Trust in the music.
Creative Staff:
Story: Daniel Jose Older
Art: Paul Fry
Colorist: Carlos Lopez
Letterer: VCs Travis Lanham
What They Say:
WHO IS PLOTTING TO KILL JABBA THE HUTT? Wait…someone ELSE is plotting to kill one of the galaxy’s most infamous gangsters? YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT! When you’re JABBA THE HUTT, you make a lot of enemies…and sometimes, they’re even under your employ! MAX REBO and the band have their own plans on how to deal with a mobster like Jabba… This issue bookends our JABBA”S PALACE one-shot and leads directly into the RETURN OF THE JEDI film!
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 Tatooine before things get serious in terms of what the film covers. It’s written by Daniel Jose Older as it covers a pretty good tale that deals with some last-minute threats before the events that we all know so well. It has an interesting flavor to it in a post-Andor world as well. On the art side, we get a solid artist with Paul Fry that’s working on it and Carlos Lopez takes the extra step further with in binding it all together. There may be a few panels here and there were things are just a bit weaker but by and large there’s a lot to like here overall.
The focus on Max Rebo is always going to be awkward because sometimes there are some characters where you think it’s best to just not do anything with them beyond what’s in the film. Here, we get this story playing out as the Tatooine part of the movie unfolds as two of Rebo’s bandmates, who have complicated backstory thanks to their clan being indentured servants of the Hutts, are given the assignment of assassinating Jabba. Well, only one of them but he opened the message in front of his cousin so now one is dead set on protecting Jabba and the other is trying to complete his mission. This is a big problem for Rebo because things are already dangerous in the palace and assassination attempts are getting more frequent.
The story unfolds with this as the impetus and we see Rebo observing events that are going on, from the dancer that’s sacrificed to the Rancor to the big explosion at the end on Jabba’s barge after Leia kills him, saving the assassin from having to complete his mission. There are fun moments in-between – though Han looking like Nixon isn’t great – but getting this from the shadows view of events is fun and getting to explore more of this clan and their story is engaging enough. But it is all foreordained in a way since nothing here is challenging the film but I liked getting part of Rebo’s backstory and how death has been a part of this gig for so long, going back to some pretty bleak stuff years earlier on the smuggler’s moon.
In Summary:
I won’t say I went in with high expectations here or low expectations as I’ve mostly enjoyed the other stories in this batch of one-shots. That said, it’s one of the weaker ones but it avoids leaning too hard into what it wants to do here with Rebo’s past, the music, and so forth. It works well by going as another point of view piece to events of the film more than anything else and it’s almost cute and charming more often than not. It’s got a good flow and reads well with largely fun artwork that digs into some of the smaller issues that exist in Jabba’s palace. It’s more fun than I thought it would be but is still going to be one of the more forgettable pieces as even though Rebo is narrating it he feels like a secondary character at best in it.
Grade: B-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: August 9th, 2023
MSRP: $4.99
