First Cameo Padme Amidala

Comics Small Publishers
#1

I’ve been deep diving into Star Wars back issues recently as I build out my pet project, the free online Star Wars first appearance and key issue database. I’ve been coming up with some pretty neat tidbits I’d never learned before.

Here’s a cool one I found.

It’s commonly held that her first appearance was in the Wizard Episode I 1/2 issue.

However, as the rumor goes, having heard the casting news of Natalie Portman, the artist for the adaptation of Timothy Zahn’s Last Command put a giant portrait of her in Leia’s children’s bedroom. Like a pre film release Easter egg.

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Last Command #5 came out April of 1998.

Episode I 1/2 (Wizard mail away) came out May 1999.

Anyway…no spec play on this, just an interesting cameo that not everybody is aware of.

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#2

It’s treason then…

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#3

And then this is just me spitballing here, but in Princess Leia #2 from Marvel, Terry Dodson illustrated Padme in another mural that Leia encounters before she learns about her mother:

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Dodson didn’t do the art on Last Command (Zahn’s 3rd book), but he drew Dark Force Rising, the Zahn book preceding. I wonder if he saw the cameo in Last Command and wanted to do a light homage to it. Maybe it was the writer’s idea. I dunno. I could be making this all up and just drawing lines that aren’t there.

Why am I digging so deep into a Padme rabbit hole!?

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#4

From Wookieepedia:

At the time the Thrawn Trilogy comics were coming out, the decision had just been made to cast Natalie Portman as the future mother of Luke and Leia. The author of the comics then decided, as a reference, to place her likeness in the background. Although this clashes to some extent with the eventual revelation that Leia never knew her mother, this comic nonetheless was the first in-universe appearance of Padmé.

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