The Mandalorian Season 2 is now out. The majority of Quarantine-era Star Wars comics are coming out in Trade Paperback form (I will be taking advantage of this in the next month). Between these two happenstances, I have discovered two individuals with whom I am fascinated with for one reason or another. The first is Marshall Cobb Vanth from the first episode of The Mandalorian season two, and the second? Well, the second is fake Luke Skywalker from Star Wars #5.
Yes, Cobb Vanth is the Marshall of Freetown, AKA Mos Pelgo. You first see him in the outline of the cantina, it’s obviously Boba Fett’s armor, but outlined in red and obviously NOT Boba Fett. It’s Timothy Olyphant, who has made a career of playing the slow-talking, shoot-first bad-ass lawman. You can instantly recognize his voice. And his hair and beard are really on point for a guy who wears a helmet all day. I really like the touches to the armor, the red shirt and bandanna, gives the Fett armor a real Wild West feel. I remember reading the Cobb Vanth chapters of the Aftermath books, but the nuances weren’t coming back to me. All I remember is that the sheriff of a town on Tatooine got Boba Fett’s armor and was unstoppable; and that the old Rancor keeper was his buddy.
There was no need for a complete rehash of Vanth’s story since it was told completely in the novels. Besides, who gives a stranger your complete life story? It makes much more sense in the abbreviated TV format (and for people who didn’t read the novels, it just works better). Besides, Olyphant really made this character his own—a lawman who protects the village, quick-draw with the pistol and rifle, expert with the jet pack (and its missiles) and distrust of strangers/Tusken Raiders.
Now that pretty boy Cobb Vanth is out of the way, let’s make our way to Star Wars #5 with our fake Luke Skywalker, AKA Fluke Skywalker (oddly enough, the nickname of one of my best friend’s wife). Lord Vader is on the lookout for the Force-sensitive X-Wing pilot who blew up the Death Star (and also learns it’s his own son). We cut to a dude who appears to be Luke Skywalker, chilling in a bar, bragging to a couple of spacers. I gotta say if this was on film instead of a comic, Luke Skywalker would obviously still be played by Mark Hamill, but the lookalike is played by his lookalike, Sebastian Stan of Marvel Cinematic Universe fame. Fluke’s wearing extremely futuristic funky sunglasses and his Bespin fatigues. He’s drinking something out of a mug that I presume is The Mandalorian’s own Spotchka. He’s trying to get a job and his bragging gets the attention of Darth Vader’s officers. He boldly states “I mean…I’m Luke Skywalker. I’m the best pilot in the galaxy.” He’s talking like he just read a super-brief and incorrect retelling of the Death Star’s destruction: he refers to his astromech droid as “Ardee” and that SHE handled his targeting computer. Obviously, this can be refuted by anybody who watched A New Hope instead of a crappy online rehash: the droid is obviously R2-D2 and Luke shut off his targeting computer during the Death Star run.
This fake Skywalker is trying to drum up business for himself, trading on his similarity to a known Anti-Imperial terrorist. Suddenly, the giant cyborg frame of Darth Vader himself is behind Fluke, choking him with the Force. The funky sunglasses come off and Fluke’s giant fake robot eye is practically popping out of his lying head. The poor guy didn’t even have a chance to tell us his real name before Vader broke his neck. OOH! Maybe he’s really Luc Swordswinger from a previous Star Wars comic run Vader then tells the entire bar that to claim “the name of Luke Skywalker also claims his crimes against the Empire. This is the result.” Guess nobody told Rey.
I wonder what happened to “Ardee” and what kind of ship he flew. Obviously, he wouldn’t have an X-Wing and he appears to have been a smuggler. Was he any good? Really a decent pilot? Ever run into the real Han Solo and Chewbacca? Oh well, he was a character that was in a few pages, never to be named, easily forgotten.
To my favorite fake sons for the month of November, I salute you…
- Soule, Charles (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 152 Pages - 11/10/2020 (Publication Date) - Licensed Publishing (Publisher)