“Why Does C-3P0 Have a Red Arm?” Star Wars Special: C-3PO #1 Review and Summary
Star Wars Special: C-3PO #1 “The Phantom Limb”
Story by: James Robinson
Art by: Tony Harris
Colors by: Tony Harris
Letters by: Joe Caramanga
Cover by: Tony Harris
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Release Date: April 13th, 2016
Price: $4.99 (USD)
The long anticipated answer to the question of ‘Why does C-3P0 have a red arm in Star Wars: The Force Awakens?” has finally been answered.
This one shot had an original release date of late November / early December of 2015, which it obviously missed. Although it was delayed significantly it definitely did live up to the hype.
For starters let’s talk about the six, yes six, variant covers available for purchase, which can be found at the bottom of this article, my favorite of which is the cover that features a movie still of C-3P0 from The Force Awakens.
The premise of the story is that C-3P0 is part of a droid crew under the command of Captain Hoff that is transporting a First Order droid, that they believe has the location of Admiral Ackbar, to Resistance controlled space. The crew is composed of PZ99 (Peezee-ninety-nine), a military grade class four security droid, a class five construction droid who is called CO34 (See-Oh three four), 2Med2 (Toomedtoo) a class one medical droid, a security droid called VL44 (Vee-El forty-four), and of course our favorite protocol droid who is fluent in more than six million forms of communication, C-3P0.
This issue starts off with a crash landing on an unknown world and Captain Hoff is missing, presumably dead. The diverse team of droids has to make their way to an abandoned First Order tie fighter. Along the way the crew is killed off and sacrificed one by one to help C-3P0 and the droid prisoner to reach the ship. In the process of the crew being attacked a monster wraps its arm around C-3P0’s arm and tears it off at the shoulder. By the end of the issue only C-3P0 and the droid prisoner are left and acid rain comes beating down from the sky. The only cover that the pair can find is under a scrap piece of metal from the First Order ships. In order to send a homing beacon someone has to make their way through the acid rain to reach the nearby ship. The droid prisoner ends up sacrificing himself and gets pelted by rain as he makes his way to the ship, but before he leaves he transfers Admiral Ackbar’s location. The acid rain starts eating through his circuitry in seconds and kills him. As Poe Dameron swoops in to save C-3P0 he comments that C-3P0 needs a new arm, however C-3P0 picks up the droid prisoner’s arm, which is now red since the silver paint has been eaten off by the acid rain, and says “You have no idea how this arm offends my aesthetic sensibilities nevertheless I will keep it for a while to remember.”
I thoroughly enjoyed this issue and would recommend it to any Star Wars fans since C-3P0 is such an iconic Star Wars character and it explains a major question raised by Star Wars: The Force Awakens.