“Havoc at the Accretion Disco, Part 2”
Creative Staff:
Story: Ethan Sacks
Art: Paolo Villanelli
Colors: Arif Prianto
Letterer: VC’s Travis Lanham
What They Say:
Panic At The Accretion Disco! The bounty hunters are locked in a desperate attempt to escape the pull of a black hole! To make matters worse, the Pykes are out to kill them first! Meanwhile, what will Valance have to sacrifice to serve the Empire?
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.
Similar to past issues, the split story approach is one that generally works well but can suffer when you really have little investment in half the cast. Or the majority of the cast, in this case. T’onga and her crew are definitely hard up for credits so taking a protection mission of a Pyke is definitely hitting rock bottom for them. And it went so badly that their guy got killed anyway – but Tassu of all people – and now it’s a mad dash to try and get off the station and survive. It’s pretty much all action that mixes in some really badly placed emotional beats when it comes to Losha and the death that we saw previously. It works in general with the action but like everything else these days it has to go so big and complicated with a large body count as surviving and escaping means destabilizing the station so it falls into the black hole. That’s a struggle for some of them but others just move right along. At least they save some of the station staff? I mean, it’s an acknowledgment of the second Death Star construction workers problem.
With Valance, things are a bit more interesting even if I think his fooling around with Haydenn is just a dumb subplot even for him. Haydenn’s group is being called to Vader for an assignment and there’s some amusing chatter in there and some real unprofessionalism that’s dumb to watch, but it works. Vader’s as intense as you’d expect but it’s amusing to see how Valance isn’t all that threatened by him. The group gets assigned a protection mission on Bestine as there’s a medical ship that they believe Crimson Dawn will be targeting. Which is how it loops back to T’Onga and the Edgehawk crew as they’re desperate for credits and finally give in to Qi’ra and they take a job from her. Which, of course, is to disrupt the medical ship supply line at Bestine. I don’t mind the obviousness of it all but it comes together pretty quickly here.
In Summary:
This issue also gives a little time to Vukorah as she makes her way back home only to be supplanted by someone else who is acting as a regent of sorts for Cadeliah. That’s dealt with quickly and we see how Vukorah is still grappling with killing the animal creature Losha had and is pained by that. The whole thing isn’t bad per se but it’s just presented in such an awkward and blunt way as to diminish things. It’s just melodramatic in all the wrong ways. The book is again a very busy one with all the action on the station itself but it’s just sound and fury because these still aren’t characters to connect with but just bodies to move things along with. I’m hard-pressed to feel invested in any of them even after all this time. It continues to just be Valance that works for me and he’s being a true dumbass by boinking his superior now. Oof.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 9+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: November 2nd, 2022
MSRP: $3.99
