In an act of seemingly pure coincidence, Marvel and DC Comics just referenced the same Obi-Wan Kenobi quote from Star Wars in recent issues.
Warning! Spoilers ahead for Symbiote Spider-Man: King in Black #4 and Suicide Squad #1
In a strange event of seemingly pure coincidence, both Marvel and DC Comics happened to reference the same Star Wars quote within a week of their respective issues releasing. What makes this so interesting is that the quote itself isn’t one that is all that popular when compared to others such as “No, I am your father,” “May the Force be with you,” or even “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” Instead, an uncommonly quoted but still memorable Obi-Wan Kenobi line from 1977’s Star Wars is referenced, which is what makes it so bizarre.
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The line itself occurs when Luke Skywalker and his new Jedi mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi are aboard the Millennium Falcon with Han Solo and Chewbacca, and the ship has just been pulled into the Empire’s Death Star with a tractor beam. Emerging from their hiding places in Solo’s smuggling compartments to evade Stormtroopers, the small crew begins to plan, and Kenobi declares that he’ll be taking care of the tractor beam so they can eventually make their escape. When a doubtful Han calls Obi-Wan a damn fool in response, Obi-Wan counters with a memorable comeback of Jedi wisdom: “Who’s the more foolish? The fool or the fool who follows him?”
Strangely enough, both Marvel and DC Comics just referenced this quote in the newly released Symbiote Spider-Man: King in Black #4, written by Peter David with art by Greg Land, and Suicide Squad #1, written by Robbie Thompson with art by Eduardo Pansica. In Marvel’s issue, Spider-Man has teamed up with Kang the Conqueror, Rocket Raccoon, and Monica Rambeau’s Captain Marvel to stop the proto-symbiote Mister E, who is in service to Knull the Symbiote God in Marvel’s past. As this fourth issue of Symbiote Spider-Man takes place in space, the always quipping Spider-Man took the opportunity to make a Star Wars reference after Mister E called Ulik the Troll a fool. Likewise, DC’s issue sees a new iteration of the Suicide Squad being sent by Amanda Waller to liberate the Talon from Arkham Asylum. One of the team’s members is the Film Freak (who only speaks in movie quotes), and he quotes the same Obi-Wan line when observing the crazed writings on the Talon’s cell.
It seems as though extra points are in order for DC and Suicide Squad #1, seeing as how Film Freak’s reference is more of a direct verbatim quote, though that is the character’s whole shtick. It seems as though Spider-Man could be forgiven for his slight paraphrasing. He was fighting an alien symbiote while wearing a symbiote after all.
In any case, it’s certainly an interesting commonality that these otherwise unrelated issues share, this quoting of Obi-Wan Kenobi seems to be just a bizarre event of pure coincidence. Regardless, it’s definitely a noteworthy fun fact for superhero and Star Wars fans alike, and might even make the issues worth buying for collectors, seeing as how Marvel Comics and DC Comics released these issues only six days apart.
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