Creative Staff:
Story: Charles Soule
Art: Andres Genolet
Colors: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles
What They Say:
The Rebel Fleet is reunited at last, and Leia Organa, Mon Mothma, and the other Alliance leaders send a strong message to the galaxy that the resistance to Palpatine’s rule remains as strong as ever. Meanwhile, Lady Qi’ra of Crimson Dawn has activated her sleeper agents across the galaxy, instructing them to cause chaos for the Empire by any means necessary!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The series has done some solid work in playing with its sizable cast in engaging ways and this installment again 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 put it in the forefront recently and while both Kes and Shara aren’t quite as prominent here, they are a good part of what’s going on as Leia takes a more central focus in the fight against Zahra. This issue has Andres Genolet on board for the artwork after the previous issue had multiple guest artists as part of the short story format for it. There’s usually some solid consistency in the Star Wars artists overall for the “house” style that we get and.Rosanas gets that easily while still keeping his own particular take on things mixed into it, giving it an appealing look overall.
This issue basically plays out in two halves which is interesting as it’s not been done much in the series. The first half showcases a mission with a good chunk of Rebellion equipment heading to a Core world to perform an attack on a Unity Day parade. With it being broadcast wide on the holonet, it’s pretty effective in showing that the supposedly broken Rebellion is still something to be dealt with and that Zahara didn’t do as much damage as thought. That leads to issues on the Imperial side to be dealt with but for the Rebels, it’s a welcome victory after events stemming from Hoth and more. There’s also a growing belief about Luke happening more and more now and his showing off his lightsaber even a little generates quite the audience. Combined with his growing confidence based on his readings from the book that makes him feel even closer to the Force, we’re seeing things coming together as plans are put into motion for the long haul battle of small but critical victories against a massive opponent.
Of course, the Empire isn’t just going to sit and wait around. This shifts the focus to them well as we go to the Black Site facility codenamed Second Sun, which is as you guess, the second Death Star, where ISB has come to do security checks now that it’s clear the Rebels are definitely a threat. This gives us some time with Moff Jerjerrod as he deals with the ISBM major that is inspecting protocols here, but the real story is with his assistant, Melton, and Melton’s wife Bevelyn. While he’s high-ranked in managing things here, his wife works the docks and we see how secrecy and security works here with many people bringing families there since it’s a once-in and never leave until the job is done thing. But we also see that they’re both part of Qi’ra’s network and like many others have now been activated as Holdo is coordinating with Qi’ra for the Rebellion to begin a wave of acts against the Empire. It sets up some interesting stuff with this storyline and surprisingly engaging characters quickly.
In Summary:
While Genolet’s style definitely fits in with what’s come before, I really like the way he works it so that it’s still quite distinctive. It’s more noticeable when working with core characters but less so with the new ones and that may be why I ended up drawn to the Imperial story more. There’s a lot to like with the look and color design of the book as it captures a really good feeling, especially again on the Imperial side. Soule’s script is pretty good even if I dislike opening it the way he did, but once you get into the energy of it all things click well. The smaller and more personal side of it, such as the Rebel leadership meeting and the time between Melton and Bevelyn all help to seal this as a very human story to connect with. I’m quite excited to see what’s next.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 9+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: August 17th, 2022
MSRP: $3.99