“Havoc at the Accretion Disco, Part 1”
Creative Staff:
Story: Ethan Sacks
Art: Paolo Villanelli
Colors: Arif Prianto
Letterer: VC’s Travis Lanham
What They Say:
A deadly mission on the edge of a black hole! Desperate for credits, T’onga and the bounty hunters take a dangerous job for the Pykes. Is Tasu Leech ready to take on…the Kanjiklub? Valance makes a decision that will change everything…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
My hesitance at the start of this series at the time of its original release is still there because something about it more often than not just doesn’t click. Certain elements work, especially when focused on Valance, but the variety of the cast and the bounty hunters themselves aren’t as compelling as you’d hope. 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 and 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. With this issue, 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 a lot of things behind us, we’re still in a bit of a weird place overall with the book as part of the larger storyline is just kicking around in the background off-page. What we get are two very different stories and I struggle to be interested in one of them. The time with Valance is interesting as we see him struggling with being in Vader’s service and working for the Empire again. Especially when it comes with praise from people that just bother him in a big way. The nod to Hoth is, admittedly, cute though. It’s also a useful discussion for Valance because it reminds him to use what’s in front of him and take advantage of it and that has him basically throwing himself at the woman who was hitting on him before. It’s obviously part of his simple plot to escape all of this in some form but at the same time you kind of just want to see Valance find something good in his life. Even if it’s the cute redheaded Imperial officer in the bar.
The other side of the book with all the bounty hunters are dealing with the fallout from the Crimson Dawn storyline. Since they’re pretty much broke, we get T’Onga having to take on the job of protecting a Pyke gangster at a big celebration bash they’re throwing at an event location at the edge of an accretion disc. It’s all very visually interesting and fun but it’s mostly just putting her and her team in a bad spot and doing their best to not give in and work for Crimson Dawn. There’s some good action here with an assassination attempt on the Pyke and it sets up a bad end in the final pages, but the smaller character material was more interesting with Losha struggling after losing the Nexu and T’Onga trying to get her to realize she’s not alone. I still don’t care for most of the crew here and the disconnect in stories has it just feel like wheel-spinning while waiting for Valance’s story to start moving forward again.
In Summary:
The Bounty Hunters book continues to have some good sequences to it and it definitely delivers in a kind of classic Star Wars action aspect. The time spent with T’Onga and her crew feeds into that well and it’s certainly straightforward with what it does and scratches that particular itch. I just don’t care for the characters themselves all that much. Valance’s story is just awkward with him making a move on his superior but it at least has some amusing stuff with him trying to get drunk but failing and having to deal with an Imperial who thinks that they’re alike and tries to bond with him. It’s the small stuff that delivers.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 9+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: September 14th, 2022
MSRP: $4.99
