joysweeper (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
joysweeper) wrote2006-06-12 06:56 am
joysweeper) wrote2006-06-12 06:56 am
Entry tags:
Bookstore
Yesterday, I got the chance to use the $25 gift card at Barnes and Nobles. I used it and a bit of my own money to get four books. Three of them are Star Wars- "Tales from the New Republic", "Yoda: Dark Rendezvous", and "NJO: Star By Star". I also picked up "Crossing the Line".
I'll have to finish some other books first, of course. Starfighters of Adumar, probably some library books. I don't want to become one of those people who holds a library book for a month...
But I'll get to them. Oh yes. I will get to them.
I don't remember if I've said this before, but I like to have my parents drop me off at a bookstore and leave me there for two, three hours. (Damn, I wish I could touchtype so I didn't have to just keep REWRITING LETTERS.) Why? The comics, of course!
I really do like a lot of SW comics, although I know I can never find all the blasted things. I read trade paperbacks, you know?
But why pay so much for something I can finish in ten minutes? Especially when I can, you know, finish it in ten minutes?
So that's what I do.
And because of that, I have another favorite clonetrooper. The comic was called "'General' Skywalker". It was the second part of a two-comic TPB; the first comic was just something about one of Han Solo's old girlfriends, and was interesting only because I liked the Dug torturer that made an appearance. Otherwise? Not worth the time, you know? The girl is ugly, Han is ugly, even the Wookiee is ugly in that comic.
At any rate... hokay, the second one takes place at some point after "A New Hope" but before "Empire Strikes Back". It's got Pilot Luke, Pilot Wedge, some random commander, and some other pilots and the like all landing on a jungle world somewhere. They want to see if there's an abandoned Imperial communications center or something like that. And they are being watched.
At any rate, Luke goes exploring. He finds- surprise, surprise- a bunch of rock graves and a crashed Republic Gunship. And there are a lot of closeups of his face. Very pretty eyes. I never wrote that.
Anyway, he is being watched, and he's sure that someone not only was but is still here. Luke goes back to report this to the other Rebels, and is interrupted by Imperials, who followed them, attacking. Wedge gets into the air, or was already up, in his X-wing, but an Imp shuttle- Lambyda?- lands and disgorges a heck of a lot of stormies and some officers.
Then, perspective changes as a raggedy-cloaked figure runs up to the gunships. There are panels of him shedding the cloak, fetching a blaster, donning a helmet, but they don't show him in his entirety.
Perspective change. Back at the clearing where the X-wings and the shuttle are, Imps chase the Rebels into the forest. At some point, an Imp officer and a handful of stormies run into a fully armored clonetrooper with a blaster rifle who says "Able one-six-oh-six reporting for duty!" It's a really dramatic panel. Takes up a whole page, just to maximize the effect of this guy.
And frankly, Able looks damn cool. The comic's illustrator chose a sort of half-melted look for the stormies. They look sort of unformed, rounded, whereas Able's armor, though kind of dinged and stained, is all angles and planes. Love that sagittal crest and the T-visor.
So the officer- in gray, of course- tells his men that it's a trick, what are they waiting for, FIRE. But the clone is faster than the stormies, and cuts them and the officer down. Would his blaster still work after all this time? It's still cool.
Perspective change. Somehow Luke and the commander guy are seperated together from the rest of the Rebels. They come to a conveniently-located cliff. Stormies behind them, and a TIE overhead- then Wedge in his X-Wing shoots the TIE, and it crashes in a big crater where the stormtroopers were.
So Luke-and-co decide to hide in the crater where there will be no more stormtroopers- but as one of them says this, it turns out that Able got here and is pointing the rifle at them. Then there is a panel where both he and the commander demand "Who are you?!".
Perspective shift, just to maximize the tension. Wedge is fighting TIEs, wants them to pull out. Something like that.
Perspective shift, and apparently Wedge was comlinking the commander guy, who can't answer right now. Able wants to know- are they Seperatists? Luke fingers his lightsaber and is told that the commander can handle this. I really wish I could remember his name.
So anyway, commander tells Able that they're part of the Rebel Alliance, trying to bring down the tyrannic Empire. And Able isn't sure that they are on the same page. He says that during the first year of the Clone Wars his gunship crash-landed, and his group defeated the droid presence, but it took a high toll. He thinks the Republic lost.
It didn't. The commander explains that, and talks about how it became the Empire. With _storm_ troopers, now. There is a two-page spread- on the left page, scenes from The Prequels, particularly AotC. On the right, scenes from A New Hope. I can't do it justice. Suffice to say that it is cool.
So Able says "The Jedi- gone? But they were our generals." And the commander gets an idea. He shoves Luke forwards and declares that Skywalker here is one of their most important generals! Poor Luke goes "What?!" and is told "show him".
So Luke holds his lightsaber up, activates it, and declares that he is a Jedi, "trained by Ben Kenobi- though he was known as Obi-Wan in those days."
Perspective shift. Back the the clearing, a stormie tries to get an astromech out of an X-Wing and is shocked for his trouble. An Imp officer tries to get a captured Rebel to tell him the location of the Rebel base, and then executes the poor man when he refuses.
Another officer chides him because they only have a certain number of prisoners. At that point, several stormies walk into the clearing with several Rebels who have their hands up, behind their heads. The violent officer exclaims that he may get a raise for this.
Then an Imp gets suspicious and tells one to take off his helmet, take it off! Reluctantly, the trooper starts to comply. The officer demands to know who his previous commander was.
Able takes off his helmet. If you didn't know that his template was Jango Fett, you'd never guess, mostly because of the tangled brush of graying hair and beard. He snaps "General- Shaak Ti!"(Although it could have been somebody else. I don't remember.) and attacks, followed by the other fake stormies and the "captives".
The commander removes the helmet, yells at Luke to do the same because "You don't want to get shot because of your fashion choice!" Helmet off, Luke says that he knows. And there is fighting, with blasters and a lightsaber.
At some point Luke gets into his X-Wing, and the commander gets into a Rebel shuttle. There are officers in their shuttle, though. They have concussion missiles, I think, and at this range they can't miss. But the idots left the boarding ramp down. Able is there, and he throws an explosive in. It explodes, Able is thrown down, he gets up and there are no friendlies on the ground.
Luke in his X-Wing swoops at him, Able says "General!" and Luke _scoops him up with his landing gear_. Ow. Very ow. There's this kind of "UMPH!" or something. And Luke comms the Rebel shuttle and says that they need to make a midair transfer.
And then it is later, on a ship somewhere. Luke and, apparently, Leia are discussing the mission, how it was a pity that they couldn't get a communications post but it seems they picked up something even more valuable. And Able walks in. He has one arm in a sling and has had extensive grooming, so now he has no beard and very short hair. And now he _does_ look like Jango, just slightly grayer.
Apparenly Able has volunteered to join Intelligence. Luke shakes his good hand and says that he looks like a new man, and Able replies that he feels like a new man, 'General'. Luke apologizes and Able tells him not to worry. "You're not a General- but you are a Jedi." End comic.
I like Able. I like him much. He's now on the list of Favorite Clones. If I'd read this before I started writing my Xanadu fiction, he'd be center stage instead of Jangotat, because fewer people would have heard of him.
I really do hope that this comic is "canon". I like this guy.
But there is something strange about it. Books in the EU make it clear that these clones age twice as fast as normal men. But Able is in good condition, very good condition. Hells, he cleaned up better than Jan Dodonna!
I suppose he could have been an anomaly among the others. Surely he wasn't the _only_ one to survive, perhaps there were others who aged more and died. Or maybe the Fett line just takes age ridiculously well and Able really was the single survivor.
Strange.
But I like the poor man. I feel sorry for him. Everything is completely changed.
I'll have to finish some other books first, of course. Starfighters of Adumar, probably some library books. I don't want to become one of those people who holds a library book for a month...
But I'll get to them. Oh yes. I will get to them.
I don't remember if I've said this before, but I like to have my parents drop me off at a bookstore and leave me there for two, three hours. (Damn, I wish I could touchtype so I didn't have to just keep REWRITING LETTERS.) Why? The comics, of course!
I really do like a lot of SW comics, although I know I can never find all the blasted things. I read trade paperbacks, you know?
But why pay so much for something I can finish in ten minutes? Especially when I can, you know, finish it in ten minutes?
So that's what I do.
And because of that, I have another favorite clonetrooper. The comic was called "'General' Skywalker". It was the second part of a two-comic TPB; the first comic was just something about one of Han Solo's old girlfriends, and was interesting only because I liked the Dug torturer that made an appearance. Otherwise? Not worth the time, you know? The girl is ugly, Han is ugly, even the Wookiee is ugly in that comic.
At any rate... hokay, the second one takes place at some point after "A New Hope" but before "Empire Strikes Back". It's got Pilot Luke, Pilot Wedge, some random commander, and some other pilots and the like all landing on a jungle world somewhere. They want to see if there's an abandoned Imperial communications center or something like that. And they are being watched.
At any rate, Luke goes exploring. He finds- surprise, surprise- a bunch of rock graves and a crashed Republic Gunship. And there are a lot of closeups of his face. Very pretty eyes. I never wrote that.
Anyway, he is being watched, and he's sure that someone not only was but is still here. Luke goes back to report this to the other Rebels, and is interrupted by Imperials, who followed them, attacking. Wedge gets into the air, or was already up, in his X-wing, but an Imp shuttle- Lambyda?- lands and disgorges a heck of a lot of stormies and some officers.
Then, perspective changes as a raggedy-cloaked figure runs up to the gunships. There are panels of him shedding the cloak, fetching a blaster, donning a helmet, but they don't show him in his entirety.
Perspective change. Back at the clearing where the X-wings and the shuttle are, Imps chase the Rebels into the forest. At some point, an Imp officer and a handful of stormies run into a fully armored clonetrooper with a blaster rifle who says "Able one-six-oh-six reporting for duty!" It's a really dramatic panel. Takes up a whole page, just to maximize the effect of this guy.
And frankly, Able looks damn cool. The comic's illustrator chose a sort of half-melted look for the stormies. They look sort of unformed, rounded, whereas Able's armor, though kind of dinged and stained, is all angles and planes. Love that sagittal crest and the T-visor.
So the officer- in gray, of course- tells his men that it's a trick, what are they waiting for, FIRE. But the clone is faster than the stormies, and cuts them and the officer down. Would his blaster still work after all this time? It's still cool.
Perspective change. Somehow Luke and the commander guy are seperated together from the rest of the Rebels. They come to a conveniently-located cliff. Stormies behind them, and a TIE overhead- then Wedge in his X-Wing shoots the TIE, and it crashes in a big crater where the stormtroopers were.
So Luke-and-co decide to hide in the crater where there will be no more stormtroopers- but as one of them says this, it turns out that Able got here and is pointing the rifle at them. Then there is a panel where both he and the commander demand "Who are you?!".
Perspective shift, just to maximize the tension. Wedge is fighting TIEs, wants them to pull out. Something like that.
Perspective shift, and apparently Wedge was comlinking the commander guy, who can't answer right now. Able wants to know- are they Seperatists? Luke fingers his lightsaber and is told that the commander can handle this. I really wish I could remember his name.
So anyway, commander tells Able that they're part of the Rebel Alliance, trying to bring down the tyrannic Empire. And Able isn't sure that they are on the same page. He says that during the first year of the Clone Wars his gunship crash-landed, and his group defeated the droid presence, but it took a high toll. He thinks the Republic lost.
It didn't. The commander explains that, and talks about how it became the Empire. With _storm_ troopers, now. There is a two-page spread- on the left page, scenes from The Prequels, particularly AotC. On the right, scenes from A New Hope. I can't do it justice. Suffice to say that it is cool.
So Able says "The Jedi- gone? But they were our generals." And the commander gets an idea. He shoves Luke forwards and declares that Skywalker here is one of their most important generals! Poor Luke goes "What?!" and is told "show him".
So Luke holds his lightsaber up, activates it, and declares that he is a Jedi, "trained by Ben Kenobi- though he was known as Obi-Wan in those days."
Perspective shift. Back the the clearing, a stormie tries to get an astromech out of an X-Wing and is shocked for his trouble. An Imp officer tries to get a captured Rebel to tell him the location of the Rebel base, and then executes the poor man when he refuses.
Another officer chides him because they only have a certain number of prisoners. At that point, several stormies walk into the clearing with several Rebels who have their hands up, behind their heads. The violent officer exclaims that he may get a raise for this.
Then an Imp gets suspicious and tells one to take off his helmet, take it off! Reluctantly, the trooper starts to comply. The officer demands to know who his previous commander was.
Able takes off his helmet. If you didn't know that his template was Jango Fett, you'd never guess, mostly because of the tangled brush of graying hair and beard. He snaps "General- Shaak Ti!"(Although it could have been somebody else. I don't remember.) and attacks, followed by the other fake stormies and the "captives".
The commander removes the helmet, yells at Luke to do the same because "You don't want to get shot because of your fashion choice!" Helmet off, Luke says that he knows. And there is fighting, with blasters and a lightsaber.
At some point Luke gets into his X-Wing, and the commander gets into a Rebel shuttle. There are officers in their shuttle, though. They have concussion missiles, I think, and at this range they can't miss. But the idots left the boarding ramp down. Able is there, and he throws an explosive in. It explodes, Able is thrown down, he gets up and there are no friendlies on the ground.
Luke in his X-Wing swoops at him, Able says "General!" and Luke _scoops him up with his landing gear_. Ow. Very ow. There's this kind of "UMPH!" or something. And Luke comms the Rebel shuttle and says that they need to make a midair transfer.
And then it is later, on a ship somewhere. Luke and, apparently, Leia are discussing the mission, how it was a pity that they couldn't get a communications post but it seems they picked up something even more valuable. And Able walks in. He has one arm in a sling and has had extensive grooming, so now he has no beard and very short hair. And now he _does_ look like Jango, just slightly grayer.
Apparenly Able has volunteered to join Intelligence. Luke shakes his good hand and says that he looks like a new man, and Able replies that he feels like a new man, 'General'. Luke apologizes and Able tells him not to worry. "You're not a General- but you are a Jedi." End comic.
I like Able. I like him much. He's now on the list of Favorite Clones. If I'd read this before I started writing my Xanadu fiction, he'd be center stage instead of Jangotat, because fewer people would have heard of him.
I really do hope that this comic is "canon". I like this guy.
But there is something strange about it. Books in the EU make it clear that these clones age twice as fast as normal men. But Able is in good condition, very good condition. Hells, he cleaned up better than Jan Dodonna!
I suppose he could have been an anomaly among the others. Surely he wasn't the _only_ one to survive, perhaps there were others who aged more and died. Or maybe the Fett line just takes age ridiculously well and Able really was the single survivor.
Strange.
But I like the poor man. I feel sorry for him. Everything is completely changed.