“How bad could it be?”
Creative Staff:
Story: Charles Soule
Art: Phil Noto
Letters: VC’s Joe Caramagna
What They Say:
The next stop on Poe’s mission is Grakkus the Hutt…But Grakkus has been in Republic Prison for years. You know what that means—POE DIRECTLY TO JAIL!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With the opening arc going strong here, presumably a six or seven issue installment, the fourth chapter is one that serves as a break from the first mini-arc and moving onto the next. I still find myself struggling with this book unlike others simply because of the artwork at this point as it just doesn’t click for me with the Star Wars universe. While I throw everyone else onto a subscription, I find myself waffling on pressing the buy button each time a new chapter comes out. Which is unfortunate as I’ve enjoyed what Charles Soule has done with the Lando and Obi-Wan & Anakin series. With the Chewbacca miniseries and this one, I’m just not feeling it even as I really want to because I want more stories set in this time period to explore, especially with a character like Poe since Soule seems to be able to capture his voice pretty well.
This installment works two different story pieces that are solid enough overall, especially the first where we get some downtime after the previous mission as Black Squadron is now back on D’Qar. It’s here that we see Poe making it clear to L’ulo, who is like a parent to him, that they need to be extra cautious because of the stakes and what they know is coming with the First Order. It’s an interesting approach about being prepared and not upsetting the hornet’s nest much. The team as a whole gets broken off into smaller configurations that have their moments, such as Jess and her tech and Snap and his fellow teammate that he basically propositioned mid-battle last time around but is now unable to do much face to face with. It’s all small moments that helps to humanize the cast and get us to know them better before the next mission, which works about fifty percent of the time in this instance.
The back half of the book has Poe and the team heading off to where the learned Lor San Tekka went next and that’s to a prison situation. Prison stories can be good – see the recent Rebel Prison book in the main Star Wars series – and this one offers up a fun situation where it’s all monitored from orbit with a small self contained city where to leave would have a prisoner crushed under massive gravity. It’s an amusing pay to play private prison situation, just a little snark at the real world coming from Soule here, and the start up of the arc is solid enough as we see the design of the city and how the administrators above work it. What has me hopeful with this arc as it moves forward is that it involves Grakkus the Hutt from the Clone Wars era as he’s been in prison since the early days of the Empire. He and Poe definitely have some amusing moments here, but damnit if they didn’t bring Terex back. Where’s my murder-bots when I need them most?
In Summary:
The Poe Dameron series continues to be a struggle when it’s a book I desperately want to like. The story isn’t bad but it’s also not selling things in a big or engaging way, which has me wondering if the Story Group from Lucasfilm are keeping things on a very tight leash here. I like that we’re starting to flesh out the Black Squadron characters a bit because it’d be nice to remember their names more beyond the main three that I know and I’m excited to see what Grakkus has in store with what he might have in his little enclave. But beyond that, the book just isn’t clicking for me with the artwork and that ends up dragging everything else down, which is unfortunate. I’ve loved Noto on other books but it’s just not working in this realm for me.
Grade: C+
Age Rating: 9+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: July 6th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
