Carlos Garzon

I received this as a gift in the fall of 1980, a few months after seeing the newly released movie in theatres. This was significant in two respects, one being my impressionable age (7) and the other being that this predated the ability to re-watch movies at home, in any format. Thanks to this comic I could revisit the most spectacular movie I'd ever seen when I had no other means of doing so.

This is not strictly a scene-for-scene, line-by-line recreation of what you know. Like most show more adaptations that are composed at the same time as the film is in post-production, it has elements from earlier scripts and features scenes that were later cut, while missing others that were later added. It does not open with a star destroyer, and it includes the wampa attack on the rebel base. Darth Vader requests his ship as he is leaving Cloud City, which we didn't see him do on screen until the 1997 special edition.

Objects are not always accurately scaled (Yoda and the Executor, especially), and the shading gives an odd look to some scenes; as a prisoner of Cloud City, Han Solo looks ready for the discotheque. These are minor quibbles to me. I loved, and still love, every frame of my treasured copy and the fuel this provided to my young imagination. The original film trilogy is a significant memory for me and ESB most of all, in part because of this. show less

If you've seen the film version of The Empire Strikes Back, then you've read this book, and vice versa; it's a fairly faithful adaptation. What really makes this book stand out is the remastered coloring. Marvel took the original plates for the art and had them recolored using contemporary coloring techniques, and the result is fantastic. The book just looks beautiful. If you're just a casual fan, this probably wouldn't interest you too much, but for the hardcore Star Wars fan, I think this show more would be a great addition to their library. show less

Third in the four-part series, as Superman, Starfire and their respective partners succeed in their tasks to save the galaxy, and Darkseid and Etrigan leave for the Anti-Life entity's dimension to confront it there. This is a pretty good, ambitious series, but it doesn't fall into the realm of classic comic book literature.

The second in a four-part series, in which the team of Green Lantern (the new one, not Hal Jordan) and the Martian Manhunter fail in their attempt to stop the entity's destruction of the star system they were assigned to. This is due to Lantern's pride and arrogance, and J'onn J'onzz is justly a bit cheesed off at him for causing him to witness the destruction of a world for the second time. Things aren't looking good, and Darkseid engineers the rejuvenation of the Demon Etrigan to take the show more battle to the Anti-Life entity itself. show less