STAR WARS#30: In No-Space Everyone Can Hear You Scream

After many issues of this series, the main characters are not only all together for once, but also completely off the charts as far as the setting goes. The “Darth Vader” series went to hellish Sith planets. Doctor Aphra was trapped in her own body. “High Republic” comics also go to strange new worlds frequently. This series, with some exceptions, has mostly been space battles or Luke searching for Jedi knowledge and finding very little at all. With the former main storyline complete, this series ventures onto a world never before seen and add flavor to the overall series. This world is No-Space. It is a world-only accessible with Nihil tech. The Nihil haven’t existed for hundreds of years, but Holdo and the gang found a path engine capable of trapping them in the Star Wars version of the Bermuda Triangle. Logic, time, space, and physics seem to follow its own path in this literal twilight zone. As fantastic a place as No-Space is, it would hardly be very exciting if it wasn’t also inhabited by people who have been there for hundreds of years. This plunges the rebels into even stranger affairs as they can not trust anyone in this backward land.

Month after month this series, as well as every “Star Wars” title, proves the point that it exists solely to tie together other series, books, and films. This issue does that in a lot of ways. For one, it is closely connected to “The High Republic.” No-Space is where the Nihil operated. There are relics left from their time there too. The Falcon crew used Nihil tech to get there. All on-the-nose references, however, the issue is clever in subtle references too. Holdo herself is a character from comics, books, manga, and even in a film. Her friendship with Leia since they were teenagers has always been the main point of her character. Mon Mothma is Leia’s elder, but Holdo is her peer. This chapter hones in on the heart of that relationships through some sweet dialog between them. Lando name-drops Han’s old gang from Solo, The White Worms.

There is even time for Lando and Luke to joke about the fall hazards of Cloud City. The most subtle and arguably most important reference happens when the gang meets a small boy. He seems interested in what kind of food they have and Leia gives him some rations to get him to help. This is exactly the same trick she used on Wicket the Ewok to get his help. In the context of the timeline, that will occur in a few months or even weeks after this. This issue almost secretly implies that this is where she got the idea for that trick.

No surprise that this issue is colorful. This series doesn’t have to confine to specific color styles and palettes the way Darth Vader and recently Doctor Aphra does with red. It is just naturally alive and vibrant. That’s in strict contrast to “The High Republic” series as well since it has favored pastels lately. The overall series impact is hard to determine so early in a story arc, but it is weird and that makes it intriguing. The almost constant references keep the reader grounded until the mysteries of No-Space become clearer in further chapters. The true star in this issue is the actual art. One of the biggest problems with this series in general is that the characters don’t usually represent their on-screen counterparts. In this issue, the artist is changed to Andres Genolet who is very good at not only capturing the look of the actors but does it in an almost cartoony way which is just perfect for comics. This issue was heavy on character dialog, and since it is almost entirely full of major characters like Luke, Leia, and Lando they needed to look like they did in the films to really sell their interactions.

The previous issue sometimes had Leia commanding her fleet, so she didn’t have to look like Carrie Fisher since she is easy to distinguish among military personnel. Similarly Luke did not need to look like Mark Hamill to sell him searching for Jedi artifacts.

This chapter goes a step further as Holdo looks like Laura Dern at the same age Leia would have been at this time. That really seals the illusion that these are major characters interacting with each other and boy do they have history.