“Trapped on a Star Destroyer”
Creative Staff:
Story: Charles Soule
Art: Marcos Castiello, Ramon Rosanas
Colors: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles
What They Say:
STRANDED ON A STAR DESTROYER! After a mission gone wrong, ace Rebel pilot SHARA BEY (POE DAMERON’S mother) was left for dead aboard the TARKIN’S WILL, a huge Star Destroyer. Shara survived and has been hiding deep inside the massive ship ever since, evading COMMANDER ZAHRA’S notice. But her time is up. Can she live long enough to escape?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With some really good stuff with Luke the last time around, this installment takes us to a storyline that’s been percolating for a bit in the background with the focus on Shara Bey and Kes Dameron. Charles Soule has been working that for a bit and I’ve enjoyed the way these two have been placed into the storyline for a while now in a pre-ROTJ setting so that we have Poe in-continuity. This issue has Marcos Castiello on board again with Ramon Rosanas doing some work as well and this is good. There’s usually some solid consistency in the Star Wars artists overall for the “house” style that we get and Castiello gets that easily while still keeping his own particular take on things mixed into it, giving it an appealing look overall.
While the Shara Bey storyline has been in the background mostly, it moves to the forefront as we see how she’s spent her time on the Star Destroyer Tarkin’s Will. There, she’s managed to survive in the closed-off damaged areas from when it as impacted during the destruction of the Death Star. The ruined areas have air in them and the bodies of those that died as a kind of twisted inspirational memorial for the crew. Zhara’s running a tight ship here and Shara is doing her best to avoid being discovered by acquiring a Stormtrooper outfit and moving about the ship like a ghost when she can. She’s gotten supplies and has sent messages to the Rebellion since, which is now starting to be recognized by the command crew and Zhara herself. That means things are going to get worse for Shara quickly.
And we do see that starting to unfold as her last message gets to Mon Mothma and a separate message for Kes about what she’s doing and how she’s going to escape on her own, knowing sending a rescue is untenable for a lot of reasons. Kes isn’t keen on this and is setting his own off the books mission, as expected, but the majority of the book follows Shara as she details her plan and puts it into action. Having some of the very small mistakes she’s made finally flow upward to the command level at the same time is really nicely done and it culminates in an unfortunate face-to-face battle with Zhara confronting her in the shuttle. It doesn’t conclude here, naturally, but it’s the kind of coincidence that can be frustrating at times and I’m not exactly keen on Zhara’s look here.
In Summary:
I’ve been looking forward to this storyline getting some main focus and attention and Soule doesn’t disappoint here. It’s largely about Shara at this point and seeing her adventure on the Star Destroyer while in hiding is a whole lot of fun. Soule keeps it simple and efficient but with enough fun little bits that give it some good color and trappings, all while setting up for Kes to step in. Castiello and Rosanas have a great looking book overall and I’m definitely enjoying the way all of this unfolded visually, though I wish a bit more had been done to show how disturbing the closed-off sections were like.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 9+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: March 2nd, 2022
MSRP: $3.99
