I have a girlfriend, I swear.
So I was reading the latest Star Wars novel Bloodlines, written by Karen Traviss and the latest in the Legacy of the Force sequence of books. According to the timeline in the front of the book (and in the front of every Star Wars book), this particular installment takes place 40 years after the original Star Wars film, AKA “Episode IV” AKA “A New Hope.” Which means, of course, all the main characters (the ones that are still alive, that is) are in their 60s and 70s.
But that’s not exactly what I’m here to talk about. There’s a scene, very early in the novel, where a 71-year-old Boba Fett is paying a visit to his doctor:
“Dr. Beluine was one of only a handful who had ever seen him without [his Mandalorian helmet]. Doctors could handle disfigurement a great deal better than most.”
Okay, I realize the idea of an elderly Star Wars character visiting his doctor brings to mind, say, Han Solo waiting in line to pick up his medicine, or Luke receiving his Social Security benefits, and other exciting Star Wars action. Anyway, part of Boba’s initial appeal for the Star Wars fans, aside from being taken out by a blind guy and screaming like a little girl, was his sense of mystery. What did he look like under that mask?
Well, after Episode II, now we know. Since young Boba is a clone of his father, Jango Fett, and we’ve seen Jango maskless in that film (and you can see him maskless here, if you scroll down a bit), we can assume an adult Boba would look more or less like Jango. So now, the “mystery” aspect of Boba had more or less been done away with.
Over the years, as Boba had appeared in the “Expanded Universe” novels, the occasional reference had been made to his maskless visage being ugly, or unappealing, or…well, I forget the exact wording, but I don’t recall him ever being explicitly described as “disfigured” until this novel. (Perhaps someone with a better memory for the books recalls otherwise.) Then again, the novels were on their way to creating a much different backstory for Boba that were contradicted by the events in the flims, but that’s yet another issue.
Anyhoo, the above passage from the new Star Wars book is a fairly transparent attempt at reestablishing the mystery of Boba’s appearance. Boba Fett is now the Dr. Doom of the Star Wars universe, with his helmet now hiding some sort of hideous and unknown disfigurement.
At least until Lucasfilm licenses some kind of officially-sanctioned bust of Boba with a removable helmet, revealing his true appearance, much like what Marvel did with Doom.
And in conclusion, I’m a huge dork. Thank you.
Okay, I know there’s a Boba action figure with a removable helmet.
Employee Aaron reports that he had a customer on Monday look at the Pride of Baghdad cover feature on the Comic Shop News newsletter, and declare it “obviously pro-Iraqi propaganda.”
Well, obviously.
Due to Marvel’s across-the-board postponement of their books due to the Civil War delay, our invoice totals have been pretty low the last few weeks…allowing me to make some pretty massive reorders without totally busting our budget. But I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, that looming threat of a coming onslaught of new Civil War tie-ins, arriving two or three dozen per week. Okay, it may not be quite that dire, but I am expecting a bunch of books to be suddenly dumped on us once the Civil War gears are back in motion.
Talent #3 – Lots of ‘splaining going on in this issue, as our hero has his particular circumstance — able to access the abilities of victims of an air crash only he survived, in order to complete their unfinished business — explained more or less as plainly as I’ve explained here; we learn a little more about what the folks pursuing Nick are up to; and we find out just why that plane crashed. It’s nice that readers aren’t continually strung along, but instead are thrown a bone once in a while to give us the feeling of forward movement, that the story is working toward something rather than just running in place with a “avenged dead soul” every issue. The central conceit of the book is a strong one, kind of a reverse Deadman, and makes for good ‘n’ fun reading.
“Marvel to unite ‘Avengers’ for movie”
“[Marvel] intends to release a live-action version of ‘The Avengers’ — a team dubbed as ‘Earth’s mightiest heroes.'”
[…]
“Executives spoke briefly about their ‘Avengers’ plan Wednesday during a presentation to Wall Street analysts at the Merrill Lynch Media & Entertainment Conference in Pasadena.
“The comic book ‘The Avengers’ began as a team consisting of superheroes Thor, Ant-Man, Wasp, Iron Man and Hulk. Later, Captain America and a host of others joined. Executives didn’t say exactly which of Marvel’s superheroes would be depicted in ‘The Avengers’ movie.”
Dear God: please let there be a live-action Ant-Man in this movie. Thank you, Mike.
…But then, Garrett Morris did pretty much perfect the role:
