The complexity of the galaxy grows.
Creative Staff:
Story: Kieron Gillen
Art: Salvador Larroca
Colors: Guru e-FX
Letters: VC’s Clayton Cowles
What They Say:
THE ASHES OF JEDHA! Once the site of great significance to the Jedi, Jedha was left in ruins when the Death Star annihilated the Holy City there. Now, new series writer Kieron Gillen joins artist Salvador Larroca to bring Luke, Leia, Han, and the rest to the remains of the tragic victim of the Empire’s fury!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
I’ve largely enjoyed what Kieron Gillen has done with the first Vader series and the Aphra series and he’s consistently been one of the best writers on the Star Wars books. But now with his second issue of the main ongoing series I’m already going to lament his loss some day as what he’s done here is to help elevate the seriousness and complexity of the war that’s being waged thanks to the new elements brought in by Rogue One. It’s all wonderfully brought to life by Salvador Larroca, even if the photorealistic faces sometimes throw me a bit, but the combination of it all and the weight of the films and stories that come before it gives it such a resonance that I can’t help but to be drawn in even more.
The core group’s arrival on Jedha has them looking to support the Partisans, which Benthic isn’t exactly thrilled by because they’re certainly not going to work for the Alliance. While there’s some smart dialogue here from Han that shows he understands these types of people more than others might, Leia’s pretty savvy as well as they’re basically offering support and assistance where needed. There’s a complexity to it in that Benthic questions whether they can do what’s necessary, talking about how a ship of civlians were killed by Saw in order to achieve a larger goal, and you know that rankles on Luke in a big way and Leia’s no fan of it either, though she obviously gets how the Partisans operate. The desire here to simply support someone with the same goal and to try and soften some of the guilt that’s felt about how things went down on Jedha.
There’s a really good discussion that comes in from the Rebel that left previously and came back to her homeworld to help as when she talks with Luke while taking him through the ruins of one of the cities to help the few people there she talks in such hushed and almost awed tones about the Rogue One mission and how that went down. The more Luke is exposed to what went on here the more it resonates for him seeing people in the squalor and left to die because of how the Empire is operating. It’s one thing to conceptually understand the destruction of Alderaan but even there he had never seen the world (or any other worlds before) and it was more just a thing. Here, seeing it all, you almost see him give into anger over it when a group of Stormtroopers come by to incinerate anyone still here. He does show his abilities quite well, along with his recklessness, and that combined with how holy Jedha is and that pilgrims will still come here to look at a hole in the ground says a lot.
In Summary:
The book delves into events with Trios a bit more as her orbital drill is being put into play and I really like this connection to the past that spans a lot of years being tied into things. I’m still not too keen on the head Imperial in charge here yet because it’s just a little too bit of a caricature without enough background, but it fits well with the larger presentation of Imperials and reminds of the main one from the New Dawn novel in a lot of ways. I really got into this issue with some great dialogue, a spot on expansion/introduction of Benthic, and the important work of showing the aftermath of Jedah and that it’s not just a cut and dried thing. The “what happens afterward” part of a story is often what I’m drawn to more in some ways and Gillen delivers.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: All Ages
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: November 22nf, 2017
MSRP: $3.99
