The Mandalorian #1 kicks off the 8-issue adaptation of the series’ first season, brought to life by writer Rodney Barnes, Georges Jeanty on art, Karl Story for inks, Rachelle Rosenberg as colorist, and Joe Caramagna for lettering. Not straying from the series’ opening chapter, The Mandalorian #1 is a solid enough adaptation, and while I won’t be reviewing more issues for a variety of reasons (including I already reviewed these episodes), reading this issue brought up an interesting discussion to be had about ownership of Star Wars material (or anything, for that matter) in this new streaming age, so I’ll be focusing more on that below.
I’m always torn on adaptations, usually enjoying novel versions more because they have greater space to build on the source material, expanding in ways that can clarify aspects a movie or show can brush over too quickly. The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker novels were two such great adaptations, taking what came before and building something either just as enjoyable or even more so. While there have been several comic adaptations, be it Rogue One or Thrawn, their small expansions haven’t been enough for me to find them as necessary or as clarifying. With Barnes’ The Mandalorian, the episode structure lends itself rather well to becoming a comic, but there’s no expansion or new perspectives really present, making this about as straight up an adaptation as you can get so far. It could change in the following issues, taking shorter episodes and giving them more to say or do in the story of the show, but for now if you want as close to a safe, play-by-play of the opening episode, The Mandalorian comic delivers it in spades.
Jeanty’s art with Story’s inks are something I’m familiar with when they took over The High Republic comic for a few issues, and their style lends itself a little better here for a dark, dingy, and dirty underworld the show puts into focus. There’s a lot of shadows and the little attention to some details, like dirt on the stormtrooper armor or the desolate, isolated looked of Kuiil’s chosen home, do the show’s aesthetic justice. I like the choice of using the reflection of Din Djarin’s helmet to fill in moments where he doesn’t talk but poses in a way that viewers and his targets alike understand. Likewise, Rosenberg’s colors really fit the look of the show, keeping the speckled dirt grungy and the environments on Navarro dark and shady looking, but the colors go bright when needed, like the sun of Arvala-7 or the shining cute face of Grogu at the end. With Caramagna’s lettering, I was a little surprised at the rather sparing usage of SFX, the opening “shunk” filling in for the door closing on the person fleeing the bar, and I wonder if it was to fit the silent gunslinger type Djarin is supposed to be or trying to let the art do the talking instead. Regardless, the packed dialogue flows well with his bubble placements, keeping the pace of the show while also letting clipped but finalizing lines like Kuiil’s iconic “I have spoken” hit like they would in the show.
As I said earlier, I’m not going to be reviewing the remaining issues, besides maybe covering in a later article if it adds anything the show didn’t get to explore, but my lack of reviewing only stems from how much other new content is coming out (Andor and other shows, the rest of the comics, The High Republic’s second phase, etc.), and being only one human being (as luminous as we are all), I can only cover so much at once. That being said, if anyone reading this would like to provide reviews, I’d be glad to work with you to bring them to life here at the Manor, otherwise you can read our reviews of the show here!
What I’m really here to talk about with The Mandalorian’s first issue is an increasing and widening conversation about ownership in a digital forward era. With the advent of Disney+, it seems Disney and other companies like Netflix or Amazon are preferring to not release shows and other content created for their services on physical media, your subscription your chance to own the content. It’s no surprise the world has been leaning this way and for many people, this isn’t a problem or a concern, maybe even a preferred way to own content than to have it take up space in limited living arrangements. But with companies’ habits of changing content without notice on the streaming services, and no hard copies to preserve the original format or look of a product, things get a little dicier, not just for the general public at home, but for historical records as well. Changes can be small, like removing a Starbucks cup from a Game of Thrones episode or the Jeans Guy in The Mandalorian, but as we all know with the Star Wars franchise, changes can be bigger, especially depending on your attachment of the prior version. As is well documented, prior to the release of the prequels, George Lucas and Lucasfilm brought to the screen the Special Editions, which included alterations to the (for many, sacred) originals. Later, when the original trilogy films were brought to the DVD format for the first time, more changes were included, with no access to the original features people saw in the 70’s and 80’s, while a few more changes happened with the Blu-ray releases and eventually the 4K restoration on Disney+ brought with it the infamous maclunkey addition. For Lucas, these were ways to bring his ultimate vision of these films to life, but for vocal fans, it was a destruction of their memories and childhood, but it wasn’t all doom and gloom.
The biggest difference between the many editions and changes to the original trilogy and any changes to content on a streaming service is simple but profound: you can own a physical copy of the many changes, preserving each form, but with streaming there’s no disc to take home that’ll have funny gaffes or maclunkey-less additions and those will be lost to the digital realm. So in a world where physical editions of content are becoming scarcer, a comic adaptation of The Mandalorian actually is a chance for fans to own a concrete version of the show, one that can’t be changed behind the scenes without notice (goodbye, Jeans Guy!) or preservation of the original version. The comics can still be altered digitally of course, but at least this time you can walk into a local comic shop and have a copy no one can adjust; Marvel seems to know this is likely a big draw for fans considering the 40 variant covers collectors have before them for this issue alone. As I said above, The Mandalorian #1 is an almost note-for-note, sans stellar soundtrack, recreation of the opening episode, but whether that’s an objective or subjectively enjoyable (or not) prospect almost isn’t that important when you begin to consider this as an opportunity to provide fans a chance at ownership beyond a monthly subscription cost, to preserve in the face of a world (aka companies) that isn’t always that interested in doing so. Should there be releases beyond a streaming service or how else can we preserve items in an ever-changing digital world? While I’d say yes, and for many reasons, those answers are far more complicated and beyond the scope of this article and this site, but it’s an important aspect of world today to consider and be cognizant of while consuming media.
In other Mandalorian news, here’s the details from the season three panel at Celebration Anaheim!
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Twitter @MynockManor and Instagram @mynockmanor.