The start of a great weekend!
Creative Staff:
Story: Kieron Gillen
Art: Marco Checchetto
Colors: Andres Mossa
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
What They Say:
“THE SCREAMING CITADEL” — PART 1 Rebel pilot and rogue archaeologist wander side by side into the darkest shadows of the galaxy as Luke Skywalker reluctantly teams up with Doctor Aphra! The Doctor makes Luke an offer he can’t afford to pass up…one that leads him to a very rare gathering at the heart of the infamous Screaming Citadel. Will Luke find what he’s looking for? Can Aphra be trusted? Or will they both wind up victims of the Citadel’s Queen?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With a couple of crossover pieces previously and a decent sized event within a couple of books, Marvel has worked things well with a certain synergy between the main titles. With Doctor Aphra getting her own title, it made sense to spend a little crossover time there. Typically, I’m not a fan of these things since they’ve been a part of comics for too many decades at this point, but in the smaller style of storytelling that the Star Wars books offer it works out well as it’s not sprawling and endless. It also doesn’t hurt that the introductory chapter is written by Kieron Gillen, who co-plotted it with Jason Aaron who is writing some of the other installments. The biggest factor here? Well, Gillen is certainly close to the biggest but getting a new book full of Marco Checchetto artwork in this franchise where he gets to be creative is totally up my alley.
Setting itself as the launch phase for things, we’re in that interesting place where Luke is really feeling the need and urgency to know more to get on his path to being a Jedi. That has him kind of out of sorts in a way, hence ending up on a backwater world where Aphra hunts him up after calling in a favor from Sana. Strange bedfellows, indeed. Aphra’s recent adventure in her main book wasn’t completely compelling as she worked with her father to find the Ordu sect, an ancient splinter Jedi faction, but it did result in her gaining a crystal that’s essentially an artificial intelligence ancient Jedi master. She wants the knowledge that comes with it as it can help her in her field but she also needs a way to get it open. Luke isn’t that way directly, at least not at the moment, but rather an in to see the Queen of K’tath’tan, who resides in the far outer rim and only sees interesting people once a year. She may offer the path and Luke is certainly unique and interesting in this galaxy at the moment.
Gillen and Checchetto get to introduce us to this world and it’s one that definitely works in a way that we saw in some of the Darth Vader books. It’s not like other worlds and feels distinct, like so many worlds should in this galaxy. The gothic flair combined with the oppressive color palette broken up by the strikingly vibrant reds and blacks of the Queen makes it eye-catching and enticing. The visuals for this are fantastic and it draws you in, especially in getting Luke all dolled up for a bit as well. But what carries it forward and makes it enjoyable beyond that is the banter between Luke and Aphra and as he gets to know her team a bit better considering their last encounter. It has an organic flow about it as he gets drawn into this, even if it does seem like an easy way to advance quickly if it pays off, because both of them are being pretty honest about what they want here and are willing to go the distance because of the greatness of the need.
In Summary:
While not a big action opener, for which I’m grateful, Screaming Citadel puts a lot of things into motion well. The queen and how she operates is familiar but intriguing, I loved the banter between Luke and Aphra’s crew – especially the droids, and just getting to see this kind of dynamic play out with Luke coming across so differently, almost teenage-morose, fits so right after all that has gone down. Kieron Gillen provides plenty of light moments and some real fun with a bar fight and a few other nods while Marco Checchetto simply delivers in spades panel after panel with a beautiful looking book. It’s everything that I had hoped for and is easily worth the price of admission to soak it up and wonder where it’ll go next.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: May 10th, 2017
MSRP: $4.99
