Star Wars #23: Zahra’s Final Attack

It feels like this entire series has been leading up to this point, the seemingly final showdown between an imperial strategical genius and the warrior princess from a dead world. The stage has been set and the players are in place. This issue is the stuff of epic space battle legend. Things get fast paced and pretty serious pretty quick in a way lost on “Star Wars” novels. It is very hard to describe space battles, but with a comic book it is a perfect medium for it and this issue is a perfect example of that. The ships are drawn faithfully to film versions in great detail. It gives the impression of actually watching a space battle in a show or cartoon. On top of the great starship maneuvering, there is plenty of action aboard Zahra’s Star Destroyer, Tarkin’s Will. The rebels on board play out their unapproved mission with plenty of great shootouts and sabotage moments to keep things exciting inside Tarkin’s Will as well as outside it. A neat touch to this issue is that almost everything happen just outside Tarkin’s Will or within it. There is almost no portrayal of characters or dialog outside the ship.

This issue also has something ever great space battle needs, and that is a gloating villain. Zahra takes center stage in this chapter as she spills out her plan to destroy the Alliance in real time to it playing out, predicting every move the rebels make. Her devotion to the Empire is only secondary to her devotion to her hero, Moff Tarkin. Her boiling hatred for the Rebellion that destroyed him has honed her into a formidable enemy. She even postures as Vader would at moments throughout the issue, proving she has the feel of a legit Imperial commander. The cat and mouse play between her and Leia has been delightful, not only to the audience, but to Zahra herself. Many times they have narrowly escaped each other, but Zahra is convinced she has Leia finally. This represents a perfect mirror image to Moff Tarkin, who himself was also infected with hubris. At times echoes of the Tarkin’s line “evacuate? In our moment of triumph?” comes to mind as Zahra becomes increasing over confident. She has proven herself to be an entertaining and cunning bad guy, but she was never meant to be liked very much. Readers will almost certainly root for Team Leia, which is what makes the audience long to see Zahra finally slip up.

The conclusion to this issue is a satisfying one because it ties up two important stories. It resolves the lengthy battle between Leia and Zahra and it resolves Shara Bey’s story as well. Both have been long anticipated and too see closure like that is always a huge relief, even when there is still more story to tell. As mentioned already, The space battles and shootouts here are extremely detailed and very effective, with the proper coloring to match. The issue takes on a blue and grey tone of the insides and outsides of ships, but enough warm colors pop up as an explosions or distant planetary bodies to keep the issue colorful. All in all this is a solid issue which certainly visually impresses while furthering the plot of this series in a major way. However, this issue had nothing to do with Crimson Dawn, so it is a little weird for it ti be considered part of “Crimson Reign.”