In the Shadow of Yavin: Part Five
After their resupply mission for the Rebel Alliance is exposed to the Empire, Han Solo and Chewbacca seek refuge in the Coruscant underworld, where they are being hunted by Boba Fett. Meanwhile, at the construction site of the second Death Star, Darth Vader, having fallen from the Emperor’s favor, finds an unexpected ally in the Force…
Luke Skywalker, who has been grounded for breaking mission protocol, receives a warning from the ghost of Ben Kenobi—which prompts him to further disobey orders…
And Princess Leia and her elite X-wing squadron are cornered by Colonel Bircher’s Star Destroyers and his TIE interceptor group—forcing Leia and her pilots to make a stand… possibly their last.
Writer Brian Wood, artist Carlos D’Anda, colourist Gabe Eltaeb, letterer Michael Heisler and new cover artist Rodolfo Migliari return to the galaxy far, far away for more blistering adventures.
The Story
Princess Leia and her elite X-Wing squadron make a stand against Colonel Bircher’s TIE Interceptor group and Star Destroyer. Bircher is hands on and flies a TIE Fighter himself against Leia, Wedge and Co.
Leia drops her emergency transponder signal, with her X-Wing comrades targeting their torpedoes on the transponder – causing an almighty explosion masking the X-Wing escape but most importantly taking down the Intedictor in the gulf of flames.
Amazingly a TIE, Bircher, has improbably followed them through – detonating Grey Leader, Leia Organa’s figher – with Leia apparently inside.
Back in the Corsucant underground, Solo and Chewbacca, try to find assistance from the locals in escaping Imperial Center. Their search for forged clearances, starship registrations, and pass codes to escape takes them to cantina that would rival Mos Eisley’s claim of having the most wretched hive of scum and villainy.
Solo finds proposed assistance from a female humanoid called Perla – promising Solo and Chewbacca safe passage off Coruscant at a hefty price – but also warning him of the fact that Bossk and Fett are after the bounty on his head. Perla works for the sanitation department, and has the ability to get waste off of the planet without checks, perhaps Solo’s only hope…
Luke and Prithi depart the Rebel Fleet breaking their grounding to search for Leia. As they fly to Leia’s coordinates they discuss Prithi’s ability to hear Ben Kenobi speaking through the force to Luke. Prithi was in training to become a Chalactan adept, and this may be the source of her ability – or does she have latent force abilities?
At the site of Leia’s craft explosion, Wedge makes voice contact with Leia’s greatly crippled craft. She orders Wedge away from the ship, but Wedge and Tess ignore the instruction and begin the operation to recover her. Leia orders them away, insisting that this is bigger than her – the mission was never loaded onto to the networks, it was only in her own personal files – the leak is serious and the fleet need to be aware. They ignore the orders, and guide Leia’s ship to safety, but the injuries to Leia look serious.
On Endor Vader advises acting Moff Birra Seah that she is in charge of delivering the second Death Star on time to the Emperor’s satisfaction – Vader’s attention is on Skywalker.
The Review
The fifth issue of a new on-going series can be the make or break issue. With the retailers, and mail order subscribers ordering 2 to 3 months in advance, the performance of issue 5 can be the first real tell tale sign on whether the series will survive its initial buzz and advance purchase commitments. Dark Horse are obviously aware of this, and the reward incentive of a sketch cover for issue 2 that goes to shops buying a certain quantity of issue 5 is clearly there to ensure that the purchase level does not fall, and the Star Wars series maintains prominence in the comic stores. Whilst this is good business sense, and hedges bets on the success of the series – based on the quality of the story, and artwork this should not be necessary. This series is turning into a landmark series for Dark Horse and resonating with Star Wars fans and the wider comic reading public.
Looking at the overarching tone of the series we have the classic film series characters, bounty hunters, underground Coruscant, X-Wing dogfights, and subterfuge. Add in Vader, Fett, and even Bossk – and you are ticking all the boxes of a Star Wars comic fan.
The pages of the comic oozes the passion for the series that Woods, D’Anda and Eltaeb have, and it resolves the key fault of earlier issues by eliminating the excessive narrative, and letting the characters drive the story forward.
The issue opens with an immense shot of an X-Wing entangled in a dogfight, and the amazing artwork and colouring continues with a stunning visual of Bircher in his TIE. Eltaeb excels in the colouring of the TIE interiors, and the dogfights and interior cockpit shots in a fast moving fight enable D’Anda to visually tell an amazing battle.
Woods moves the battle forward with excellent and compelling dialogue that engrosses you in the battle, a difficult task in dogfight scenarios.
The artwork team continue their beautiful story telling with stunning visuals of the explosion engulfing Leia’s X-Wing, coupled with an a chilling close up of Bircher witnessing the apparent death of his arch enemy.
In the first half of the issue we perhaps for the first time since Michael Stackpole’s X-Wing comic series see and feel, and become apart of the battle – something missing from Star Wars comics for far too long, and a really exciting and spine tingling promise for the continuation of the series. If issue 5 is about ensuring that the readership continues then the first few pages could have achieved that alone, but Woods does not give us time to catch a breath…
From deep space we are transported to the depths of Coruscant, to a cantina riddled with undesirables. For the first time we meet Perla, a smuggler, and perhaps I suggest a love interest for Solo? There is something about her character and I hope that she remains part of the series. She is intriguingly drawn, and strikes of a female Solo, with great details in her outfit – wanting you to know more about her back-story.
D’Anda and Eltaeb give us a stunning close up of Fett in pursuit of Solo, with immense detail and perfection in the suit, and close up of the visor. It’s an enticing entrance for Fett, and we need more. Give us Fett and Solo face to face, there is so much to explore there. Perhaps that is the quality of the creative team, making us crave more.
If there was one weak point of the issue it was the landscape of the bowels (excuse the pun) of Coruscant’s sanitation department. It lacked depth, and strikes of being rushed panels. The brilliance of the lower regions of Coruscant is the depth of the scenes and the variety of the people and landscape. This felt very glossed over, and weaked the comic towards the end.
However, that negative was pulled back with a near perfect full page shot of Vader as he prepares to focus on his hunt for Skywalker. Acting Moff Seah reflecting in his visor as her warns her of the consequences of failure. It’s a poster perfect shot, demonstrating the menace of Vader, and an ominous over bearing shot that hopefully promises more interaction between Vader and the Rebels.
Rodolfo Migliari takes on the cover art from Alex Ross for this issue, and whilst it is an impressive shot of Solo and Chewbacca – if feels stock image, and irrelevant to the issue. The cover needs to reflect the story of the issue, and not be a classic era character portrayal.
Wood, D’Anda, and Eltaeb continue to breath fresh life into the classic era, more than 30 years after it hit our cinemas. There is a level of unbridled joy and energy injected into the characters that makes you crave for more – and counting down the days to issue 6 on the 12th June.
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