One thing Marvel cannot be accused of is not using the Star Wars license to the fullest. While they still have some time to catch up to Dark Horse’s releases, the House of Ideas has been pumping out new comics set in a galaxy far, far away at a good pace since 2015, and that includes the Star Wars title proper. Now in its third volume of stories, the Alex Segura written and Luke Ross drawn Star Wars has the enviable task of telling new stories with Han, Luke, and Leia in a post-Return of the Jedi galaxy. It’s been a fairly standard space adventure with some politicking series, but we’re only ten issues in, so we have plenty of time to really get into-oh wait, what’s that? Star Wars #10 is the last issue of this volume?
Oh. Okay. Um…..onto the review then!
With the combined forces of the Zantarrk Gang and a group of Nagai Pirates working against them, the New Republic’s first big conflict as a newly formed government has begun. If they cannot work through this struggle and free the people of Nagi from the powerful Anazanti Witch Reyna Oskure, then the belief in the Republic is all for naught. As Luke, Han, Rynn Zenat, and bounty Hunter Beilert Valance take on Oskure and the Zantarrk gang on Nagi, Leia and Mon Mothma attempt to assist from the political arena. But even they realize it’s probably time to get their hands dirty too.
Simply put, this is not the “epic conclusion” that the cover wants us to believe. As much as Alex Segura’s script tries, the fight on Nagi is far from the biggest fight we’ve seen in a Star Wars film, much less a comic. It feels less like a major conflict than a small uprising being taken down by a new government wanting to do good. There’s a sense of trying to make this issue feel more than the sum of its parts that hurts the overall story, and while it finishes with the promise of more, I truly wonder why we’re expected to be excited for the inevitable fourth volume.
That’s not entirely Alex Segura’s fault though, as he does a commendable job with what I assume was an editorially mandated conclusion to the volume, not the story. While his finale is truncated, his takes on these classic characters are really good, and they all “sound” like the characters you’ve watched time and time again as you’ve grown up. He also does a good job of matching the fun tone of the beginning of Return of the Jedi, and seeing our three heroes get to the save the day is a blast. But with this era of the “Disney approved” Star Wars still a mystery, it’s hard to not feel like Segura’s being held back. After the success of Andor, it would be interesting to get a more nuanced take on the New Republic’s attempts at bringing in new worlds to their fold. How do Mothma and Leia accomplish this mission without becoming just a new, brighter version of the Empire? How does Luke feel about being the last Jedi, and the responsibility that comes with trying to restart the order? There’s a larger focus on the smaller characters like Rynn Zenat which is expected given we’ve had so many adventures with the original trilogy trio, but moving them to the side when they’re so prominently featured on the main cover also feels like a bit of a misdirect.
Marvel
Luke Ross’ style is perfectly suited for the galaxy far, far away, and while his character modeling is unsurprisingly on brand for the human characters, there isn’t a lot of variety when it comes to the aliens that make up Star Wars. Despite some out there looks for some of the space pirates, Reyna Oskure just looks like your average humanoid with white skin, and isn’t nearly as menacing as she should be. More impressive is the way Ross depicts the now classic ship designs in this issue, which is no small feat given the amount of times I tried (and failed) to draw X-Wings as a kid.
Being as big a Star Wars fan as I am, I had some high hopes for this third volume of Star Wars comics under Marvel. The previous two volumes, while fun, had to work within the confines of the first two films of the original trilogy, and while this one has to do something similar between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, there is way more room to tell interesting stories about the fallout of the fall of Empire, the building to the New Republic and Jedi Order, and how that eventually leads to the rise of First Order. However, Star Wars’ latest run is another unfortunate victim of Marvel’s new editorial strategy of publishing ten issue volumes of series and restarting, a move that is frustrating for long time fans and confusing for any potential new ones. If you can’t have faith that a book with the title Star Wars can make it past ten issues, maybe you should take things back to the planning stages and create something that CAN live past ten months of release. Or at the very least, have some faith in your creatives to let them plant some seeds for the future before cutting them off.
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