Star Wars #2 The Destiny Path: part II
John Edward Lee
Recap
The Empire has struck back! The Rebellion is scatted and unable to communicate. The rebel crew of the Millennium Falcon finds itself missing a Han and a hand. Luke must deal with recent revelations while Leia struggles with whether or not to trust Lando, who seems to be playing both sides to his own advantage.
Review
The new ongoing series of Star Wars comics leads a slight reset in all Star Wars series from Marvel. Up to this point, most of the original trilogy era comics took place between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. The reset is meant to mark the beginning of story-lines taking place after “Empire.” This is undoubtedly meant to coincide with the film’s fortieth anniversary this year, which will include a multimedia cornucopia of other stories and merchandise inspired by the film throughout 2020. This news series follows the previous one closely, which ended with The Rebel Alliance founding and developing Echo Base on Hoth. This effectively fills in the gap between the first and second films. Presumably, this series will endeavor to do the same between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
Interestingly enough, this ongoing series actually starts out slightly before the end of the movie. The first issue takes place entirely withing the final moments of “Empire,” after Lando saves Luke, but before Luke gets his hand back. This second issue acts more like a bridge between the end of the film and the beginning of this series. It starts with Leia grilling Lando, whom she understandably does not trust. Luke is still awestruck by his encounter with Vader. Lando suggests he go off alone to find information on Boba Fett and his frozen prisoner, Han Solo in a rescue attempt. Leia reluctantly agrees and turns her attention to reconnecting with the lost Alliance. Meanwhile Luke concentrates on healing, while struggling with implications from his encounter with Vader. The events soon jump until after the film, where the series really gets started. Lando goes off on his mission. Leia and the rebels try to figure out how to get in contact with the rest of the Alliance. Luke tries out his new hand, still unnerved by recent events.
All in all, this new series starts out very strong. Jumping off the heels of arguably the best Star Wars film, the story has a lot of potential. Writing duties in all the ongoing titles have sort of been shuffled up with the issue series and numbers being reset. Greg Pak, who was writing the previous Star Wars series, moves to a new Vader series. This leaves Charles Soule in charge of writing this series. Soule has a reputation for amazing Star Wars writing. His Vader work in among the best of all the Star Wars runs since Marvel started producing them again. His work on the Poe Dameron comic was also notable. He is poised to bring a lot of amazing storytelling to this series, whereas the previous one was hit or miss on average. Marvel’s Jesus Siaz is brought on as artist on this series as well. While he has not worked much on the newer Star wars comics, he has had experience doing art for a Dark Horse Star Wars issue years ago when he was first getting noticed for his work. While not as good as Phil Noto at capturing the look of the actors, he still maintains a great character style. His art is colorful, and he has quite a talent for space and starship representation. This is important to giving the issues a film-like quality that is integral to any Star Wars story, let alone its flagship series
Final Thoughts
So far, so good in the new Star Wars arc. A lot of focus on the main characters continues to be the selling point of this series, but with a new feel. It will be rough having no Han for a while, but Lando makes for an entertaining proxy, promising a new dynamic in the crew as a whole.
Star Wars #2 A Darker Time for the Rebellion
- Writing - 7/107/10
- Storyline - 8/108/10
- Art - 7/107/10
- Color - 7/107/10
- Cover Art - 6/106/10
7/10
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