MLGG: Pop Culture News, Reviews and Interviews

The Star Wars universe’s equivalent of Christmas, the Wookiee celebration of Life Day first appeared in the ill-fated, ill-conceived and just plain awful Star Wars Holiday Special back in 1978. There would have been a time (a very specific time post-Return of the Jedi and pre-’97 Original Trilogy Special Editions – where the reference to the Star Wars Holiday Special alone would have sent me all giddy with excitement, but we now live in a time where Star Wars material is everywhere…and a mishandling of the material even in the main cinematic entries, as well as a glut of Star Wars comics from Marvel (not all of them good) has most definitely dulled that excitement. Does the Christmas special ‘Life Day’ comic stand tall with the high points of the saga – or is it another Holiday Special sized dud? Let’s find out!

Han and Chewie are on the run from crime syndicate Kanjiklub. It’s Life Day and – having recently lost possession of the Millennium Falcon – they’re on their way to meet an old friend on Batuu when Kanjiklub catch up with them, triggering a confrontation and a series of flashbacks that turn the comic into an anthology of sorts.

Though competently written and with a rotating cast of artists who do some great work in most cases, it’s unfortunately a pretty dull comic. Most of the stories – including the framing device that sees Solo trying to rescue Chewbacca from the clutches of Kanjiklub – are incredibly dull and feel a bit pointless. None of them have anything particularly interesting to say and the action isn’t especially exciting either. It’s not a disaster on the scale of the Holiday Special – it’s just a bit meh.

Perhaps this is me feeling a bit of Star Wars comic fatigue after the incredibly drawn out and pointless mega crossover, War of the Bounty Hunters (which has just finished, but revealed itself as the starting point for a second crossover, Crimson Reign, which recently began – its first issue was released this week). Or perhaps it really is just a dull collection of stories; either way, as a big fan of Star Wars, this one-off special really didn’t do anything for me at all.

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