Leia’s big wedding day gets some unwelcome fireworks as the Imperial fleet shows up on Arrochar, and the Rebels realize they’ve been double-crossed. But this bride is packing a blaster – will it be enough to survive the onslaught of the Empire’s troops? Spoilers ahead.

Star Wars #18 (DarkHorse.com profile) concludes the storyline on Arrochar – Leia was to marry Prince Kaspar as a way to secure an alliance with the world of Arrochar as a home for a Rebel Base. But Luke gets sent off with their mountain rangers on a symbolic mission, which ends with Luke realizing Arrocharian treachery with Obi-Wan’s help – they’ve called the Empire on Leia’s wedding day, and a bomb has ripped through the royal palace. Caught by this deception, will our heroes elude capture? 

Review: It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed the ongoing Star Wars series by Brian Wood. Some of that was real life and some of that was a bit of fatigue with the series. But I’m back for the ending and we have X-Wings flying over a Disneyesque castle. And the Rebels triumph, at least enough to escape. And the traitors are made to pay. And yay, Mon Mothma and Leia take on squads of soldiers. boo – it’s mostly offscreen. So what’s not to like? Their salvation (Mon Mothma’s secret project) is a bit deus ex machina to me. We do get some setup for Hoth here, with Vader vowing to be there in person to make sure things don’t get screwed up again, and the use of the Rebel’s secret project: planetary ion cannons. Most of the surface and fighter battles feels like we see the beginning, then we just skip to the end, and miss out on the action, but I suppose they are saving the main action for the big fireworks at the end, in space, against the Imperial fleet. Some lovely panels there of the ship battle.

While I like the look and feel of the Arrochar world (slightly archaic), the art didn’t really catch me – I think part of it was catching the likenesses of the movie characters. Sometimes an artist focuses on slightly different features I’m used to, and then I get stuck by it, and so most of the movie characters just seemed off to me, from the Emperor down to Wedge. But the new characters like Prince Kaspar and the general and the Arrochar soldiers all look fine, as pencilled by Stéphane Créty, inked by Julien Hugonnard-Bert and colored by Gabe Eltaeb. Their real strength though is the ships and backgrounds. Some great shots of X-Wings in flight, the palace under attack, and the Rebel and Imperial fleets in action.

And there’s the cover art by Víctor Manuel Leza – there’s some great ‘ready for action’ poses that remind of the iconic movie posters but the likenesses of Han and Luke don’t quite feel right – and I’ve always been mystified by Wookiee fingers since they are always nearly covered over with long hair in other shots, but are are clearly seen here. But props for getting Wedge in there with a blaster, and slightly disheveled Leia still looking regal. But Han’s blaster (and his hand) just seem huge, like this is one of those Galactic Hero overproportioned figures. 

Star Wars #18 delivers a decent ending to this story arc with some close calls and good action, but doesn’t quite hit all the marks. It just didn’t wow me that way that some other recent Star Wars comics have.

The continuing adventures of Leia, Luke, and Han keep on going in this week’s issue of Star Wars by Brian Wood. At least we get a sense of some plot development, and some interesting insight into Wedge. Also, Mon Mothma gets hands-on!

The ongoing Star Wars series is starting to feel a bit… ongoing with Star Wars #10 (DarkHorse.com profile). We have three separate storylines happening, and at least we are starting to see the end of the line for two of the character stories, while the third is blowing up big as the Empire catches the Rebel fleet. Spoilers ahead!

Summary: Aboard the Devastator, Wedge tells Luke his own regrets for not fraternizing the way fellow fighter pilots Luke and Prithi have. A X-Wing arrives back at the fleet, signalling for Mon Mothma. It’s Prithi, barely surviving the loss of life support from her mission backing up Luke and Wedge, but Mon Mothma realizes that she’s led the Empire to the fleet’s location. Over Coruscant, the Falcon finally ditches Boba Fett by going out of atmosphere, and Perla guides Han to a hideout spot. Aboard the Resolute at Alderaan, Leia declines to kill Tag, the Alderaanian who helped design the Death Star’s superlaser, despite his own wishes to pay for his crimes. Upon learning Luke’s upbringing, Vader orders Birra Seah to devote all resources capture him alive as Skywalker is way more valuable than the known Rebel Wedge Antilles. The Devastator arrives at the Rebel fleet, and Col. Bircher launches all fighter wings, and hops in a TIE himself, hoping to win the day through superior piloting. But two of his TIEs are being piloted by none other than Luke and Wedge, using this as their escape plan.

Review: Finally, the Han Solo / Boba Fett clash has come to an end, after starting several issues ago. While pitting these two against each other is cool, it got dragged out a bit longer than it needed to be, especially with the timing of the actions of the other stories. Leia’s arc wraps up unexpectedly – she just leaves, and will have someone else deal with both the Resolute’s collection of Alderaanian relics, and the war criminal / countryman Tag Rogaren. While we’ve seen Leia gun down an Imperial pilot in cold blood, killing an unarmed war criminal who gives her tea is a step beyond. Hopefully this isn’t the last we’ll see of Tag Rogaren. He does have a large ship, after all.

But the real meat here take place on the Devastator: Wedge moves from feeling a little envious of Luke and Prithi to being reminded of all the loss that he’s endured, an opportunity with a lady friend regretfully not taken, and the loss of the entire squadron of friends at Yavin. And he thinks of the name Rogue Squadron to rename Leia’s stealth squadron and allowing the Red Squadron name to be retired in honor of those lost at Yavin. Meanwhile, they also discuss Prithi’s professionalism – and she pulls through, sort of – she makes it back to the fleet, nearly unconscious, but her presence gives Mon Mothma the warning that the Empire is closing in, and it’s time for battle stations. Is this part of the plan to extract Luke and Wedge? Or have things gone horribly wrong?

And then the revelation to Vader of the identity of the lesser Rebel, Luke Skywalker, raised by Owen and Beru. This definitely puts Skywalker on Vader’s map.. as the only thing on the map, at least from Birra Seah’s point of view. Will she have to sabotage Bircher’s command just to keep Luke alive?

I really enjoyed the Wedge – Luke dialogue, both in the beginning, and in the end, as they prepare to fly TIE Interceptors – something Luke has never done before. There’s references to Biggs, and Wedge drops a name of the one that got away. Also cool to see Mon Mothma taking action – not one to just lead from on top, she’s tries to resucitate Prithi after she is pulled out of the cockpit, and gives military orders as she quickly pieces it together. Good stuff here from Brian Wood.The comic does pull a little bit of a tease with an unknown X-Wing approaching the fleet, calling for Mon Mothma – is it Leia? is it Prithi? is it someone else?

Carlos D’Anda returns to handle the art, with Gabe Eltaeb on colors and Michael Heisler on letters. There’s some great expressions on Wedge as he goes from vengeful to mournful, set against a two-page giant launch bay of TIEs. While Mon Mothma doesn’t quite seem right in some shots, she gets a dramatic pose in her last scene – her gown makes her seem like an queen of ancient Greece. Then there’s that final page of TIEs launching. Nice!

 Hugh Fleming’s cover art – Great stuff, I’m always a fan of his style.

Overall, things heat up with the Empire about to strike back against the Rebels. I’m glad the Han and Chewie storyline is finally moving onto new things, and we’ll see if the Leia mission is done.. or not. 

Princess Leia returns to Alderaan, and finds out that you can never go home again in Star Wars #9 by Brian Wood.

Issue #9 of the ongoing Star Wars series (DarkHorse.com profile) has to track the activity of several different characters all at once, so we get a mix of vignettes contininuing the storylines where we left off: Princess Leia boarding a derelict Clone Wars-era vessel in the asteroid field formerly known as Alderaan in an off-the-books mission, Chewbacca and the Falcon are on the run from Bossk, Luke and Wedge are sneaking around inside the Devastator, Birra Seah is monitoring their movements for Vader, Prithi is waiting for the lads to call for an exit, and Han and Perla square off against Slave I. Spoilers ahead!

Summary: Leia lands aboard the Audacity, and poses as Breha when she meets the fellow Alderaanian survivor who invited her aboard. The wealthy but grizzled man invites her in for tea and shows her his collection of Alderaanian stuff, mostly scoured from the black market. When he steps out for some biscuits, Leia discovers his true identity with the help of T4: he is Tag Rogaren, designer of the Death Star’s superlaser, and overhearing, Rogaren admits to his role in building the Death Star. Yielding to the princess’ blaster, Rogaren apologetically surrenders his trove and identifies his guest as Queen Breha’s daughter, Princess Leia.

On Coruscant, Chewbacca manages to shake off Bossk by piloting the Millennium Falcon through the dense traffic lanes of the city, while Han calls in for some assistance. Perla’s trash scow has crashed atop a Golan defense platform, and as Boba Fett exits Slave I to try to capture Han Solo alive, Perla sabotages the Golan, causing it to tip out of control, and she, Han, and the bounty hunter slide onto the top side of the waiting Falcon.

Aboard the Devastator, Wedge and Luke reach the computer core when they are ambushed. As Wedge tries to slice the network, Luke holds off the stormtroopers with his lightsaber, and some guidance from Ben Kenobi. Stealthily docked on the underside of the Star Destroyer, Prithi realizes she is running low on life support while waiting for Wedge and Luke to complete their mission. And as Birra Seah reports in to her real boss, Darth Vader, with news that Antilles and Skywalker are aboard the ship, Vader commands her to take Skywalker alive.

Review: And so bit by bit, the story for each character progresses. While the action side of the issue comes from both the Luke story and the Han story, the real meat of the issue is found in the Leia storyline – she comes across one of her countrymen, who turns out to be a wanted war criminal. While he didn’t pull the trigger on his home world, he feels the guilt of his actions and is willing to be executed for his role in helping create the weapon that destroyed his entire planet. And so we get the questions for Leia, who came here mostly to grieve her lost world: what to do with this man, and what to do with his legacy of salvaged items?

Tag Rogaren fits well as a Star Wars name, by the way. Tag is already established as an in-universe name (from Tag and Bink comics, as well as being a clone nickname on The Clone Wars) and Rogaren almost seems like a contraction of Roganda Ismaren, the Alderaanian who served as an Emperor’s Hand, later seen in Children of the Jedi. 

The other little revelation in the story is in Darth Vader’s musings to himself at Endor after he hangs up on Birra Seah. He feels that the construction of a second Death Star is a foolish endeavor as he knows what the ultimate power in the galaxy is – and the Emperor doesn’t. Is he already plotting a break from his master? Plus we get a cool panel of a view of the Death Star II from inside his mask. 

Brian Wood, who shied away from using R2-D2 early in the series, has no qualms about using Leia’s T4 and Prithi’s R5 as conversation partners, and it is neat to see T4 be more than just a sounding board for Leia’s ideas, and puts forth ideas of its own, echoed in her replies: Leia takes her blaster with her aboard the Audacity with this line to her astromech: “Okay, okay. If only to calm you down.”

The pursuit of Han and Chewbacca has been going on now for a few issues, and has switched from being aboard ships in space and on Coruscant, to now being at a personal level.. Perla gets some points for helping save Solo’s skin again, by wrecking the platform they crashed on while Han distracts Boba.  I’m hoping this chase wraps up soon –  it seems to be dragging out in order to keep the some blaster-packed action going on in the past few issues. At least the Luke and Wedge plot seems to be advancing as the duo appear to be achieving their goal.

The art in this issue (Ryan Kelly with pencils, Dan Parsons with inks, Gabe Eltaeb with colors, Michael Heisler with lettering) gains the same opinion as it did in the previous issue (See my review of #8) – I liked the look of the female characters: Leia, Birra, Perla, Prithi, band the non-human-face characters, Chewie, the droids, Bossk, and Vader most of the time, but the guys look a little cartoony – like Mad Magazine style versions of those characters. The panels of Leia and Tag in his finely furnished “library” (both as they sit down to tea, and later as he sits, resigned, while Leia guards him with her blaster. And the final panel of his apology after he recognizes her as the princess, with his words echoing out from the ship into the rubble of the planet – very cool use of words and art. Also, a very cool head-on view of the Devastator when we first see it. And forming an interesting juxtaposition, the final full-page panel showing Prithi’s ship on the underside of a Star Destroyer that pairs with the Audacity apology full-page panel: again that feeling of smallness made up by a good use of words and art.

Hugh Fleming’s cover art of Leia drifting in space is great – we don’t often see our pilots with their space helmets on – giving us more a bigger science fiction feel that sometimes we don’t get in Star Wars.

Overall, I liked the Leia stuff and the Vader stuff, felt kinda meh on the Coruscant action, and was ok with the scenes around the Devastator – having Prithi starting to run low on life support adds more tension to their mission, and having Ben chime in is useful for explaining how Luke, still a novice with a lightsaber, is able to hold off a squad of troopers.