The Mandalorian #6
CHAPTER 6: THE PRISONER
Following a space battle with another bounty hunter, Mando traveled to Tatooine for parts to fix his battle-damaged ship. In order to pay for the parts, he took a job with another bounty hunter, Toro Calican, to hunt down mercenary Fennec Shand.
After multiple double-crosses, Mando took out Calican and paid for his ship parts, continuing his long journey….
Writer: Rodney Barnes
Penciller: Georges Jeanty
Inker: Karl Story
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Colorist: Alejandro Sanchez
Cover artist: Patrick Gleason
Editor: Mark Paniccia
Publication date: December 14, 2022
The adaptation of the 2019 debut season of The Mandalorian continues with the sixth episode The Prisoner, as we join Mando meeting with old associate Ran to take a job – his problems with the Bounty Hunters Guild precluding any work with that organisation – that involves taking a crew aboard the Razor Crest to boost a colleague who’s been captured. Here we meet former Imperial sharpshooter Migs Mayfeld, Devaronian brute Burg, droid hunter Zero and Twi’lek Xi’an. Unsure why they are taking the Crest, Zero stumbles across a message from Greef Karga regarding the delivery of a ‘quarry’ and learns that the ship is off the grid of both the Empire and the New Republic.
With Mayfeld leading the team, they leap to hyperspace with Zero at the stick and arrive at their destination, a New Republic Prison Transport where they plan to drop into the blind spot and disable comms. Instead, they needle Mando about not removing his helmet and when Burg tries to lift it he is shoved away by Mando into the wall, where the hatch opens revealing the Child. The moment is broken when the Crest lands on the Prison Transport and Mando heads in with the crew, heading for the control room.
Of course, this is a space fantasy and things can’t possibly go so smoothly. They encounter droids (mousedroids that don’t last long, security droids that last somewhat longer) and the team work well together, until they reach the control room when they encounter a Rebel guard who stalks them while he calls for help until he’s killed by Xi’an and her blade. Zero contacts them to warn of incoming Rebel ships just 20 minutes away, and as they free their target Qin they turn on Mando, hefting him into the cell before they start to turn on each other. Mando escapes the cell, begins to take out the team and we head towards the conclusion of the issue with the Razor Crest swinging back to Ran’s station and his payment and betrayal as ran orders Mando be killed as he leaves in the Crest, only to realise he’s been given the tracker that will lead the Rebels to the station, which they destroy as they spot a gunship – the one about to hunt down Mando – about to launch.
The issue ends with Mayfeld, Burg and Xi’an in the Rebel transport cell and another adaptation of a now classic episode. Like the other issues, the translation from screen to page is difficult – unlike Andor for example, The Mandalorian is relatively light on script, with characters less than verbose and in the modern age of comics when thought bubbles and narrative panels largely a thing of the past, the exposition required to explain the situation doesn’t exist, so certain elements of the episode don’t make as much sense as they might. The art is perfectly fine, the script is the script, but as we reach the final episodes of the season the adaptation of season two and how it’s presented in comic form would appear to require a rethink.
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Barnes, Rodney (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 32 Pages - 01/11/2023 (Publication Date) - Marvel (Publisher)
