Star Wars #12: Rebel Interlude

A lot of the time it is pretty exciting to get a never-slows-down, action packed, explosion filled story arc that builds itself up to some impressive grand ending. This is not that series. That’s more a Doctor Aphra kind of series. However that is in no way an insult to the current Star Wars series. The latest issue is a self contained laid back break before gearing up for this arc’s conclusion. After a previous chapter of intense space battles and close calls, this issue serves to cleanse the palate before moving on to bigger things. It does this by focusing on Leia and Kes telling stories about Han and Shara. Kes tells a story about how he and Shara met and Leia tells a story about Han on Hoth. The purpose for these characters’ conversation stems from a mixture of worry and hope. This issue slows down from the overall series to stop and humanize these two. What it ultimately accomplishes for both the characters and the audience is to relay a feeling of hope and confidence that everything will be okay.

One of the things that has been sorely missed in this series is Han Solo. This series picked up right after the events of The Empire Strike Back, so Han has been elsewhere encased in carbonite the whole time. This issue takes an opportunity to correct that with Leia’s story of him on Hoth. The audience gets a little reminder of the hero they know, but they also get to see it through the eyes of someone who adores and respects him, despite all the fighting they did. Kes’s story is important as well. For fans, most know Kes Dameron and Shara Bey as Poe Dameron’s parents. They have been in a couple series before this as members of the Rebellion, but they have both been particularly ever present in this one. Kes’s story tells of how they met when Shara was a racer years prior. It’s not the most fascinating story, but it is sweet and marks both characters as being more then just rebel fighters or parents of future heroes. Of course Kes, being the proud family man he is, can’t help but gush about his baby boy Poe either.

This was not at all a visually stunning issue. It barely moved the overall plot along that much. There was very little action. Yet somehow this chapter was a nice change of pace for not only this story arc, but the overall series as well. It seems extra appropriate for this to fall on issue 12, as it marks a year’s worth of issue for the series. It is almost as if the plot gets to take a little rest now. There was no schemes from Lando, or Jedi artifact missions from Luke, no over explanations from Threepio. It was just two war comrades telling tales between battles. Soule and his team did a great job slowing this one down without making it boring or feeling like filler in any way. It felt very much like a calm cup of coffee before a big battle. The creative crew has already put a lot of impressive content in this arc already, so they could absolutely afford this interlude between battles to flesh out Leia, Han, Kes and Shara as more sympathetic characters.