“Dead or Alive, Part 1”
Creative Staff:
Story: Marc Guggenheim
Art: David Messina
Colors: Alex Sinclair
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
What They Say:
Chewie is held captive on the prison planet of Gulhadar! And you’ll never believe who his cellmate is. None other than Maz Kanata! And whatever happened to the Millennium Falcon?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With a decent run of issues so far that hasn’t quite hit its stride or found the right tone yet, it’s definitely been fun but kind of inessential in a way. Which is fine because sometimes you just want to have adventures with characters you like, which is why I had tons of Han and Chewie stories as a kid with my action figures. Marc Guggenheim may not have cracked the code but he has loosened it up significantly where there’s a good feel to this that comes across as pre-ANH Han Solo. Here, he’s joined by David Messina on the art duties and we get a solid piece that captures the Star Wars design and aesthetic and is trying to bring in some of that youthful Solo that predates Ford’s ANH period. He was leading man material then but was over a decade older than the other two main leads. Trying to find that balance isn’t easy but I think Messina has captured it, and that really is half the battle here.
With this issue, things are moving along well enough but it’s definitely an issue that will read better closer to reading the previous one as there’s a lot going on and a lot of characters that we’re just not that connected with. The fun focus is on Chewbacca as he’s in prison on Gulhadar after what happened previously and that has plenty of others trying to gain some cred by taking him down. He ends up befriending Maz Kanata, which ties us to The Force Awakens nicely, and she’s intent on riding with him to get out. Which is going to be helped by a young woman that’s older than she seems named Phaedra. She’s got the plan and needs someone like these two so she’s clearly not to be trusted. Chewy’s not making out well in general either as he finally gets sentenced since he can’t be extradited back to his homeworld and he’s set for a hundred-year sentence.
While we get a bit at the end that shows us what’s happening to Han since he’s thought to be dead, the bulk of the issue focuses on the attempt to recapture the Falcon but fake-dad Corbus and the team that Khel Tanna has. It’s one that plays out well with them trying to get it out of an Imperial impound which has a couple of them donning Imperial uniforms for a bit to get inside. It’s kind of chaotic and has a sense of fun about it but since it’s been a couple of months since the previous issue I barely remembered who any of these people are. The action scenes do play well and there’s a kind of easy and loose distance approach you can take so it’s amusing to see how the gig goes in trying to get that urn only to be left screwed over once more.
In Summary:
There’s enough decent stuff here to carry it through but there’s not enough to really hook me into things here. I do like getting a little time with Maz and seeing her with Chewie as that sets up something that spans the decades and the prison stuff is kind of basic but workable. The main thing is that Han is out of the picture for almost the entire issue and we’re left with a lot of characters that we barely have a connection with running a job to steal the Falcon from Imperials. It works but it doesn’t resonate well and left me just kind of meh.
Grade: B-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: September 28th, 2022
MSRP: 3.99
