Comic Review: Star Wars (2020) #48

I’m a little grumpy, I can’t help it. News has finally broken that issue fifty will be the last in this series. So… I’m grumpy. This has been one of my all-time favourite series for Star Wars. The knowledge that writer Charles Soule brings on how to make these issues feel like true Star Wars is incredible. The setting in the Original Trilogy is an enormous bonus for me. It’s my favourite period, the period that I fell in love with, and you can tell that Soule has a deep understanding how this period works. He has filled in many gaps between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Of course, it must end, it’s a small space of time. Yet I still hate that we won’t be seeing these characters. I just hope Soule returns to them soon – very soon. But that is perhaps too much dwelling on the future and not keeping my thoughts on the moment. We have seen Lando come back from the brink and now we have just three issues left. Where will Soule head? I’m excited to find out! Joining him is artist Jethro Morales, who has worked on several Star Wars titles, particularly set in The High Republic. It will be interesting to see what he brings for the remainder of the series. So, without further ado, let’s find out where things are going.

Most of this series has focused on Luke and Lando, a fact I’m very happy about. Leia has had her odd moment – here and there. This storyline is focused on Leia, and it seems right. Lando has gone through his arc, we have seen the development. The same can be said for Luke, although Soule uses him beautifully in this issue to showcase just how far he has come (more on that in a moment). This comic really homes in on the mental health of Leia. She is usually shown as the leader, the inspiration and the princess. Soule takes a different direction. He looks at what is haunting Leia, the things that aren’t so easy to forget – namely Alderaan. The nightmares that we open up to are unnerving in how well they capture what Leia is experiencing. They have the right beats, but some parts are off. Seeing Leia as a girl in her family’s arms, the Death Star in the sky, it’s so easy to imagine what she goes through each night. It’s a heavy weight that Leia must shoulder, and Soule allows us to see this vulnerability. But Leia isn’t alone. There’s one person who she can trust and be herself with: Luke. The conversation that the two have near the start of this issue, that takes up most of the comic, is superbly written. We get to see Leia at her weakest, to see that she hasn’t got it all together. We get to see Luke and Leia connecting on a Deeper level. We get to see Luke supporting Leia. It’s all brilliantly done.

So let me jump right to Luke here. The focus is Leia, yet Luke comes into this. Leia is usually the strong one who supports Luke, but his development through this entire series has given Soule the chance to show us the other side, to show Luke as the strong one who can be there for Leia. I love seeing this, to see Luke being there for her, for knowing what is best for her. It is easy through this to see why Luke can guess that Leia is his sister in Return of the Jedi. Not only that, but we get to see the confident Luke, the finished person that Soule has been building up to issue after issue, the Luke we see at the start of episode Six. It isn’t done obviously, but subtly through the conversation the siblings have.