Princess Leia is to wed! As part of an agreement to provide the Rebel fleet with a safe base, Leia is to marry Prince Kaspar of Arrochar. But not everyone is happy with the arrangement.
While meeting with Leia, and later with his adviser—one of Arrochar’s military generals— Kaspar revealed his true desire to marry the princess, but both Leia and the general remained focused on duty and the benefits of the union for both the Rebels and Arrochar.
With construction of the new base underway, Wedge Antilles began drilling the newly named Rogue Squadron. But when Luke Skywalker, fuming over Leia’s decision to marry a stranger, refused to follow orders, he was grounded—for the second time in recent history…
Writer Brian Wood, penciller Stephane Crety, Inker Julien Hugonnard-Bert, colourist Gabe Eltaeb and cover artist Sean Cooke bring us the sixteenth issue of Star Wars.
The Story
On Arrochar, Wedge Antilles teaches the local pilots on the tactics of flying Z-95 headhunter. The locals are less than impressed at the antique crafts given to them and demand high tech fighters – but Wedge and the Alliance do not have any to spare.
Luke meditates in private, trying to reach out to Ben Kenobi, but is interrupted with a message to return to base.
Back at the Arrochar Royal House, Leia is scolded by her future husband, Prince Casper for repairing crafts as it is not appropriate for a Princess. She is embarrassing the future King. Luke runs into the palace to meet Leia as requested but is stopped but guards from entering, and is apparently snubbed and ignored by the irate Princess.
Mon Mothma tries to ease Luke’s disgust at being shunned as he reports back to her at the Rebel Base for duty. As Mon Mothma looks to assign him with a task, an Arrochar General suggests Luke work with the Mountain Rangers as a public relations exercise.
Above the planet an Imperial ship drops out of hyperspace. Han Solo spots it and recognises it as droid ship, an Imperial Super Hauler. It is sending out a local automated distress beacon. Solo offers to handle the situation.
In the mountains of the planet, Luke struggles to keep pace with the Mountain Rangers through the snow. He makes uneasy peace with his fellow soldiers whom are suspicious of the Rebels intentions for the planet.
Han, Leia, and C-3PO establish a communication link to the Imperial Hauler and trick it into following a route of hyperspace markers taking it away from the Rebel Base. What they don’t notice however is that it leaves behind an Imperial Probe Droid.
The Review
Following the disappointment of issue 15, this issue was decent but not great. It moved the story own, added some new elements and created a level of mystique but it lacked a moment. There was no stand out scene, or plot point that made the hairs on your arms stand. It was not lacklustre, that would be too harsh but it felt like a mid arc filler issue, with the one goal of getting the characters in place for the real punch issue. In a running issue you need to accept and tolerate that some issues have to be like this.
Whilst the issue was a let down in really propelling the story forward, I am happy as to where it is heading. I am interested in the palace politics and where this is going to place the Imperials. There is intrigue in Luke’s situation, with him being in a very foreign environment with some apparently narked Rangers. Han seems to be largely irrelevant to the story at the moment, but the arrival of the Imperial Probe Droid could really spark his storyline. I can but hope that the best is to come.
Sean Cooke returned to the Galaxy Far, Far Away, to provide the cover art to this issue, and he again does a great job. X-Wings are a massive part of my own personal passion for the Star Wars Universe. This is one of the best covers featuring X-Wings since the Rogue Squadron on-going series from Dark Horse many years ago. I would happily display this as a poster on my wall, but I just wish we had seen more of the X-Wings in training in the actual comic. Sean did some great work in the Legacy series, with issue 41 being a personal favourite but perhaps more familiar to recent readers is his cover for issue 0 of The Star Wars series.
Stéphane Créty and Julien Hugonnard-Bert continue as the art team, and again excel at the planet landscapes whilst perhaps missing the look of Leia, Luke, and Mon Mothma. To me Leia is just unrecognizable, Mon Mothma far to young, and Luke is just wrong. With characters so familiar to us it is difficult to keep focus. However when you look at characters such as Prince Jasper, you realize that they have great talent – if just not mimicking the look of those that came before.
There were three great artistic scenes in the issue for me. The wide shot of Leia straddling the X-Wing during repairs, the nighttime scenes of Luke on the mountain, and the final shot of the Probe Droid above the planet. The colours of Gabe Eltaed are also superb in these iconic shots. Particularly in their use with Luke in front of the camp fire. I am expecting issue 17 to be fast moving and impactful, and to really generate some heat as this series nears its final climax.
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