The tide of the war ebbs and flows.
Creative Staff:
Story: Jody Houser
Art: Roge Antonio, Michael Dowling
Colors: Arif Prianto, Lee Roughridge
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
What They Say:
ENTER SHADOW WING! THE EMPIRE’S SALVATION! THE REBELLION’S DOOM! As the war against the REBELLION stretches on, it is the innocent people of the GALACTIC EMPIRE who are most at risk. An elite squadron of TIE fighter pilots is assembled to help protect Imperial interests and hammer the Emperor’s fury down upon the treasonous and violent Rebel Alliance. But how far is this untested team willing to go to preserve law and order? And are the pilots of SHADOW WING as loyal to the Empire as they seem?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The nature of the Star Wars comics have been mildly frustrating at times in that most of them outside of special projects focuses in between ANH and ESB. We’ve gotten other works and Jody Houser has done some great stuff pre-ANH, from Thrawn to Age of Republic. With this series, it serves as a companion piece to a new novel coming out this summer but also looks to stand on its own as well. With this series, she’s paired with the art team of Roge Antonio and Michael Dowling and they gave us something that fits well for an Imperial-focused book with lots of edges and angles that feels crisp and intense. Especially combined with a darker color palette overall from colorists rRianto and Roughridge.
The primary focus is on a group of TIE Fighter pilots known as the Shadow Wing that operates out of the Pursuer Star Destroyer. The team is an interesting mix and match of different types of humans, including two that are a couple, working under Teso Broosh. Broosh has a reputation as something of a monster that sacrifices his own pilots in order to survive himself but one knows that he would not get far in this position in the Empire. The team that he’s working with may be a bit wary of him but they’ve come together very well in their missions so far and in practice, which has them being assigned to something different. While they’ve been focused on taking down Rebels after the Battle of Yavin and events on Hoth, this time they’re being sent out to deal with escort duty as another Star Destroyer at a mining facility needs help.
While the mission itself is intriguing, the draw of the book is in the cast themselves. They’re not heavily identifiable at the moment but we see how some of them phrase things in ways that may give them Rebel leanings. I really like the nod toward how events went down with the Death Star but it’s their commander that really appeals. Nuress is known as “Grandmother” and she comes from the previous war with the Separatists and even calls the Rebels out as Separatists. It’s these little bits of political angles and ways of viewing how each side viewed the other that’s intriguing. It doesn’t reduce what the Stormtroopers or pilots are but it humanizes them a bit and hows the way the propaganda and indoctrination since the end of the Republica has operated – and not always succeeded fully as some still use the old terminology.
In Summary:
Jody Houser has been my favorite writer on the Star Wars books and I’m thrilled to see her on this project. This series puts us in a new time period that has me grateful to get something different in how the characters view events going on and that we get something focused on the Imperial side. We’ve had a few one-shots that have done that but something focusing on this TIE group definitely hits a sweet spot, especially for old fans like myself that used to play the TIE Fighter games that LucasArts put out decades ago. The opening installment is a strong one in introducing us to the core cast and timeline with some solid artwork that definitely “feels” Imperial in all the right ways. With this run set for five issues, there’s plenty of time to flesh things out as it progresses and I’m eager to see what Houser has in store.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: April 17th, 2019
MSRP: $3.99
