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Princess Leia gets her own 'Star Wars' comic

Brian Truitt
USA TODAY
Cover for the comic book "Star Wars: Princess Leia No. 1."

Princess Leia Organa is royalty, yet in her history on film, she's been more comfortable grabbing someone's blaster and showing them how to get the job done than wearing a crown.

Now the premier Star Wars heroine's set to have her best year since she took down Jabba the Hutt and smooched Han Solo in the 1980s. Before Carrie Fisher reprises her iconic role opposite Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (out Dec. 18), Leia stars in her own solo comic book Star Wars: Princess Leia, debuting Wednesday from Marvel Comics.

The new series, by writer Mark Waid and artists Terry and Rachel Dodson, opens at the end of the original 1977 Star Wars movie. While the Rebel Alliance is celebrating and passing out medals after having just wiped out the Empire's Death Star, the win is met with melancholy when Leia is forced to finally come to emotional grips with the destruction of her home planet Alderaan.

By the time of the 1980 sequel The Empire Strikes Back, Leia is ensconced in the leadership of the rebellion so fans haven't seen her face "the loss of her parents, the loss of everything she knows and holds dear," Waid says. However, "it is not five issues of her weeping and pouting and feeling sorry for herself, because that is not her."

She recruits another survivor, a female X-Wing Fighter pilot named Evaan, to venture out into the galaxy and find the rest of the surviving Alderaanians so they can ensure the future of their home world's culture and legacy.

Leia "really sees herself as second to no one, which unfortunately in this series has the potential to also be a bit of a downfall for her because she has to learn a little bit of humility," says Waid.

Princess Leia partners with an X-Wing Fighter pilot named Evaan in her new "Star Wars" comic.

When she came on screen in the late 1970s, she was never a damsel in distress, even when taken prisoner by the Empire in the first film. But here, Waid admits, "for the first time in her entire life she doesn't have a purpose that has been prescribed to her. Instead she has to step up and figure out what she has to do next."

The writer feels that an adventure featuring two strong-willed women is right in line with the current push for gender diversity in comics and in entertainment in general.

Adds Waid: "The timing couldn't be better to be able to come out with a story of a bad-ass princess who is her own hero and doesn't rely on others."

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