Always bet on the Wookie.
Creative Staff:
Story: Gerry Duggan
Art: Phil Noto
What They Say:
Chewbacca & Zarro face their final challenge…the coming of the Empire! But No Wookiee, No Cry- they’re up for it! This is one walking carpet who’s not going to be stepped on!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Chewbacca series draws to a close here and it feels like a long time in coming. After some quick releases, we went just about a month between issues and I almost wondered if they were going to finish it. The book has definitely been the most difficult one so far to connect with, though this installment eases some of that as it shifts to more interesting locales and interactions. So much of the series was by the numbers with a familiar character that the predictability of it just took it down several notches. While you know how the ending is going to go in a kind of basic way here, it at least attempts to shake things up and feel like it’s trying to do something interesting.
With Zarro and Chewie now on board the star destroyer, having ended up captured themselves along the way, it is amusing to see how they try to turn it around. again, it seems like the Empire really needs to send more stormtroopers into any situation they encounter as they keep losing men that way. What we get is Zarro coming up with the cunning plan to keep her and Chewie alive by bluffing and bluffing hard with the commander of the ship, Kai. It’s some good bullshitting that goes on here as she angles the story to one that Jaum is actually a rebel spy taking advantage of the Empire and she even has some facts to back it up with. Not anything huge, but enough to make it seem far more than plausible. And Jaum, when he arrives, isn’t exactly the most trustworthy person in general, something that Kai can figure out quickly even with all the protestations going on.
This leads to some fun chaos amid the ship itself, but it all cycles down in quick order and with the expected closure pieces. Chewie’s certainly made a friend and there’s plenty of positive about how he gives Zarro his medal that he earned at the end of A New Hope, but I wasn’t exactly looking for story closure there. Zarro’s tale is done quickly and her narration is what carries us through Chewie returning to his homeworld to bring a gift. While it may be obvious to those far more established in the lore, presumably he’s visiting family and connections there from when he was a slave himself, hence his sympathy towards Zarro. It’s a nice sequence to see more Wookies here in their natural home, but it really lacked enough context to drive it the way it needed to be.
In Summary:
As much as I like Chewbacca, I knew going into this series that it was going to be a struggle since there wasn’t going to be a proper translation element to it. Duggan and Noto put things together wrell enough, but the script was just far too formulaic and you knew where things were going to go early on. Unlike the Lando series, for example, there was nothing truly new or interesting here to expand on things and make the galaxy itself or the characters stand out more. The Zarro aspect of it alone was a big drop for me as it, like a number of elements of Rebels, are problematic when dealing with kids in these stories. The easy go-to story ideas hit even bigger and it just lacks resonance. In the end, this book was too long and not well paced nor all that interesting in story and tone. Marvel brought out a lot of Star Wars books this year and I’ve loved them all but this one, the only one I really regret buying.
Grade: C
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: December 30th, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
