Still not playing well with others.
Creative Staff:
Story: Robbie Thompson
Art: Leonard Kirk
Colors: Arif Prianto
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
What They Say:
THE HUNTER AND THE HUNTED! After spending a night in the brig, HAN SOLO is given one last shot at flight school… Will Han be top gun, or will he crash and burn? Crash and burn if one of his top competitors gets his way! This mysterious rival is ripped from the pages of CLASSIC STAR WARS COMICS!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening installment of the Imperial Cadet series didn’t click in a big way with me that left me somewhat frustrated. I quite enjoyed the film and being able to explore Han’s time at the Academy is something I wanted to see. Robbie Thompson moved us through some areas of it too quickly for my taste, feeling just as haphazard as the film was at the start before it settled down, and I’ll admit to not being much of a Leonard Kirk fan over the years. He’s got a good sense of flow with the layouts and his character designs are solid but I don’t think it’s a fit for a series like this as I just don’t get the sense that he’s captured Han right. The plus side is that the fighter material is solid with some great TIE action that helps to smooth things over.
With his crazy attempt the last time around landing him in prison we see that he’s been having a rough two weeks in solitary at the start here. He’s slotted for termination but the commander sees himself in Han and the potential of what he can be if he can just learn to start playing with others. This, simply put, is not Han at this stage of his life as all he wants to do is fly. And the Academy, being a flight school, isn’t always about that. He struggles with the interpersonal with lots of fights brewing but he also pushes against the instructors in ways that should get him booted easily considering how the Empire wants its forces to work. But that potential is something that keeps him in and when we do see him flying out there in the TIE, well, you can understand it. There’s a lot of skill and ingenuity at work in how he handles it compared to almost everyone else.
This issue gives the group that he’s in an assignment test that has them working in pairs, breaking up traditional groups that have gravitated for a while. That rankles Han in general but he’s also just thrilled to fly. What makes this sequence fun is that things go wrong during it and while he should be focused on the mission proper he’s more interested in helping his fellow pilots survive. Something that his paired member doesn’t have an interest in as he just wants the win. So it’s definitely fun seeing the creative way that Han works handling both problems while treating helping out the injured friend that’s going to crash, keeping his real focus on that but doing enough to keep the partner off his back. It’s a great sequence visually as it unfolds with the ships and the tension but the character artwork just takes me out of it regularly.
In Summary:
While I’ve read a number of Han books over the years and enjoyed the film, the Imperial Cadet series continues to be something of a struggle. It has some good ideas but falters somewhat in overall pacing and giving me a lead to connect with, which is a mixture of both story issues and artwork issues. There’s enough to keep me interested and enjoying the book with what it does but there’s enough to leave me frustrated with it and the potential that it could exploit with a different storyline and path through this part of his life. I’m curious to see where else it will go before it ends up dumping him in the infantry as we saw in the film.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: December 12th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
