Han Solo goes to ground in the Coruscant underworld, Leia pulls off an amazing escape only to be left adrift, and Luke goes AWOL in this week’s Star Wars comic. The Empire truly is one step ahead!
Brian Wood keeps the action in Star Wars up for another great issue full of starfighters, unseemly sorts, and trouble in Star Wars #5, continuing the ‘In the Shadow of Yavin’ storyline (DarkHorse.com profile). Plenty of spoilers abound as we dive into this explosive issue! As usual, summary first, then review after the cool preview image!
Summary: Leia, Wedge, and Tess have been trapped by a Star Destroyer and an Interdictor and Colonel Bircher’s TIE Interceptors. After an initial volley of proton torpedoes rips apart the TIEs, Leia implements a risky plan to disable the Interdictor’s gravity well projectors and punch out to hyperspace – but Bircher has a back up plan in place. As the X-Wings pop back into real space, a TIE Bomber has followed them and suicidally detonates a bomb, crippling Leia’s fighter. Adrift in a dead ship, a wounded Leia orders her wingmen to abandon her before the Empire catches up with them, but both refuse to leave the Rebel leader behind.
Meanwhile, Han and Chewbacca are deep in the Coruscant underworld, looking for a way to shake off Boba Fett. At a bar, an Imperial sanitation worker named Perla offers the pair an escape route via the off-planet trash disposal system before Fett and Bossk can close in, but it will cost Han a lot. Back at the fleet, Luke and Prithi have broken their grounding orders and fly out to hopefully save Leia (per ghostly Ben’s orders), and Luke explains who Ben Kenobi was, and Prithi reveals that she saw Ben, but that she’s only doing this for Luke. And at Endor, Vader returns to his search for Skywalker after promoting his new ally, Birra Seah, to moff to oversee the second Death Star’s construction – and alerting her that the Emperor will come and visit.
Review: One of the strengths of this storyline is that with so many characters to follow, there’s always something going on. Leia, Wedge & Tess receives the lion’s share of the action, but Han & Chewie get some cool scenes as well. Still, with following 4 different clumps of characters, the amount of space devoted to any one of them isn’t much (Vader gets two pages). And pretty much all the action is with the starfighters – the trio of X-Wings versus Bircher’s TIEs and capital ships. It really brings back the spirit of the X-Wing comics, though we don’t get any actual dogfight scenes depicted – Gray Squadron’s not here to mix it up, but to run for it.
The real tension in this issue isn’t in the action, but later – after the TIE Bomber cripples Leia’s ship, we see her and her ship badly injured, and while she’s a big main character who obviously survives to The Empire Strikes Back, writer Brian Wood, artist Carlos D’Anda, and colorist Gabe Eltaeb manage to pull me into concern for her welfare. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an X-Wing so well depicted in such a damaged state, (with Wedge’s and Tess’ pristine X-Wings escorting the wounded flyer), and Leia herself is wounded in the cockpit.
Also, we get some great tension with the scenes on the Coruscant underworld – Han constantly watching his back as the colorful scum and villainy swirl around them. I felt like we were back in the Cantina again, only hunted. I think D’Anda did a great job bringing in a lot of alien species that were specifically in the cantina scene without bringing in other species from other SW films, to remind us of that feeling of ANH-and-nothing-else that this comic really plays in. And Perla – what game is she playing, conveniently giving Solo and Chewbacca an escape option for a steep price – more than the bounty on Solo is worth. (What sane person puts themself between Boba Fett and his target?)
There’s some fine full page panels here, with that opening shot of Tess in her X-Wing, and a finishing page of Vader with Moff Seah reflected in his eyes as he warns of the Emperor’s arrival. But I think the strongest page is the first shot of Leia’s fighter after the explosion, with her ship twisted and falling apart, and concern on Wedge’s face, and Leia, bloodied, but still trying to give orders. Well done!
Rodolfo Migliari handles the cover, and while it draws out a classic look, it feels too much like the classic Han and Chewie blasters-out promotional photo.
Overall, a great issue! Despite having the main characters live in a safety bubble, Wood and company pull us into concern for the welfare of our heroes.