carbonite and the damage to the unit, there’s little hope Han will regain his sight. That’s a total bummer, but not unexpected. We’ve seen it before in fanfic.

They end up needing to go to a briefing and, interestingly, Mon Mothma isn’t mad that Leia has been gone or that she’s late. It’s not pertinent to the story, but it caught my attention. We find out at this point the Rebellion is going to make a move against the Death Star and there is already a strike team on Endor. Unknown to the Rebellion, the whole thing is a trap.

Leia and the rest of the group are in some down time when the Alliance receives the transmission from Luke. In one of the stranger moments, the message is played in front of all of them, including Ackbar and Mon, and poor Leia has to find out that Luke is her brother and Vader is her father in front of basically everyone. Wow. That really kind of sucks and I’m feeling for the girl about that one. Yikes. In one of the sweeter moments, though, Han asks to be taken over to Leia.


The second message is about Luke being captured and he instructs them not to come after him. Of course, does Leia listen? Nope. She had confiscated Fett’s ship, Slave I, and uses it to go after Luke. Lando, Han and Chewie go after her and there is a cute scene where Han is more of himself and trying to convince Lando to let him go with them after Leia. Lando agrees cause he’s going to need someone to talk some sense into Leia.

I kind of felt like this next section seemed very much like the movie. The only thing that differed is who did what. The shield generator on Endor is destroyed with some help from Han, Chewie, and Lando (including a blind Han on the Falcon’s guns). In a very odd twist, the Ewoks attack both the Imperials and the Rebels during the battle. I think they were upset that some of their own tribe were collateral damage, but it’s only mentioned in a panel or two. It struck me as so random.

Leia makes it onto the Death Star and she is brought before the Emperor. He orders Vader to kill Leia, but Luke intervenes and it ends up in a fight mostly between Vader and Luke. In the end, Vader is told Luke and Leia are both his children and he decides that he can’t kill them.

While this was going on, the Rebels destroy the Death Star’s reactor and Luke and Leia realize they need to get off the station. Leia decides to save Vader, but in a variation from the movie, Palpatine is not killed and he escapes. Fortunately for Luke and Leia, the Falcon comes after them and gets them off the Death Star in time. There is a funny scene where Han hears someone being brought on board.

 They all regroup back at the fleet and vow to find the Emperor. This scene is a good example of the artwork in this comic.

 That’s supposed to be Leia, Mon Mothma, and Luke in the top photo. And check out Han in the second pic. I didn’t know Cyclops from X-Men was going to be in this. Cool!

 As it turns out, they have some extra help to search for the Emperor.

Yep, that is a redeemed Vader in white. So if you’ve seen it on the web, now you know where it’s from. It has to be the strangest thing I’ve ever seen and was a definite “what the…” moment for me.

Not sure how this review ended up longer than the other two, especially since I didn’t enjoy this one nearly as much. I think there was so much more going on to describe, but not necessarily in a good way. And the differences from the movie are more in the fine details. In my opinion, if there’s one comic in this series to skip, this is it.

Thanks again for taking the time to do this review, Amara!

16 comments:

  1. Thanks for the review Amara. I liked the first picture of Leia, but the rest of the artwork is kinda scary. I hadn't heard about these comics before and I'm glad you did the reviews. Sad that Han is blind. The last picture of Han with his visor reminded me of Jordi LaForge from STNG.

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  2. Wow, that artwork is terrible. A lot of it looks like they found some 11-year old who liked to doodle in his notebook and asked him to do it to save money. That first pic of Leia is perfect, how is the rest so bad? Definitely seems like this one would've been disappointing. How come the ROTJ version of everything is like they just got too tired to bother to try and make it any good? Nice addition with Cyclops there, though. Does that mean Han could sort of see with that thing on?

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  3. Oh, man, this is such a hot, hot mess. I was so floored by Vader in white I had to pick up my jaw off the floor. So awful. I don't think Han can see with that thing on, but they don't really say. I doubt it. Yes, Seams, it does look like Geordi.

    And you're welcome for the review! I actually threw the first scan of Leia in cause it looked soooo much like her. Or least a really good pic of her.

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  4. I'm in total agreement on the art. I love that first pic of Leia, thats a brilliant depiction of her. Then you look at that last pic and you think Urghh, what happened? Are there 2 artists for this? Because I can't believe the same person did that fabulous Leia at the start and then that horror show at the end!

    I'm sad for poor Han....but I would think that visor thing he's wearing there at the end DOES at least allow him some vision. Why wear it if it does nothing? SW medical technology would be far more advanced than ours and they must be able to do things for blind people that we can only dream of. So I say he can see. Hey maybe he has a secret x ray vision mode in there and he's checking out Leia underneath her senatorial robes! :D

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    1. Lol! Love that about x-ray vision. He would do that too.

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    2. He would totally do that. But of course wouldn't tell anyone he could do it.

      Haaa, I just realised that the pic after the one where Leia talks to the doctor is her, Han and Mon Mothma. But I honestly thought Leia was LANDO the first time I looked through this. Maybe its because I'm looking at it on my phone, so its smaller than I'd like, or maybe its because the artwork really is a load of crap!

      Oh and white Vader, thats just surreal.

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  5. Aghh, my eyes! The first Leia and sniper Leia are pretty cool, but good lord! That panel with Leia, Mon and Luke is frightening. They almost resemble turtles. Ah, that's too bad.

    Lol, x-ray vision...

    Thanks for another review, Amara. I just ordered the ESB one though, I'm excited. :)

    On a different note, I don't know if anyone has seen this, but I came across a 1977 TV movie with Harrison in it. He's so hot, he catches fire...literally:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NOgDCGpY3c

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    1. Does it just drive you crazy to see art this bad? Or you kind of use to it?

      Hope you like the ESB version. I'm sure making some business for Dark Horse. :)

      Thanks for the clip. That was interesting. He even had character in that. And I don't think I ever get tired of listening to that voice.

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    2. You know what really bothers me about it is that they expect people to pay for it. I swear I've seen a few pages from this before as well and I thought it was just some fan made stuff. I looked up the artists that worked on it and I didn't come across anything that awful. Maybe it was rushed or something.

      Yes, that voice. I want him to read me bedtime stories.

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    3. Oh, boy, just thinking about him tucking me into bed...oh, my.

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    4. Haa, actually they really do look like turtles!

      Elivagar, I just got the ESB one and it wipes the floor with this. It's really good.

      Never seen that YouTube clip before. Why couldn't any of my teachers have looked like that? Mind you, I wouldn't have got much work done if they did.

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  6. Vader in white? Wtf????

    I think the plot they were trying to do in this could have been really good, but just somehow it looks like it just didn't work. Of course, that was probably helped along by the artwork. (What the hell is up with Leia's neck in the last one?)

    I would definitely find it very weird if they couldn't restore Han's sight at all... They are so technologically advanced, they must be able to do something!

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  7. The white Vader is pretty dumb, I thought, but worse is that art. Han being defrosted looks like a nauseous Gary Coleman. And Leia in the scenes where she is cradling the newly freed Han looks like an unconvincing cross dresser. That last picture is just frightening, especially Mon Mothma... ugh.

    I don't mean to sound like an armchair quarterback, but I felt that the Infinities comics could have been so much better. I was excited to read them before they came out, but wasn't terribly impressed with the final product. They should have hired some fanfic authors to script the stories.

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    1. I don't blame you for armchair quarterbacking. We do it all the time with the EU. ;) I liked the first two Inifinties. The art was better and pretty good stories. And we got a lot of nice Han and Leia moments in Empire version. But this one was dreadful. Can't believe I got it as a present. :) I may keep it since its quite hard to find. But doubt I'll read it any time soon.

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    2. Think we were spoilt with the ESB one, because this just looks dreadful. I did end up getting the ESB one thanks to Amara's recommendation, and it's certainly worth a look, some nice moments.

      Lol, Liz, yes, Leia does look like a bad cross dresser!

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    3. We did. It was pretty cute actually. I did like the ANH one as well, but for different reasons. They certainly changed that one a lot.

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