Lando style.
Creative Staff:
Story: Charles Soule
Art: Jesus Saiz
Colors: Arif Prianto
Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles
What They Say:
Now, after narrowly escaping the dark lord’s clutches, and wounded and reeling from the revelation, Luke, Princess Leia, Lando Calrissian, the Wookiee Chewbacca and the droids C-3PO and R2-D2 must fight their way back to the Rebel Alliance—for the fate of the entire galaxy is at stake! After so many losses is victory still possible? But, what Leia, Luke and their rag tag band of freedom fighters do not realize is that they have only traded one Imperial trap for another! Enter the cunning and vengeful Imperial Commander Zahra, at the helm of the Tarkin’s Will!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening installment of this new series had a lot of ground to cover and things to put into place so that it could move beyond the Empire Strikes Back film. Charles Soule found the right balance and we got a solid looking book thanks to Jesus Saiz’s designs and with the color work from Arif Prianto. Soule’s doing some really good stuff here in expanding the Lando we know from the film side and showing us something new, something expanded from that brief first film appearance to show the bond that exists by the time Return of the Jedi hit. And Saiz has nailed the look for him just right, especially once he’s got the vest thing going here and trying to do his best to be smooth-talking and going after his own interests.
There’s a lot of natural distrust when it comes how Luke, Leia, and Chewie view Lando and Chewie’s got an even longer view of him to associate problematic feelings toward. Lando is doing his smooth-talking well here in trying to get them to realize that he’s got the contacts to be able to hunt up with Boba Fett is and to do so on Tatooine before he gets brought to Jabba the Hutt. He handles Luke’s talk of the planet well by making it clear that Luke should understand how dangerous it is and that his own background will make it easier to do this. Leia’s certainly not trusting but she has other issues to deal with and assigning Chewie to work the mission is the smartest move since it basically makes Lando a passenger. One that Chewie isn’t going to let just walk all over him and try and get away with something.
That storyline plays out well as they hit Tatooine and have to deal with both Imperials and others that think that it’s Han piloting the ship. Lando’s movements through Mos Eisley show him to be right in knowing how to work the people that are there and I like that he’s still looking out for himself, not vested in the Rebellion like he feels at the end of Empire. It’s more honest and paints a picture of this series showing how he finally comes around. At the same time, we get some solid material out of Leia as she has her group of ships to work with in figuring out a way to reconnect the scattered fleet, especially since they realize the Empire has their codes. While it’s a bit of a nudge seeing the Dameron’s there, it’s the kind of connective piece I don’t mind as it works to spread out the connections a bit and they’re not really leaning into it in a really bad way. It also reinforces why in the later films she has a soft spot for the lug that’s really slow on the uptake.
In Summary:
As the series starts to push away more and more from how the film it’s launching from ended, Star Wars will find its feet. One of the big positives of this is that the Land of this time and place is going to get a much-needed expansion and it’s going to be largely new and uncharted territory for a lot of people to sink their teeth into. Soule has the basics down right so far and I like that it doesn’t feel as easy and unearned as the film made it out to be in order to provide an uplifting ending for the wait between films. Especially after such a downer storyline. Saiz’s artwork continues to be solid and I like what he gets to work with here across the board. Plus, the book gives us a little more of a tease of the High Republic era and I continue to hope that all of this is seeding for some larger project.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 9+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: January 29th, 2020
MSRP: $4.99
