Part One
Marvel Super Special No. 31, 1984
What with all the renewed interest in 80s pop culture, as exemplified by the Netflix series Stranger Things, I thought I'd post the Marvel Comics adaptation of the 1984 movie The Last Starfighter.
I remember seeing the movie around the time it first came out; I haven't viewed it since then. More so than Star Wars, it was aimed at an audience of kids and 'tweeners', and took advantage of the arcade video game craze then going on.
I'm guessing that, like most of the feature film adaptations that Marvel did, the creative team received an early draft script in order to have the book finished in time to coincide with the film's debut. That said, the plotting in this Marvel Super Special pretty much stays true to the film, although teen love interest 'Maggie' certainly gets some enhanced cheesecake treatment in this comic.
Despite having two artists, Brett Blevins and Tony Salmons, the art in this adaptation often looked rushed and incomplete. Throw in the awful color separations common to 80s comics, and there's no way this Super Special can be called among the best. But the story is fun in its own way, and I've read many contemporary sci-fi comics that come in a poor second to this one.
In any event, Part One is below; Part Two will be my second post.
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