Published: November 16, 2022
Rated: T
Writer: Marc Guggenheim
Artist: Paul Fry
Colourist: Alex Sinclair
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Cover Artist: Phil Noto
The synopsis;
THE RETURN OF [REDACTED]!
• Outgunned and outnumbered, Chewie makes a daring escape from prison!
• Greedo is on the run, and you won’t believe who is after him!
• [REDACTED] is back! And boy, are they mad!
The review;
Racing through the corridors of a prison block with blaster bolts flying in every direction, Noto’s direct cover for Han Solo & Chewbacca #7 is all action. It’s a perfect representation of the trouble this duo gets in, and the scene just looks so kinetic on the page. Meanwhile a rather depressed looking Greedo is nursing a cup of caf in Ferry’s variant, no doubt after another job gone wrong for the reckless Rodian. Finally, the Revelations variant by Clarke is a gorgeous composition of Han, Chewie, and the Falcon, that just screams The Empire Strikes Back vibes.
My co-pilot Mark Alders has been waylaid by intergalactic pirates this week, so I’m gearing up to do this review… Solo!
On the prison planet of Gulhadar, Chewbacca is scheduled for execution. Wrongfully imprisoned while saving Han Solo, the Wookiee has been working to free himself alongside fellow inmate, Maz Kanata. They have been working on a dangerous plan, one that could backfire with deadly consequences if it goes wrong. Meanwhile, after being left for dead by pirates, Han Solo finds himself in need of a ship in order to get to Chewie – but will he be too late?
Guggenheim has paced this issue so well because the tension and action are perfectly balanced. Jailbreaks aren’t anything new for Chewie, just look how he first teamed up with Han, and it’s got a lot of similarities to the sequence in A New Hope. Multiple cogs all making the machine of the plan work, with timing down to the wire, and even impersonating some prison personnel.
It’s also great to see Maz having such a central role in this story. While she was introduced in The Force Awakens and has had cameos in the Doctor Aphra comics, she’s always quite elusive. Here she is the mastermind behind getting out of Gulhadar. Maz knowns when to use brains and when to use some aggressive negotiations, dealing with unexpected problems easily. She gives off a sense of having done this sort of thing many, many times across her long lifetime. Most fans would probably enjoy seeing more of the Pirate Queen in the comics to see the antics Maz has gotten up to.
Another essential member of the jailbreak crew is Phaedra, who’s a chemical expert. Her part of the plan is to kill Chewie. Sort of. Very briefly. Just long enough to fool the guards and get Chewie in position to be able to help fly an escape ship off planet. It’s a pretty gut-wrenching moment seeing the towering wookiee hit the ground, though not quite as bad as the moment in Episode IX. It’s a real testament to Chewie’s bravery that he’s willing to go through with it, and that the Wookiee knows who to trust.
Providing an incredible backdrop to all this action is Fry’s artwork and there is so much to enjoy. He’s really captured the harsh lines of the Gulhadar prison alongside the monotony of the corridors and the general dinginess of the place. The panels combine real-world prison elements with a Star Wars twist, and it’s enough to have fans shouting ‘One way out!’ at the pages. In particular there’s a great cameo of two characters wanted in 12 systems that is such a great little inclusion.
Although it’s obvious that Chewie will be fine, the stakes of Han Solo & Chewbacca #7 still feel real because the dynamic duo have been split up. These are two characters who bring out the best in each other and seeing them apart is always tough. While Chewie is going through a rough break in prison, Han is in a bar…on a beach world. Yeah, he’s not getting friends points for that. Thankfully once he hears about Chewie’s incarceration, he immediately goes to find a ship to help, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that while Chewie was in literal prison, Han was sipping Star Wars margaritas!
Guggenheim leaves fans with one question at the end of this comic – where is the Millennium Falcon? Neither Han nor Chewbacca know what’s happened to their beloved ship, except that it must be in the hands of pirates. How can they track it down? Greedo may have an answer to that. It’s a race for the galaxy’s greatest hunk of junk in Han Solo & Chewbacca #8 next month!
Availability;
Han Solo & Chewbacca is a 10-part mini series published by Marvel comics. This issue retails at $3.99 and is available via the Marvel App, ComiXology and all good comic book stores.
