It’s all fun and games until someone loses a limb- and given it is the Star Wars universe one can practically set their watch by that happening.
What They Say:
Boba Fett is dead, and whoever hired the hit squad had better run—as fast and as far as possible!
A mysterious avenger is on the trail of Boba Fett’s killers. Connor Freeman—a clone relation to Fett—has been drawn into the whodunit. Freeman, who feels like he could use some protection himself, has been recruited against his will to find and protect a particular bounty hunter on a distant world—in Mandalorian space!
The Review:
Picking up shortly after the last comic left off, the audience discovers that Conner Freeman is alive but isn’t exactly “none the worse for wear” as he wakes in a healing tank with a brand new shiny appendage where a natural appendage one was as a familiar face to franchise fans administers the treatment. Amazingly this fact seems to be completely ignored by Conner as he confronts his “savior,” the man in the Stormtrooper uniform who rushed into his bar and got him out just before it was demolished. Conner though has little love for his rescuer as having quickly put the pieces together he has figured out the man’s identity- and that knowledge leaves Conner in a less than gracious mood given how that man got Conner into his present situation.
After taking leave of the good (?) doctor who helped save him, Conner and his rescuer have a talk on the rescuer’s ship which revolves around the mysterious person’s identity, and turns out to be the same person who has been tracking down those said to have killed Fett. That this is the same person whose theft and use of Conner’s identity tags is the reason that Conner was dragged into the mess isn’t lost on the youth but amazingly he manages to move past that with surprising ease and little emotion as he listens to the tale that is woven as to events that lead up to the broadcast showing the death of Fett. Despite this, neither the mysterious person nor Conner’s work can be considered done as there are still conspirators to be tracked down and Conner is still a prime target of them. As the mysterious person continues on his bloody hunt he gives Conner a very special assignment in part out of concern by the masked man for Conner and in part out of concern for someone else, though Conner may discover this new assignment may be more dangerous than the events he barely managed to escape from just a short time before.
With the arrival of the second issue the story takes a major change of pace and it isn’t necessarily one for the better. Events play out like a fighter who just unleashed a strong volley of offence in the previous round and who is now doing a whole lot less in terms of action and instead is trying to just make it through a period of fatigue until he catches his second wind. Similarly the comic plays out along these lines as outside of discovering what went on just prior to the events that showed Fett being killed in the first comic there is a lot of water treading here as there is almost no progress made in getting further into the conspiracy behind those events or in moving the story forward beyond getting the protagonist and Conner to their new positions on the chess board that is the tale.
Most of this comic is spent in exposition explaining that which the reader likely could have guessed (though there is a moment that shows just how it was that Fett was bagged that frankly is spectacularly cliché and amazingly, as well as somewhat disappointingly, dull considering some of the work the author put in to developing the story in other parts) and which likely could have been summed up in a quarter- or less- of the time it uses rather than taking up as much space in the pages as it does. In some ways it feels like even the author is aware of this shortcoming as he throws out a bone to readers both casual and much more fanatical with a number of guest appearances from a face fans of A New Hope can’t forget to a character who I had forgotten in the long period since I first read a comic with her in it but whose role will likely be greatly expanded in the final two tales.
Even the action portion that happens near the end suffers as it comes off a bit rushed and the audience is left guessing as to why events are occurring the way they are as there is no longer a practical narrative device to use so things just sort of flounder as the audience is left to assume the reason for certain events.
Honestly this comic sums up the kind of thing I hate most when it comes to multipart tales as it doesn’t stand on its own and it feels like filler used simply to get from point A to B that lacks the courtesy to truncate the path and get on with things quicker so that the reader can feel they got the most for their money and which is cynically designed to fill out enough pages to make an adequate sized trade for the eventual release in that format. The problem is it has me walking away shaking my head and feeling rather dispirited when it comes to contemplating the worth of this issue and its shortcomings rather than leaving me looking forward to the events that both Conner and his “friend” will be facing next. I can’t help feeling a bit robbed as the story shouldn’t have me feeling like this as there are still mysteries to be solved but the combination of Conner’s (far too in my opinion) casual attitude and the slow crawl of the reveal behind events in this comic creates for a second act that just deflates the tension the first act strove to create and now I’m left wondering if the next issue is really worth trying to get or if I am going to be facing yet another let down until the final act forces the hand of events.
In Summary:
The second act in the tale of the Death of Boba Fett provides some of the answers to events that took place in the first but does so at a languishingly slow pace. With unsurprising reveals and an explanation to a mystery that is rather mundane at best the comic attempts to bridge the frenetic events of the first comic to the path that it will take to the conclusion and it does so in a pedestrian fashion that fails to capitalize on much of the promise in the first book. The ride is still pretty thanks to the art but the predictability and somewhat boring revelations may lure the reader into a sleep like state which even the author seems to recognize as he uses an early cameo to try to catch the reader’s attention. Unfortunately the events here feel dragged out like they are meant for the inevitable trade and worse they almost feel predictable. Given the set up in the first comic it is likely that things will step back into swing in the third issue but this issue is probably going to be one where the reader feels a bit cheated out of their money and time when weighing this chapter by itself.
Grade: C
