REVIEW: Mace Windu #1

Writer: Matt Owens
Penciler: Denys Cowan
Inker: Roberto Poggi
Color: Guru-eFX
Cover: Jesus Saiz
Review: Art Bee

Marvel has its failings but the Star Wars line is not one of them...yet. Thus far Marvel has taken everything good it has ever had, over-inflated it, and over-produced it to the point of mediocrity. Be warned; this day is coming. It’s inevitable unless Marvel abandons its gimmicky profit-hounding and starts to care about the quality of their production.

The newest Marvel series on the Star Wars block is Mace Windu. Guess who this series about?
How did you get so clever?
The series begins shortly after the Battle of Geonosis, well into the Clone Wars. This would put the story after Episode 2 and before the animated series, The Clone Wars.

The Jedi Council has gained intelligence that the Separatists are aggregating on a planet in the Outer Rim called Hissrich. Mace Windu is to lead a small group of Jedi to this planet and investigate and deal with any possible enemy threat. The team Mace pulls together includes Plo Koon (seen in the movies and in The Clone Wars series), Prosset Dibs (a Miraluka), and Rissa Mano.
At this point the series has the feel for a great deal of action but lacks some depth to the plot.
Even though Mace Windu has grown in popularity, not only as a powerful Jedi but also his
uniquely colored lightsaber, I don’t feel that this is the right time to present him as the focus of
his own comic.                    

It would appear that Owens has only a loose understanding of Star Wars mythos. For instance
everyone knows that Yoda speaks in a unique form of sentence structure with subject followed
by verb at the end of the sentence. Only hard core Star Wars fans notice that he never uses
compound sentences. This is has escaped the notice of Owens, and his Yoda comes off as phony.
Another example rests with one of the droid troops standing on watch. Owens has this
battledroid say, “It’s beautiful here. Too bad I have no one to share it with...” While these troops use sarcasm and wit, they lack emotion and sensation. This is a complete misrepresentation of what this battledroid is. Do your homework and stop trying to reinvent established canon as your own!​

The artwork is very mediocre. There are some better-quality panels and some worse ones, but
overall you can tell what’s happening. The colors are very drastic and vibrant, which kind of
develops its own excitement.
What I do have to be excited about is the cover. The cover is great with Mace standing in the
center while force throwing several battledroids right at you! This is a great concept and better
execution. Thank you for the cover. Can I have a refund on the rest?

I am on the fence whether to add this to my pull list. Part of me wants to climb down and not
bother, while the other part is hoping my love of Star Wars pushes me to fall and add it. Aside
from this, the realization has hit me that Marvel reminds me of a pimp. Prostituting its
intellectual property to anyone willing to handle it in whatever manner they wish just to return it
filthy and broken. Marvel used to have standards and guidelines. Those days are gone; as will my
love for Star Wars before too long.