Rounding out this week’s Star Wars comics is the first issue of Blood Ties – Boba Fett Is Dead, and GONK has saved the best for last…
“Unless he can survive a severe case of ‘gaping hole where his head should be,’ I assure you, Boba Fett is quite dead.”
So reports a capable intelligence chief to her boss at a desk, as a holo of the aforementioned gaping hole is shown. And with that, the first issue of Blood Ties – Boba Fett is Dead kicks off. There is much awesome from the combined team of Tom Taylor (script) and Chris Scalf (artwork). So much awesome that after I first read the advance copy of this issue, I immediately sought out a way to interview Tom Taylor.
So, Boba Fett’s death is broadcast around the Empire, and Connor Freeman, barman, doesn’t like this news. So he decides to go on an Archer-style rampage to find out who exactly wanted Boba Fett dead, and eliminate the mastermind and the hit squad. First, a Zabrak on Iridonia, then a dewback-riding stormtrooper on Sathiemon. Only the boss starts to realize that Fett’s killers are winking out one at a time, and wonders who would avenge the galaxy’s most notorious bounty hunter. Connor Freeman’s drawn a target on himself now, and there are some that would reduce the bar owner and his bar to a pile of ashes. But Freeman’s not the only target — someone else connected to Fett is also at risk.
What a way to start this tale – we dive right into the action, and don’t really stop at all for the whole issue. Taylor combines the action with a streak of dark comedy in both Connor Freeman and his enemies. Failing to get his patrons to toast the fallen Fett, Connor sighs and offers a round on the house, to which the customers loyally raise their glasses to the deceased. I really do hope to see more of Quinny, Connor’s bartender and friend – he is a good mirror for Freeman’s character. Taylor has a great wit which shows in nearly every dialogue.
And then there’s the fantastic artwork – Chris Scalf transforms the action and wit with some great emotion and colors. The issue moves through a whole palette – green in the bar, blue on Iridonia, gold in the desert, and red with the forces conspiring against Fett. There’s a great perspective of Freeman pulling the trooper off of a dewback, and then later, a cool image of another trooper pulling Freeman over his bar. Just as with the first Blood Ties series, I could stare at this art and just soak it up. The facial expressions on the Sathiemon port official are priceless.
Probably by now, you’re tired of me praising the genius of the team behind this comic (if you’ve been following my reviews for his work on Invasion – Revelations, you already must think that i am actually Tom Taylor’s publicist). Just go out and get it and read it. and then thank me. Grab either the Scalf cover or the variant David Palumbo one – while I like Palumbo design, the Scalf cover (or the first page, a full panel of smouldering Fett armor) is likely destined to be poster material. and I’m not even that big of a Boba Fett fan. Go read it.