“The Crimson Blade”
Creative Staff:
Story: Charles Soule
Art: Luke Ross
Colors: Neeraj Menon
Letterer: VC’s Travis Lanham
What They Say:
Terrifying, implacable Dark Lord of the Sith DARTH VADER has laid claim to HAN SOLO, who is frozen in carbonite. But the great, exalted JABBA THE HUTT also believes that Solo is his property. It’s the galaxy’s baddest gangster versus the Empire’s most powerful enforcer, and neither is backing down. BOBA FETT is caught between a Sith and a Hutt…and it’s WINNER TAKE ALL.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The nature of crossovers always leads to repetition but it just feels like it’s coming across stronger here in this series with how many scenes are being shown “from a different point of view.” This is fine as that’s a key piece to Star Wars lore, but there are no real discernible differences being shown here. 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.
This installment works a split focus that feels right for what’s going on here, though again, we see some of in other books as well. The main one that’s fully fresh to here is in having Fett being so close to Leia and the others and just trying to keep things from going south with them as he tries to reclaim his prize since it’s been stolen from him and he intends to finish the job. Leia can’t quite grasp this but Lando does, as well as realizing that Fett is trying to keep their fight small and personal without blaster fire to draw attention. Since Chewie is still listening to Leia more than anyone else, he’s easy to get to attack Fett but Fett shows that he’s fought Wookies before and won, which really does little more than set Chewie off even more. A scent that gets picked up later, if briefly, to our amusement. It’s a decent small fight but it shows again how Fett just doesn’t think about these people at all.
The other main focus is on Vader as he has to contend with the Hutt faction over the claim to Solo. Part of this stems from Vader not realizing that the Imperial representative lost in the bidding, which is going to be really painful for him soon. But there’s also the other Hutt that Jabba’s frustrated by who pushes back on Vader with how good the working relationship has been for the past few decades. But Vader makes it clear the view of everything in that it’s all the Emperor’s in the end, and that means he can take anything. That’s one way to foment more animosity toward the Empire and radicalize more people, which Vader doesn’t particularly care about. There’s some solid dialogue here and I like how Vader is almost over the top in his clarity, but also in seeing how Jabba backs down just right to de-escalate the situation, letting it all become about Qi’ra as she makes sure she’s getting paid – something that Vader has no mind for.
In Summary:
The Qi’ra material is interesting but it’s almost context-free here in where she learned to fight and hold her own against a Sith. That’s for a future story to be sure, but it’s just so out of the blue here that I’m not sure how to process it. Vader is impressed for the moment but since she has no Force abilities at all, well, she’s not a real threat. Tie this into how Luke has started to learn about just how little he knows after facing Vader for the first time and Qi’ra is even more of a child in this regard. I like aspects of the fight but it just didn’t connect right overall.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 9+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: August 18th, 2021
MSRP: $3.99
