“Showdown on Smuggler’s Moon”
Creative Staff:
Story: Ethan Sacks
Art: Paolo Villanelli
Colors: Arif Prianto
Letterer: VC’s Travis Lanham
What They Say:
Cover by Giuseppe Camuncoli. THE WOOKIEE ALWAYS WINS! Hot on the trail of BOBA FETT, VALANCE, and DENGAR run into a rather large obstacle-the mighty CHEWBACCA! Will T’ONGA escape the trap set by a mysterious organization out to upend the underworld? And who is the figure in the shadows hunting them all?!
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 is now leaning into the first crossover storyline with all the other books and it was a crossover that didn’t work that well for me in the end. Most Star Wars crossover events just never seem to click for me anyway. That said, 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.
With Valance and Dengar having made their way down to the surface after the battle above with the other bounty hunters, things are not going too well for them here either. Valance is just so focused on helping Han and doing so quickly that he’s making a lot of mistakes. When Dengar is about to introduce him to a contact he has here and delicacy is required, that just has Valance punching the crap out of him. Valance is the bull in a china shop in a lot of this issue and it just keeps going and going, which is amusing to watch with Dengar’s reactions because he’s made the deal to work with him but Valance isn’t listening at all. And it’s just putting Dengar in more and more danger. The absurdity of it works but it’s also frustrating because Valance has shown some semblance of smarts before and some caution in how he approaches the things he has to do. This just highlights the intensity of what he’s trying to accomplish but it’s not working out well for him at least.
The book spends some time with some of the other things and players going on in this story but that’s pretty meaningless at this point and knowing where it all goes it just doesn’t come across well here. I did like that Valance essentially runs into Chewie and Threepio and Chewie is ready to kill him for what happened in the past. He certainly doesn’t believe that Valance is trying to help and after being burned by Lando there’s a lot of distrust to go around. I do like that Valance is able to basically plead pretty well with him and get Chewie to at least not kill him so there’s that going for him. Threepio handles the situation well but it’s enjoyable to see how everyone around this situation just kind of rolls with it while trying to stay alive.
In Summary:
With the teases of Crimson Dawn in the background that does not pan out well in the long run, the War crossover element isn’t too deep here and it’s easy to ignore. The main focus on Valance and what’s trying to achieve is all forward momentum but it’s just disastrous forward momentum for everyone involved. You want to smack him to stop being so foolish and really think through what he’s doing. Sacks has some good scenes for the characters throughout and the artwork is pretty great once again as it captures the energy of the action just right. It’s a bit better than some of the other recent issues that have felt more like wheel-spinning to get to this point and this crossover.
Grade: B-
Age Rating: 9+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: April 19th, 2021
MSRP: $3.99
