Literature

Jedi News Comic Review: Chewbacca #5

April 13, 2016, 11:59 PM, BST

Chewbacca, Part 5

It is a period of renewed hope for the galaxy. After accidentally crash-landing his ship on the Outer Rim planet Andelm IV, Chewbacca, fearless warrior son of Kashyyyk, put aside his own personal mission to help a young hero named Zarro.

Together, Zarro and Chewbacca rescued several captives from an opportunistic gangster named Jaum who had taken over Andelm IV and was selling natural resources to the evil Galactic Empire. But right before Jaum made his escape on an Imperial Star Destroyer, the pair loaded a droid with explosives onto the ship in an attempt to put an end to Jaum and wound the Empire.

All was going according to Zarro’s plan when suddenly both she and Chewie found themselves captured by Imperials and sent up to the very same Star Destroyer…

The Review

Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: Phil Noto
Cover Artist: Phil Noto

Chewbacca #5 brings the mini-series to a close as we say farewell to Zarro. While this issue did not hold any great surprises to bump this series up in its worth, it was still a nice ending to a very kid friendly mini-series. As can be expected, there’s a happy ending, but even better, it ties up a few loose ends you may or may not have forgotten about.

First off, I’m going to start with the artwork. Phil Noto has done a decent job with this series. Each issue has a couple stand out panels, some of the covers have been pretty neat, and overall, his style works at presenting the story in a pleasing visual format. It’s not anything stellar, but it works. This issue, however, doesn’t have much in the way of stand out panels. It’s not that the artwork is bad, there just isn’t anything that leaps out as, “Oh, I really like that” or “Whoa! Awesome!”

Adding to that is the story by Gerry Duggan. It’s a fun, enjoyable story, but it’s nothing outstanding. Issue #5 doesn’t add any punch that would make this mini-series worthy of a successor. Zarro has been a fun character to follow, but I can’t say I’d want to see Duggan do more with her. Now a different writer…that could be worthwhile. She certainly has potential as a Zayne Carrick like character, mixing humor with bad luck and a bit of skill. Or perhaps it’s good luck and just a bad knack for landing in bad situations? Either way, the character wasn’t bad. I also kind of like the ending and the reveal of what was in Chewie’s box, a little story thread I had completely forgotten about. Yet that in itself is a little troubling. Chewie’s box was seen a couple issues ago, but never really featured very prominently in the series. In foresight, since we do find out what’s in there and it has some emotional weight, I think the object could have been used more as a plot device to create intrigue for the reader. If it had shown up more in the panels, unexplained but present, the literal mystery box to ponder what might be inside or so important that Chewie would keep it with him, it could have yielded more impact to the story and the reader. Alas, it didn’t. It’s thrown in there and kind of neat, but falls far short of what it could have been in a reflection of the entire mini-series.

In the end, the Chewbacca mini-series is a fun, kid friendly series, but it’s not quite on par with where it needs to be for adult readers. As is, it’s okay, but Marvel needs to be careful with putting out too many series like this one as it could turn off readers. On the other hand, it’s one of the few series you can hand to your kids and not have to worry about the content. Give and take, it has its pros and cons, so I give it a four out of five.

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