“The Terminus Gauntlet: A Desperate Gambit”
Creative Staff:
Story: Ethan Sacks
Art: Paolo Villanelli
Colors: Arif Prianto
Letterer: VC’s Travis Lanham
What They Say:
THE TERMINUS GAUNTLET CONCLUDES! VALANCE finds himself alone and outgunned against the dreaded NEW OHNAKA PIRATE GANG! The lives of the crew of a REBEL transport hang in the balance as he battles against grave odds. And what secret is DENGAR carrying that will upend Valance’s life?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
My trepidation at starting this book at the time of its original release had a lot of factors to it, from then not being keen on Valance as a character and then just all the pandemic-related issues that made me not want to add too much to my plate. I’m enjoying taking it at my own pace a fair bit later and knowing that there’s a lot ahead of me as well. The book comes from writer Ethan Sacks, who worked on the Journey To Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker miniseries, it has a pretty solid feeling overall as we get to see the slow growth and exploration of this fairly complex character and his history. Paolo Villanelli and Arif Prianto are very familiar names within this franchise for the comics and it looks and feels quite good with the variety of characters and some of the seedier aspects of the concept.
My enjoyment of this series continues to really see-saw depending on what it’s doing and this issue proves to be a bit more problematic for me. This mostly comes down to how overstuffed it feels and the lack of time to really focus on any particular character for much time beyond the flashback we get for Valance. That’s interesting to watch as we see how he’s basically being kicked out of the Imperial Navy and not getting any cybernetics, though he does take the time to thank Solo – who can’t understand why he’d stay. There’s an interesting dynamic between the two men over the years because of this and their approach to things, and how Han came so late into believing in a cause, but they’re both sides of a coin and seeing them react to situations works well. And Valance’s past always informs his present and why he does the things he does.
When it comes to the present, it’s just chaos on the rebel ship as they had a traitor in their midst that’s trying to sell codes to the rest of the fleet to the Empire. That has the Ohnaka pirates doing what they can do get to him but now having to contend with Valance having survived and gotten on board. His working with the Rebels is in service of his own goals rather than a cause and it’s fun to watch as they make progress in dealing with the pirates and trying to survive. The time with Dengar adds a new layer to it as Valance discovers a betrayal that he wasn’t aware of which sets him off like a bat out of hell with Dengar as his captive, letting the Rebels deal with the rest. It plays out well and shakes things up in a fun way in the small sense in seeing the Fleet having to deal with something like this that would certainly crop up over the decade or so of fighting at this point.
In Summary:
The book does give us a little time with a few other characters as T’onga works to bring Losha on her side to go after Nakaha’s killers. It’s setup more than anything else and just comes across as a distraction amid all the other things going on in this already overstuffed book, so it doesn’t connect well. The main stuff with Valance in past and present is good and his new-found drive toward some form of revenge will be amusing to watch, especially as we see Dengar just thrown around again and not all that effective. At least there are a few other bounty hunters out there that do seem competent that are closing in on Valance.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 9+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: March 17th, 2021
MSRP: $3.99
