This might
be a little late (it’s already the 5th of May here) but I did want
to put out something to celebrate Star Wars Day while, as always, trying
to tie it back to the MC2. So here is a smattering of references to Star
Wars in the MC2.
First for
today, and probably the most well-known and oft-cited reference to Star Wars
in the MC2 comes in the pages of J2
#12 where Doc
Magus mentions he has tickets to ‘the new Star Wars movie.’ Given
the issue was released in July 1999, it’s presumed this is a reference
to Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace which was released mere
months before. However, if we apply the Marvel sliding timescale rule,
this could refer to a more recent film, perhaps even an upcoming future film.
Next up, on
the cover for Spider-Girl #33 which features our heroine May ‘Mayday’ Parker in a battle with the
mysterious new Spider-Man
accompanied by hyperbolic cover copy ‘Spider-Girl VS. Spider-Man!?!
(That’s not true, that’s impossible!)’ This is an obvious reference to the
iconic scene in Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back where Darth
Vader reveals himself as Luke Skywalker’s father, with Luke
responding ‘No. No. That’s not true. That’s impossible!’
The last few
for today are sneaky ones slipped into the background of Spider-Girl #92
while the Avengers
are being briefed about the apparent return of Magneto.
I’ll present the original pages first and you can try and spot the references.
Here, I’ve
adjusted the colour saturation to help. While I was not able to identify all of
the shots hidden in on the viewscreens, the image seen center-left is taken from
Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones depicting the Mandalorian
bounty hunter Jango Fett’s patrol and attack craft called the ‘Slave I’
on the planet Kamino.
Next to it
we have another image lifted directly from Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of
the Clones this time depicting a shot of the Senate Apartment Complex
on the planet Coruscant.
If anyone
wants to try and work out where the rest of the images are lifted from, please let
me know! Other than those mentioned
above, it should go without saying that the brilliant Ron Frenz worked
on the Marvel Star Wars comics during their original run. I’m sure there
are more references to Star Wars in the MC2, but I’ll save them for a
future date.
Until I work
out the how in ‘somehow Palpatine returned’, I remain
frogoat