It looks like nobody serves droids in this galaxy.
Creative Staff:
Story: Jason Aaron
Art: Stuart Immonen
Colors: Justin Ponsor
What They Say:
Luke Skywalker- imprisoned! His friends race across the galaxy to save him before he enters…The Arena of Death!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The main Star Wars ongoing series has certainly gotten a breath of fresh air with Immonen’s addition to the creative side. It certainly wasn’t bad before, but the story wasn’t exactly inspiring and it lacked a certain kind of dynamism to bring things to life in a really compelling way. This installment of the arc continues events on the Smuggler’s Moon while mostly keeping Han, Leia and Sana off to the side. That part of the arc continues to be kept minimal from issue to issue and that’s rather welcome as I’m not finding the whole Han’s Wife thing all that engaging – even more so because it is being strung out. There are cute moments here to be sure and we see this group now being shifted towards where Luke is, but it’s taking a lot of time to get wherever it is this story wants to go with a whole lot of repetition.
The two main arcs that play in this issue are pretty closely tied together and are prepared to intersect quickly, along with Leia and Han’s story as well. With word that Luke is in trouble, Chewie and Threepio end up heading there quickly to try and figure out what’s going on. Since it’s Smuggler’s Moon, Chewie fits in well enough and uses Threepio in some fun ways to try and get information. They make for an amusing buddy team as they deal with crafty droids, cantankerous cantina owners and your general scum that exists there. They also make a lot of noise along the way, which attracts some unwanted attention. Initially, this is a bad thing as we get our Jar-Jar knock-off Gungan here, but he’s actually just a tool to lead us to Dengar. Dengar’s always been an intriguing bounty hunter from when I first got my hands on his figure and saw him in Empire, so the chance to expand on him a bit here is welcome. The ties that bind this galaxy.
The main story at the moment though is that of Luke, now captured by Grakkus the Hutt. He’s being put through some basic training to survive in the arena so that he can provide for some good entertainment. With no Jedi having died in the arena, Grakkus knows he can win big with it. The training comes from a hooded Gamemaster that makes it clear that Luke’s only purpose is to die with some flourish. There’s not a lot of expansive nods going on here, but it provides for some compelling material as we see that Luke is woefully unprepared for real combat and has little true Jedi training. Something we already knew already, but it just reinforces it in a good way and makes it clear how much luck and the Force has played in keeping him alive. It’s building towards a decent climax that you can see with everyone else eventually arriving and it has a kind of reverse echo of the start of Return of the Jedi. Suffice to say, you can respect Luke more for his dealings with Jabba after dealing with Grakkus.
In Summary:
This issue feels like it’s almost a transitional issues with the way not a lot happens but a lot of the characters are moved into better places. It has a very smooth feeling to it and Immonen’s artwork elevates it to be sure. There’s a rich darkness and murkiness to Smuggler’s Moon that’s well conveyed here through both of the stories going on and that just adds to the realism of it all. You can easily envision this theatrically. I like the echoes that are in play here because as much as you can read into them they still stand on their own within the context of the events here. They’re not aping it but rather providing a nod and a flow and feel that the films themselves exercised regularly. The big win for me though is the appearance of a favorite bounty hunter that I have hopes will get some regular appearances in the future since there’s always potential there. In the end, a fun book that’s moving towards a good climax, albeit one that just reinforces to Luke that he needs to get himself trained properly and soon.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: All Ages
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: October 7th, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
