A fated meeting.
Creative Staff:
Story: Duane Swierczynski
Art: Fernando Blanco
Colors: Marcel Maiolo
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
What They Say:
Cassian Andor is one of the top intelligence agents in the ranks of the Rebel Alliance, ably assisted by his reprogrammed Imperial security droid, K-2SO. But naturally, the two weren’t always on the same side of the Galactic Civil War. Now, for the first time, read the story of the pair’s first contentious meeting! It is very likely not to go well.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
One of the things that made Rogue One so much fun for me was that we had people gravitating towards different characters with a lot of intensity. While their stories in the film were superficial, owing to the design and pacing, it allows for a lot of stories to be told through other media. Such is the case with this annual that gives us the first meeting of Cassian and K2SO. Coming from writer Duane Swierczynski, whose worked I’ve read regularly over the years, and artist Fernando Blanco, we get a solid tale that’s probably just a few pages to look and didn’t quite warrant the “annual” designation and pricing. But it’s something that makes me hopeful for other tales to be told and a nice Rogue One supplement collection down the line.
The plot that moves this event forward is simple and fun enough as it fits in with Cassian as he’s been sent to a colony world with two operatives, Kertas and Rismor, in order to obtain some Imperial intelligence. The idea is that a colony world won’t have much of an Imperial presence and it’ll be easy to infiltrate and gain codes and intel that they need. Cassian comes across much as he does in the film and that’s definitely exactly how I wanted him while the other two are interesting aliens in they don’t speak much and Cassian can tell their general intention and thoughts because of the smells they generate. That leaves Cassian doing most of the dialogue, almost halfway talking to him, and it works well as a way for him to deal with the nervous energy. Particularly as the place they’ve come to has a far greater Imperial presence than expected.
Of course, things go wrong along the way and Cassian ends up dealing with a security droid that we know as K2SO. It’s an amusing series of circumstances as Cassian’s trying to turn him off and reprogram him but faltering at various stages and ending up with the droid we know that has a skewed personality and more Imperial in him than some care for. The mixture of this with the other two operatives and the escape attempt upon acquiring the daa that they need keeps it moving at a good clip and light enough in humor to keep you grinning all while enjoying the tension that ratchets up. The only downside is that there’s no real opponent here beyond names Stormtroopers, though K2SO is what fills in for that gap along the way until properly turned.
In Summary:
While not as deep as it could be, this story covers the amusing basics of how Cassian ended up with K2SO and why this droid acts like he does. I’m still hopeful for some new adventures of these characters in novel form at some time, and to see more comics of the other characters from this film, this is the kind of smaller story that works well in delivering some fun, some solid action, and some origin material. The creative team did a solid job with it in providing the setup and execution of a straightforward idea with the right level of humor and action. It fits in very easily with everything else and is the kind of background piece that will stick and color in things a little more within the film when revisited after reading it, which is the best kind of book.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: August 9th, 2017
MSRP: $4.99
