French Titans #95

The final issue of the French anthology Titans magazine to feature Star Wars is Titans #95.  This issue contains 2 U.S. Marvel Star Wars comics, issues #96 and 97.

Titans #95a - Editions Lug, France (December 1986)
Star Wars #96, 97

The cover is another original painting that shows Luke Skywalker confronting Lumiya.  Most of the Star Wars covers for the Titans magazine are terrific paintings and this cover is no exception.

Since Editions LUG published the Marvel Star Wars stories in the Titans magazine several years after they came out in the U.S., I can only imagine they saw the mess that the Star Wars title became after Star Wars #93.  The Star Wars title had recently published several issues by various artist, but Tom Palmer did the inks or finishes that provided some conformity between those issues.  With Marvel Star Wars #94, Cynthia Martin became the semi-regular artist on the Star Wars title.  Her work was influenced by Japanese manga and was jarring to readers use to seeing the more traditional art on the title.  Her art is dynamic and cartoony and is incongruous to Star Wars.  I can only guess Mary Jo Duffy, the writer, began writing stories tailored to Cythia's style, because the stories started taking a non-serious tone.  It did not help that these stories occurred after the Return of the Jedi and the main antagonist of the movies, the Empire, had been defeated, leaving Mary Jo Duffy with no direction.  Star Wars #94 was not published in the Titans magazine, probably due to the ridiculous and over the top humorous nature of the story.  Star Wars #96 and 97 are some of the last serious stories in the Star Wars title and provide closure to the Lumiya arc so it made sense that they were published, even though the art clashes with the serious nature of the stories.