“Family Matters: Good Times”
Creative Staff:
Story: Justina Ireland
Art: Pere Perez
Colors: Dono Sanchez-Almara
Letterer: VC’s Travis Lanham
What They Say:
PARTY CRASHERS! Sana has just run into one of the roughest bounty hunters in the galaxy: DEVA LOMPOP! But what does she want with Sana? And why is Sana on a RANCOR?!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The addition of Sana Starros originally was something that I don’t think was done well by making her Han’s first wife, but they’ve been separate from that for so long now that it’s barely a footnote at this point. Justina Ireland has definitely done a solid job in giving us a character here that’s not reliant on what came before too much, which isn’t a surprise considering not just her work in the Star Wars novels world but novels in general. The opening installments did the heavy lifting all while it managed to keep it moving in a breezy kind of Star Wars way. And having Pere Perez on board with the artwork definitely is a plus as they’re familiar with the style of the books and is able to create some interesting new areas and characters along the way, especially with Jay David Ramos handling the colors.
With things starting to firm up with what’s going on the last time around with the data that was hidden some time ago having been taken, we see how Mevera is working to get more help to deal with the situation, which brings us to Deva Lampop. It’s all big and interesting to Sana as they go through this but she’s completely out when she discovers that Phel is the reason behind it, and she wants nothing to do with the brother that’s always causing the problems. Amusingly, it’s Deva who gets her back on the train a bit to help with this after Sana almost has a fling with Lanitra, who is joining in the operation as well, as the intent is to do a job that will get Deva what she needs to help Mevera. It’s a bit of complicated criminal slash family slash syndicate wrangling that you’d expect but it’s delivered well once you take it all in.
The job, however, is definitely far more amusing and a nice mid-series touch as they’re basically going to steal a Rancor for someone. Not a child or a full-grown one, but a good-sized one. One that requires Sana to essentially ride it while wearing its scent in order to keep it docile enough when necessary. It’s a lot of big chaos and fun as they break it out of what’s basically a zoo and it’s an enjoyable romp. While this plays out, we also see how Aryssha is handling things with her Imperial husband in trying to get him where they need to be while also trying to discern more of what’s up with the stolen material. This ties us back to the bigger problem now taking shape with Phel being involved and discovering that he’s working directly with her husband and it adds to the larger complications. But it’s decent to see how Aryssha has more on her plate now than lightly spying and managing her husband ad someone that’s quite well-known to her is now a real danger to her.
In Summary:
The third installment delivers some good fun that feels right after getting to know more of the family in the first two and spending more time with Sana. You get clearly why she’s frustrated by the deceptions going on, which she knew was happening on some level, and is frustrated with how she gets drawn back into it but can’t turn away. There’s a lot of fun action that avoids being silly even while dealing with Rancor urine so I’m fairly impressed. The artwork continues to be solid throughout it and the character dynamics work well. The subplot with Aryssha definitely has me wanting to see more there but also to see what she was like pre-pregnancy as well with what kind of shenanigans she’d get up to. Definitely a fun and easy read to enjoy.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: April 19th, 2023
MSRP: $3.99
