“The Hunt for Han Solo”
Creative Staff:
Story: Charles Soule
Art: Ramon Rosanas
Colors: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles
What They Say:
CHEWBACCA has heard from an old friend with intelligence on the location of notorious bounty hunter BOBA FETT, known to be in possession of HAN SOLO.Along with LUKE SKYWALKER, the loyal Wookiee sets off in search of his lost friend, on an adventure to Nar Shadaa… the SMUGGLER’S MOON! But will this mission prevent plucky astromech droid ARTOO DETOO from passing along a crucial message to Luke, one that will affect the fate of the entire Jedi Order…?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With the War of the Bounty Hunters storyline getting underway, there are something like thirty issues in the run across all the main books and specials. This is part of the prelude and is the first issue we’ve had in a couple of months as the series took a mild pause. The main team is back here as well with Charles Soule writing while Ramon Rosanas and Rachelle Rosenberg handles the artwork. Soule continues to be one of my favorite Star Wars comic writers and Rosanas has a great look when it comes to capturing this universe, which Rosenberg’s colors helps to bring in the larger property consistency with. This is a really fun book overall that definitely works thanks to the talent here.
The premise for this part of it is to start drawing the main cast into the war just a bit around the edges. While we see how far Luke’s training has come while practicing while with the fleet, Threepio has come with information that someone like Boba Fett has been found on the Smuggler’s Moon. That has him, R2, and Chewie heading there to check it out with Lando as nobody trusts Lando yet. Their discovery on the moon doesn’t help too much overall as Boba registered as Jango and nobody knows who that is, though they clearly look alike and it’s easy to put in some basic pursuit. The problem is that with them looking for Boba/Jango, the Kanji group perk up at that and start holding Luke and his group accountable for Boba. Luckily, the group stumbled upon Sagwa, a Wookie that Chewie had helped free on Kesel years earlier and he’s all too happy to help.
This provides for a lot of action that plays out with some gunfights and a flight offworld to get away from Kanji. But for me, it’s the smaller details that are nice and some of the teases that we get. Luke’s training at the beginning is definitely showing his progress and skill, especially while using his mechanical hand. We also get the nice tie-in with Sagwa as the Wookie takes the opportunity to join the Rebellion with coming across Chewie like this. But what I really like is the extra bit at the end here where R2 finally tells Luke that while was connected to the Imperial database in the Death Star before, he swiped data that turned out to be a list of places that used to be Jedi temple locations. That gives Luke something to plot going forward and gives us a post-ROTJ storyline as well if the series is going to get to explore there.
In Summary:
While just a light tie-in to the storyline itself, what it does is set us up for what’s to come next in it with the return to the Rebellion while also fleshing out a few more areas to dig into. The time on Smuggler’s Moon is decent and I like the Kanji bit once again because this is an area that really needs to be given a lot more time in general to feel authentic, which can allow for a nice tie-in with The Force Awakens eventually. But I liked the nods to Solo here and just seeing how Luke is growing as someone attuned to the Force and being taught pieces of what it is to be a Jedi.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 9+
Released By: Marvel Comics via | ComiXology | Kindle
Release Date: May 12th, 2021
MSRP: $3.99
