After a bit of a hiccup the action and intrigue return with a bonus cameo and some very snappy dialogue.
What They Say:
Boba Fett’s half-clone half brother Connor Freeman has stepped into a firefight! Tasked with protecting Boba’s former wife and daughter while Fett’s killer is found, Connor finds himself up against a Devaronian hit-squad!
Meanwhile, as Darth Vader searches for the intruder who so explosively infiltrated the Imperial base on Blackfel, the intruder is setting up an elite stormtrooper platoon for a huge fall!
The Review:
Warning- there is a major spoiler within for those who haven’t read the second comic in this series and who haven’t figured out that the series title and its chronological place in Star Wars continuity as taking place 10 years before A New Hope are more than a little at odds with each other and which means that one is probably not as it seems.
Yeah, the spoiler warning is probably completely unnecessary as anyone who is at all a fan of Star Wars knows that the book’s subtitle that proclaims “Boba Fett is dead” is a lie. Now it may upset some people who think that there is a lack of truth in advertising here but if so these people must not have paid much attention to comics at all as comic stories, particularly in the Golden and Silver Age, often liked to have the big tease story title or cover splash which rarely was indicative of the stories to be found within but which wasn’t really the point. The point is to draw attention to the title and coax the reader into picking the book up and then leaving the writer in the position of having to reward the audience for their leap of faith or risk losing them to cynicism on the next go round as failure to deliver in the past doesn’t endear authors to readers.
And to this extent the author works hard in his attempt to try to keep the audience from feeling disappointed and the third issue in this series ramps things up with the promise of a certain Dark Lord of the Sith making an appearance which certainly raises the bar that the story will be expected to meet, particularly after the previous issue which may have not been to everyone’s liking (and which was certainly the case with my experience with the issue). So with the third issue writing quite a large check with its cover it is intriguing to see if it is going to be able to deliver or if it will be returned marked “Non Sufficient Funds.”
The issue begins by picking up with the (spoiler) not dead Boba Fett using the chaos he created in the previous issue by taking out the Blackfel control tower to covertly sneak into one of the training buildings to find one of the men who sent the hit squad after him. Of course things rarely go exactly as scripted even for one of the more feared men in the galaxy and he finds that his planned path is suddenly beset with a rather imposing potential barricade as a familiar black robed figure is looking for answers as to the source for the current catastrophe and he has questions for the first Storm Trooper he sees- and while the man in the armor he questions is a clone, he certainly isn’t a regular in the service of the Empire.
Facing off against one of the few men more feared in the galaxy than himself might be bad enough but when that man also possesses mystical like powers it may take a good deal of acting and more than a little backbone to not give away that the answers the cloaked figure wishes to have are a lot closer than the fake Stormtrooper would be comfortable with expressing. And that is just the beginning of the problems that Fett will face as even if he gets past an annoyed and inconvenienced Dark Lord it still leaves him on a training moon full of soldiers in a heightened state of alertness due to the nature of his arrival and searching for a target who isn’t stupid and who seems to have been waiting for the man who has been hunting down the coalition that “killed Fett” to arrive. With the possibility of an entire moon filled with soldiers that could turn against him, Fett is going to have to be steel willed and daring as well as clever enough to have planned dozens of moves ahead yet adaptable enough to events on the ground if there is any hope to survive.
But Fett isn’t alone in facing danger as Conner has discovered that he may be in way, way over his head as his placement in Fett’s plans to protect Sintas Vel has him in more trouble than even he has become used to as the initial meeting has him looking down the business end of a blaster before dodging blasts from another source. But this isn’t going to be the major problem he faces as it may turn out those he was sent to protect are far more capable of taking care of themselves than he will be of protecting himself when the protection duty and an certain encounter leave him in a very bad place as he discovers, too late, just why Fett would send a protector to watch over Vel. And just for the cherry on top, the reader will finally get the name of who wants Fett dead and as the curtain falls on this third part it exits having left all the pieces now in place for the conclusion of the series.
With so much going on it is actually a bit surprising as to how fast the book reads as the author displays more than a little mastery of action and timing which he blends in superb fashion with some witty and engaging dialogue as the final layers of the mystery of who wanted Fett dead (well, other than a large percentage of the galaxy but in this case the man who looked like he actually pulled it off) are finally revealed as well as the motivations behind the hit. The issue largely works well as Fett finally uncovers the missing pieces he needs to figure out the reason behind events and his innovative planning during the book is one that will please Fett fans everywhere.
About the only downside here is how fast the comic reads as it does run rather close to the edge on providing entertainment for the dollars spent with its breakneck pace for many events. Cynically one could also look at the appearance of Darth Vader as one that is kind of a cheap trick but when it is pulled off so well it is rather easy to forgive the move as comics are a form of entertainment and the scene certainly is that. What does feel a bit cheap afterword though is the use of having a cutaway to the mastermind behind the scenes who then explains his motives to his underling (who already should have known most of them) in a way that helps advance the narrative but comes across as a shallow and semi-stereotypical plot device, especially when placed in comparison to the masterful work the author does on much of the rest of the issue. It is probably something that in the long run is overlookable but it just feels a bit clunky here.
In Summary:
The third volume in the misleadingly named series kicks off with a suspenseful encounter and it only ratchets up the entertainment value from there. The use of witty dialogue, action and an appeal to the Star Wars fans through the use (somewhat gratuitously) of characters combines to a slick and entertaining chapter in this series though there are a few points where it feels like some of these strengths exist in part to paper over some cracks in the series structure.
Grade: B
