“The Kezarat Colony”
Creative Staff:
Story: Charles Soule
Art: Andres Genolet
Colors: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles
What They Say:
Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa and an elite crew of Rebel heroes are lost in the farthest reaches of No-Space after a mission gone wrong. A desperate maneuver is their only chance to find a way home – but what will it cost them?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
We’ve had some good stories in this run lately and the previous issue took us to a pretty fun place with a character I really like, bringing in Holdo for more use – even if we’re basically getting a side quest story. With the expectation of big changes going through this year for the comics side of this franchise, we’re inching ever closer to the events of Return of the Jedi. Once again, Charles Soule does a solid job as always but it’s definitely interesting going into this after watching the first half of Andor and wanting to feel more of that kind of property than the kind of lighter touch here. This issue has Andres Genolet on board for the artwork again, and his presence overall works well with it. There’s usually some solid consistency in the Star Wars artists overall for the “house” style that we get and.Genolet gets that easily while still keeping their own particular take on things mixed into it, giving it an appealing look overall.
With the gang being taken aboard the colony, this issue does a whole lot of work to explain what it is and why it’s there. With it being there for a couple of centuries, Captain Blythe is able to dig into the history of it all but I’ll admit it just feels like something to gloss over in general because I can’t imagine it having a long-term impact. Just naming him Captain Blythe was off-putting. I do like that we get some nods that there are things related to the Nihil here which is a good draw to the High Republic stuff and the droids that are out there tearing apart Holdo’s ship. I’m amused at the way that they’re destroying the ship entirely and breaking it down out there but it makes it clear to Leia and the gang that there’s no escape from here, which is why so many have built a life here after they dealt with the threat that existed some time ago. And they deal well with those new arrivals from time to time with a pretty good routine.
Blythe takes them around part of the colony and talks about how they have six months to acclimate before being trusted and we do eventually get them split up. There’s a fun moment where we learn a Jedi was there ages ago and a bit of a prophecy has arisen because of it, but most of what we get are our leading characters are split up for a while and figuring out how to settle into this. Chewie and Lobot are a pretty amusing odd couple while Luke and Leia handle things well, all while Luke is pacing thinking about how to get the Jedi book back from the ship. What amuses me the most is seeing Lando and Holdo together and how Lando’s reputation as a scoundrel when it comes to his gambling skills keep him from feeling like he can change. It’s a good sequence for him in how he’s struggling to be a better person but that it shifts to the two of them getting hot and heavy to kill some time just made me laugh with how perfect it is.
In Summary:
I’m not particularly enthused about this arc because everything is so clear as to what will happen that it’s hard to engage with. You can see the path pretty clearly and enjoy all the little bits with it, which I am such as with the Nihil element. But the general premise just isn’t interesting. The main draw for me at this point is just having more story time with Holdo and the way she operates with Leia and the others as it’s a lot of fun. Especially what we get with Lando here. The book reads well enough and there’s some good detail in there for how the colony comes together to make it engaging for those that want to dig in more. And, as usual, the artwork looks good and captures the look pretty well – though those droids just bother me with how they look.
Grade: B-
Age Rating: 9+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: February 15th, 2023
MSRP: $3.99
