Published: January 18, 2023
Rated: T
Writer: Ethan Sacks
Artist: Paolo Villanelli
Colourist: Arif Prianto
Letterer: VC’s Travis Lanham
Production Design: Nick Russell
Cover Artist: Giuseppe Camuncoli & Jesus Aburtov
The synopsis;
CHAOS ON BESTINE VI!
• T’onga and her team of bounty hunters find themselves in the crosshairs of an old ally!
• But how will Valance react to learning the dark secret that has been kept from him?
• Can any of them survive the full might of a vindictive Empire?
The review;
Beilert Valance holding up his palm laden with energy, overshadowed by Vader and the Crimson Dawn logo behind him sort of sums up Giuseppe Camuncoli and Jesus Aburtov’s cover for Bounty Hunters #30. Mark Laming and Lee Loughridge focus on Bossk being threatened by a would-be attacker with what looks like a vibroblade and the Return of the Jedi 40th Anniversary variant, by Chris Sprouse, Karl Story and Neeraj Menon, features Artoo-Detoo and See-Threepio making their final approach to Jabba’s Palace on Tatooine.
In Bounty Hunters #29, Sacks had left T’onga and Valance realising that they were up against each other. Long-time friends and now pit against each other and following completely different paths. Who will come out on top? Let’s dip into the pages of Bounty Hunters #30 to find out.
Varga Spaceport, before the events of Bounty Hunters. T’onga and her brother T’ongor are in a cantina. The bartender, Losha, has caught the eye of T’onga and she wants her to serve her. Bossk is at a table arm wrestling, wins his bout and heads for a nook where the rest of the team are sat. Nakano Lash and Beilert Valance make up the rest of the group. As usual, there is a disagreement between Bossk and Valance which starts to boil over. T’onga re-joins them as Lash steps in to calm the feud and rallies them to look after each other, when she is gone.
Bestine, Inner Rim… now. Realisation has sunk in and T’onga and Valance come to an impasse over their crossed paths, but not without revelations for Valance. T’onga reveals Cadeliah’s new location, but also informs him of how the base where she had been left by Valance had been destroyed by the Imperials. Valance realises that they tracked him there, which has resulted in the death of the Rebels and Yura.
The rest of T’onga’s crew are no captive on deck. The Shore Troopers are getting a little twitchy and are preparing to kill them, but T’onga and Valance halt their progress. Without warning Valance punches the trooper in the chest, his fist travelling completely through his torso. Systematically, and quite violently Valance tears through the troopers leaving them all in his wake.
The craft is carrying explosives, not the relief supplies they were led to believe. TIE Fighters are approaching, and Valance hurls a thermal detonator into the weak spot of the solar wing bringing the lead TIE down. The Edgehawk, piloted by For-Eloem swoops in from behind and takes out the second TIE.
Onboard the Righteous Fist, they have lost contact with the escorts, but then a holo of Valance appears. Lieutenant Haydenn is relieved he is okay, but he reveals he knows her secret about what had really happened to Yura. He is now a crash course with the base, to deliver the cargo of thermal detonators, from a certain point of view.
On the surface the craft crashes into the base, destroying it in a huge explosion. Valance and the others were clear well before the crash and look on as the base burns. An Imperial shuttle lands nearby. Two figures descend the access ramp, Lieutenant Haydenn, and Darth Vader.
This is stitching together so, so well! The flashback at the start, followed by the conversation between T’onga and Valance pulls together so much about the group as a whole, but also the demographic of the group itself. It just shows how well Ethan Sacks has thought out this story from the very start and how its early arcs are still influencing the current storyline. It’s very clever story book writing. I always love to see the editor Asterix’s to denote any relationship back to a previous event and this issue is littered with them.
The facts of Yura’s death had been well hidden by Haydenn, but the reveal to Valance was always on the horizon. To see his reaction was quite heart rending, knowing his own actions had contributed to the Imperials locating the Rebel Base where she was.
That sequence and the artwork from Paolo Villanelli on Valance’s realisation of the situation is quite spectacular. The one pager of Valance being consoled by T’onga before a skull is striking and so beautifully coloured by Arif Prianto too. Travis Lanham also hits top marks for his lettering. His work on the sequence of frames of the TIE Fighter pursuit is brought together so neatly.
The Imperial ‘protection’ of Yura was the only thing keeping Valance on side, so now he has nothing to lose, what can we expect from him next? As the Shore Trooper exclaimed, “the cyborg’s gone rogue!”, I think, even hope, this is just the start of a quite merciless and bloody spree of revenge that Valance will mete out on anything aigned with the Imperials. Although Sacks has recently teased on social media the next few issues will see more turmoil and twists, but surely, he can’t twist the knife into Valance any more than he has already, can he?
So, with an imminent reunion for Valance with a ruthless Ethan Sacks, sorry… Darth Vader, let’s see what Bounty Hunters #31 brings us on February 15, 2023.
Availability;
Bounty Hunters is an ongoing series available from Marvel Comics. This issue retails at $3.99 and is available via the Marvel App, ComiXology and all good comic book stores.
