Mon Cala is no more!
Creative Staff:
Story: Charles Soule
Art: Giuseppe Camanucoli, Daniele Orlandini
Colors: David Curiel
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
What They Say:
As the remnants of the Mon Cala resistance crumble into the seas, Vader and his Inquisitors finally confront the Jedi survivor at its core. The seas will weep…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The end of any arc is going to be pretty busy but Charles Soule has shown how well he can handle that. It’s not the cleanest of wrap up moments but it ties well to what we’ve seen in the future through the main Star Wars series and there’s a neat prophetic element to this as well. As we’ve seen with past issues, Gamanucoli and Orlandini continue to deliver a great looking book and I’m glad they got to engage with more aliens this time around which provides for a neat range of facial expressions to work with. This team has been firing on all cylinders for a while and it shines through here once again, making it a great read.
There are the obvious moments of what’s going to happen here because of the other arc but watching as Vader ensures that things come to a close with the king in hand works well. Tarkin is intent on showing just how in control he is and brutalizes the planet and its population to ensure compliance, which is tragic in so many ways. The choices that the king must make here are difficult because it comes down to subservience in order to survive while Raddus escapes with a couple of ships, allowing him to be a thorn in the Empire’s side for a couple of decades to come. The crushing of a world is something that’s been dealt with in the novels before while the films have essentially given us a “how things are” approach, but seeing the two ends of this arc has worked well.
The subplot material is a lot of fun and adds some wrinkles to events that I hope Soule gets to tug on more. Barr’s method of escape with Verla was definitely creative in redirecting the clone troopers after the Inquisitors. It gives him the out to escape, sending Verla off on a different mission while he goes to confront Vader. The Inquisitors have some amusing cutthroat moments here but it’s Barr’s larger goals that have me intrigued as he talks of seeing the importance of the Mon Cala not just in the years to come against the Empire but in the decades to come as well. We’ve seen varying levels of how seeing into the future works for the Jedi through the Force but the idea of Barr seeing himself in the key role of putting the Mon Cala in the right place for the future by having billions killed in the here and now is a brutal one. The idea of sacrificing billions to save trillions is just a thing of scale but one that it becomes hard to imagine a full and traditional Jedi would accede to.
In Summary:
I enjoyed this arc overall, more so than the main series in the post-ANH period, as it delved into some good stuff in seeing how brutal Tarkin is and dabbling with the Inquisitors and the Order 66 element well. The focus on subjugating Mon Cala definitely hits a sweet spot in seeing as it’s something that the novels have shown being done across numerous worlds across the mid rim and more but hasn’t been a big part of the comics yet. Charles Soule teases some neat stuff through Barr as well that has me intrigued and hopeful for some follow-up through Verla at some point unless it’s meant to become a dangling dead end. Good stuff all around and I’m excited to re-read in one sitting in the near future to see if it flows even better.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: June 13th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
