The galaxy needs a Lando Land.
Creative Staff:
Story: Charles Soule
Art: Alex Maleev
Colors: Paul mounts
What They Say:
Lando has made off with one of the most expensive ships in the galaxy. But now, one of the most deadly, effective trackers around is on his tail. Get swindled by the smoothest talker in space!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As things seem to go for rogues and scoundrels like Han Solo and Lando Calrissian, it goes from bad to worse regularly. Enough so that even though they may not admit it, they like to play out the odds that it’ll turn around in their favor. Usually because it does work that way. Things don’t always, of course, and that’s what people tend to remember the most. With Lando’s having acquired the Emperor’s ship, not realizing it at first, he’s ended up with the haul of several lifetimes. But it comes with quite the price, one that he may not even be able to extract from anyone. Enough to give him the funds to buy a moon that he’d call Lando Land. Thankfully, that didn’t become a reality.
This penultimate chapter in the miniseries has a few things going on, though what I like is that something that fans tend to take for granted is explored a bit more as to why it’s not. With Korin talking about the Sith memorabilia here, she goes on about how it’s weird that the Emperor has it and that if word got out it would cause a problem. Though we know the Emperor is evil and a Sith, the galaxy does not. He may be a dark and cruel ruler in many ways, but a Sith is just Jedi propaganda designed, as Lando says, to extract credits from the rubes. Exploring this aspect works well to highlight how others view the Emperor and the Empire itself, altering our predetermined view – even if our view is ultimately correct. Looking at it from another point of view certainly works well here in expanding the nature of the galaxy.
While that side of the story plays out we also get some good action. As Chanath makes their way into the ship and starts locking it down, only to have an amusing encounter at the very end, the action side of the book involves Aleksin and Pavol. The Sith material there may be a collector’s dream, but it doesn’t mean it’s inert. And that has Aleksin being taken control by one of them and twisted in his view, so much so that he attacks Pavol and throws their entire plan into disarray. The two are definitely engaging to watch, both in words and actions, as there’s a great sense of fluidity to the sequences that Maleev presents here. It gives it a great sense of motion and power which, when combined with Paul Mounts color design, gives it a whole lot of richness. This all also provides a great balance to the dialogue heavy side of Lando and Korin, which I enjoyed a whole lot.
In Summary:
Lando has really moved swiftly as a book and the result is something that just flows wonderfully. Each issue brings a new little nudge overall, expanding the characters a bit and really making you want more material with them after all is said and done here. This issue brings us to a good place where you can see some of the fallout to come but also the uncertainties piling up. Soule continues to get Lando himself perfectly and he’s added to the overall galaxy with characters I want more of across the board. His pairing with Maleev is spot on as he brings a great kind of design that at times reminds me of some of the more creative installments from the original Marvel run of the main Star Wars series in the 80’s towards the end, particularly in the roughness and the lines combined with the color style. It’s a fantastic book from top to bottom that as a whole will definitely be even better.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: September 16th, 2015
MSRP: $3.99