Star Wars Wednesday: Star Wars Infinities

Star Wars Infinities

          The stories told by the original Star Wars trilogy are so famous, it’s hard to not wonder what would happen if certain events were tweaked or altered to create a different outcome. What if George Lucas wanted the movies to have a darker tone overall, albeit still with happy endings?

          Well, wonder no more! Star Wars Infinities is here to flip the movies on their heads and make everything all weird and reversed!

          Published by Dark Horse Comics from 2001 to 2004, Infinities is split into three separate stories representing the three Original Trilogy movies. Each story is completely standalone (as the Empire and Jedi issues behave as if the story unfolded normally prior to the comic beginning) and they’re all comprised of four issues, as a certain event, big or small, is altered in a way that changes the entire course of the storyline. We’ll be talking about each of them today, and whether they hold up or not.

          Infinities: A New Hope is, in all honesty, the only one really worth checking out. It has a clever plot with plenty of twists and turns alongside plenty of great character moments from your favourite heroes from the movies as they take on this new, strange world.

          In this alternate timeline, Luke failed to destroy the Death Star, instead managing to just heavily damage it enough that the laser blast couldn’t be powered up enough to fully destroy Yavin IV. The Empire swarms the planet, taking Leia and 3PO prisoner, as Luke and Han flee in terror. Obi-Wan shows up shortly after, telling Luke to travel to Dagobah to meet with Yoda. While Luke is completing his training with Yoda for real, Vader is spending time with Leia on Coruscant, subtly manipulating her towards the Dark Side and grooming her to become an Imperial officer.

          I won’t go over how this one ends, as I actually recommend giving it a read for yourself. The writers do a great job flipping the characters on their heads and using them to create a brand new story. Evil Leia is fantastic, as are Yoda, Han and C-3PO’s expanded roles. If you can track it down, it’s well worth your time.

          Infinities: Empire Strikes Back on the other hand, is not.

          While the Return of the Jedi one is considerably worse, I consider the Empire Strikes Back story to be my least favourite simply because of how unmemorable it was. As each Infinities story had a different writer, this guy seemed more interested in how weird he could make things get instead of tell a cohesive plot.

          The big change that happens is that Han doesn’t reach Luke in time to save him from Hoth’s brutal cold. Luke tells him with his dying breath to go to Dagobah, which they proceed to do. Vader sends the entire Empire in a wild goose chase to try and find Luke because…reasons, allowing Han to zip to Bespin and get his hyperdrive fixed quickly with no problem.

          Upon arriving at Dagobah, Yoda tells them he has to train Leia instead of Han. They part ways, as Han goes to solve his Jabba problems and Leia stays behind. Vader eventually manages to track down Han after Jabba’s palace blows up (don’t ask), and discovers Leia’s location in 3PO’s memory files.

          Upon arriving on Dagobah, Vader faces off with Yoda, and it looks like the ultimate showdown of Light Side vs. Dark Side is about to commence. What we get instead is much weirder.

          Yoda goes inside Vader’s mind somehow and haunts his dreams. Vader’s armour turns into the original Ralph McQuarrie designs, and is plagues by visions of the most terrifying thing known to man: the Prequel Trilogy! Have mercy, Yoda!

          Eventually Vader breaks free and kills Yoda, which is immediately followed by Han showing up out of nowhere and finishing off Vader with a blaster bolt to the head. And then the story just kind of stops. No big finale or cutting final speech. Leia and Han just kind of walk off into the woods and that’s it.

          It should go without saying that Infinities: Empire Strikes Back isn’t worth a read. The plot has a lot of weird progression issues, it’s nowhere near as interesting as the previous series, and overall feels more like a writing class experimental piece than something that really should’ve made it to store shelves.

          Last but not least, we have Infinities: Return of the Jedi. The Infinities series took a tumble here yet again, as this series was even worse than the one that came before it. The one saving grace here is that unlike the Empire story, this one is so bad that it’s funny.

          So what’s the big event that gets changed to send the story in a different direction this time? Well, in this one Jabba accidentally smacks C-3PO too hard and knocks his head off. I wish I was joking, but that’s it.

          Without a means of peacefully communicating with the Hutt, Leia takes her disguise off and strong-arms her way through the palace to try and rescue Han. Boba takes off with him before she can though, leading the crew on a galaxy-wide chase to get him back. Because finding him takes so long Luke misses Yoda dying, but it turns out all okay because Yoda is able to give him the info he needs in Force ghost form. Well, isn’t that convenient.

          Back on home base, after Han is revived a doctor tells Leia some bad news: because they took so long getting him back, he’s blind for good. This doesn’t impact the story too much, but…ooh, this is a weird and different take on Star Wars, so we have to mix things up!

          But as Luke leaves Dagobah he’s captured by the Empire, as they prepare the second Death Star for activation. Leia is captured later on during a recon mission on Endor, and they face off with Palpatine and Vader together. Luke and Vader essentially tire each other out during a lightsaber duel, and Vader turns good after Luke basically says he doesn’t wanna keep going. Then the Rebellion destroys the reactor core, Palpatine runs off to who knows where, and Luke and Leia transport Vader, now redeemed as Anakin.

          The story ends in the most unbelievable way possible. Everyone’s back together and all happy, Han’s got himself some cool Cyclops shades so he can see, and a redeemed Anakin emerges wearing all-white Vader armour, because I guess the Rebels just had that lying around.

          Star Wars: Infinities is a great concept, and it does quite a few things right. If you’re looking for a different take on the stories we know and love, the Infinities: A New Hope series is well worth checking out. On the other hand, Infinities: Empire Strikes Back is sluggish and confusing and Infinities: Return of the Jedi is just plain laughable, so it’s not much a mystery why this comic series fell into obscurity.