An expanded take on the tale.
Creative Staff:
Story: Jody Houser
Art: Emilio Laiso, Oscar Bazaldua
Colors: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles
What They Say:
The Rebellion is here! The biggest movie of the year jumps from the big screen to the comic book page! All looks lost for the Rebellion against the Empire as they learn of the existence of a new super-weapon — the Death Star. New heroes Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor set out on a desperate mission to steal the plans to destroy the new super-weapon.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
For all the faults many can find with Rogue One, it was a film that I thoroughly enjoyed on a lot of levels. While I still have the prequel novel itself to read, one thing most Star Wars fans know is that the films tend to be more sweeping in a lot of ways with details fleshed out in other areas. With this film, we knew there were a lot of changes made along the way and interesting things left on the cutting room floor of the scripts themselves. With this six-issue adaptation, similar to what we’ve seen with the other films adapted, there are some fun if somewhat minor expansions going on here that’s pretty fun. I’ve really enjoyed a lot of what Jody Houser has done in the last few years but also know that this is a kind of awkward adaptation as you try to hit the right beats. Thankfully, she’s got some solid artwork from Laiso and Bazaldua to work with here and the end result is fun, if a little full of quick cuts that worked better in the film.
The premise is familiar enough here in that everything is starting to come together with the Death Star. While it’s been kept a secret for a long time, there are always rumors and things slipping out – which are often too fantastic to believe. The Rebellion is starting to get wind of this now in a more formal way and that’s causing them to put things into motion. With someone on the inside of the project, word makes its way out to Clone Wars era resistance fighter Saw Guerara, who is along the extremist angle of things, as well as word to the Rebellion proper through contacts that Cassian Andor has. That has Mon Mothma and Bail Organa working to get enough proof to try and get the Senate to investigate and question things, Though Bail has realized that far too many have fallen sway to the power of the Empire and whatever the Emperor himself has put into motion with many of them.
The book covers these familiar beats, and it’s interesting reading this at the same time as the Princess Leia novel Bloodlines, as you see the parallels in how the Senate is operating. This installment is a lot of setup similar to the film with how it moves between several areas and a few places in time, mostly in relation to Jyn’s childhood, but there are some nice expansions. Jyn’s time in the prison workforce shows her being readied to be killed by her cellmate, adding a bit more tension to that environment. We also see Galen Erso making it clear to Bodhi, the defector Imperial pilot, that he’s just as complicit in everything as well once he realized what he was transporting and the end goal of it. There are some nice little expansions like that throughout and it puts everything into motion in a pretty good way.
In Summary:
Comic adaptations of films are always hard and that’s no exception here. While we do get a nice piece from director Gareth Edwards at the end here about bringing in some of the cut material, this opening salvo only has a little bit new to it so far. It’s welcome material, however, and for those that read other comics and books you’ll end up getting perhaps just a bit more out of it, even just in the larger context scheme of things. It’s the kind of book that’s not going to be designed for monthly reading as you’d imagine, since the original work doesn’t break down easily, but Jody Houser does some good stuff here in putting it into the right place and opening the galaxy up just a bit more. I’m hoping for a bit more new material mixed into it in the next few issues, however, so that it takes advantage of fleshing things out a little more.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: April 5th, 2017
MSRP: $4.99
