“Operation: Endor”
Creative Staff:
Story: Jody Houser
Art: Jethro Morales
Colors: Dee Cunniffe
Letterer: VCs Joe Sabino
What They Say:
WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF THE EMPIRE TOOK OVER? As operations begin to take shape on the moon of ENDOR, a technician must figure out how to live under the control of THE EMPIRE. But if he can’t stay out of trouble, what will the Empire do with him? Continuing the 40TH ANNIVERSARY celebration of RETURN OF THE JEDI, JODY HOUSER & JETHRO MORALES pull back the curtain of the Empire like never before!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With some one-shots being released as we close in on the Return of the Jedi period of storytelling, this new one-shot gives us a little time on Endor ahead of the big battle. Jody Houser has written a number of thoroughly engaging Star Wars books over the years and this one does well as it largely works with new characters in a familiar setting with some minor namedrops at best. What we get is fairly self-contained but has you curious with what goes next. Jethro Morales has been a familiar name on the Star Wars books before as well and definitely delivers here with a good look at Endor and some fun with the Imperial side of things – including a look at one of the prisons that lets material from Andor get a new interpretation in comics.
The premise for this takes us to a period before the events of the film, though it doesn’t dial in on exactly when. What we get as the backdrop is that as the Empire continues to cement its power, especially in the face of the Rebellion, it’s taken over more and more companies in order to bring them under Imperial control. One of those is a subspace systems company run by a sixth-generation family. The Grenth company head wasn’t pleased by this but his son, Rilo, is trying to do right by things and has taken on the job to Endor for the Empire because by working for the company, he works for the Empire. Rilo is a bit of an odd duck as presented, a bit nervous and uncertain in general, and especially when being sent with a small selection of troops and others to the moon of Endor to work on the communications system. His nervous oversharing is pretty amusing, especially with the way the stormtroopers essentially either mock him or just play indifferently.
What we see from Rilo is his attempts at fitting in which definitely don’t work when it comes to a military culture and his more easygoing nature and corporate side. Especially family-owned. But we also see how he creates a little chaos with those who give him grief and how he tries to just settle in and down the job and ignore the rest. But that’s not how oppressive systems work and the Empire grinds him down in interesting ways over the course of it, especially with the droid he works with but also just in how he tries to retain parts of himself and what he finds as normalcy. He’s not a great guy or anything from what we see here and he’s just trying to survive in his own way, but he’s also the type that you can imagine not doing too much to help because he brings so much trouble on himself.
In Summary:
I skipped a bunch of the Return of the Jedi books as they came out as I was feeling a bit overloaded but they’re definitely fun one-shots to check out to add some additional color around events and the lead-up to it. Focus on some of what was going on with Endor ahead of the film is definitely fun, especially as it leans into more Andor-like material with how the Empire has taken over businesses and essentially conscripted its employees. It’s a solid book with some great character work from Jody Houser as always. Jethro Morales gives us some of the beauty of Endor itself but also makes clear the oppressive and confining nature of the Empire and its facilities as well. Definitely solidly done and some nice callbacks that work really well for me.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: June 7th, 2023
MSRP: $4.99
