“Most Wanted”
Creative Staff:
Story: Charles Soule
Art: Luke Ross
Colors: Neeraj Menon
Letterer: VC’s Travis Lanham
What They Say:
Nobody. Steals. From BOBA FETT! The notorious bounty hunter will not stop until he gets what’s rightfully his. For the thief, no corner of the galaxy is safe. Good thing for them that the REBEL ALLIANCE, THE EMPIRE and every bounty hunter in the galaxy is standing in Boba’s way. With a last-page reveal that will blow this Death Star–sized story wide open, Issue #1 is just the beginning.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With some prelude material already laid out and the ramifications starting to fall into place, the first formal issue of the miniseries hits and gets things moving in a big way. Charles Soule is orchestrating the overall picture here it seems and he’s got a solid hand when it comes to giving us Fett that makes it easy to view this character knowing what his post-ROTJ future is like. Luke Ross has also delighted me with a lot of his Star Wars work so getting him to handle this part of the run definitely makes for a great installment, especially with lesser-known characters being used and an update of another. Ross knows how to make this feel like Star Wars and delivers completely here.
With this part of the story after the prelude, we get Fett trying to figure out who it is that’s taken Solo from him. He’s going through some of the familiar places to get information on the friendly side first since it’s the quickest thing to do. The problem is that a general hit that’s open to anyone has been put on Fett now and that has everyone looking to get a shot at him. We see some young guns trying their luck only to fail but them we also get 4-Lom and Zuckuss making a bigger play at it. I loved these figures as a kid and am delighted both get time here. The fight between them plays well and shows Fett’s confidence in dealing with most anything thrown his way and that informs some of what we know of him later as well. He’s seen a lot, faced a lot, and gone through a lot just to get Solo alone, never mind his career as a whole.
The path takes Fett back to Tatooine as he discovers that it’s Jabba that’s placed the open hit on him, but mostly because he’s about to acquire Solo through the party that has stolen him from Fett. There’s an intriguing bit that we get with the Hutt’s during one of the holo conversations that has the whole how gangsters conduct business element. But what I liked is that we learn how Crimson Dawn is coming back and that since this is after Maul’s death against Obi-Wan on Tatooine, it’s pretty obvious that Qi’ra is the one that’s in control. The group is one that faded into the background for quite a few years it seems and I hope that we get a good exploration in broad strokes what happened because I’m still hoping for more of that story to be actually filmed in some form.
In Summary:
While I’m still somewhat wary about the breadth of this crossover as it hits all the Marvel things I dislike about their superhero crossovers, I’m enjoying the core books so far with what they’re doing for the most part. This first formal part is one that makes it feel like it has a real idea of what it wants to do and it can help set up some interesting things post-ROTJ as well with how the underworld works and what goes down on Tatooine, for example. Soule continues to be one of my favorite Star Wars writers and his being paired with Luke Ross only makes it sweet. Definitely looking forward to more of this core run of books.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 9+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: June 2nd, 2021
MSRP: $3.99
