Comic Review: Star Wars: Hyperspace Stories #2

We’re back with the second issue of Hyperspace Stories – which signalled a very welcome return to Dark Horse for Star Wars after 7 years – and open with the Rebel fleet and Luke and Leia as they forge a path to Banas, Luke promising to protect Leia to his best abilities, a pledge that annoys the headstrong Princess. Bana, sitting in the Outer Rim, is a fuel and supply stop and little else, and Leia plans to monitor the planet for Imperial activity, intelligence for the Alliance that could be useful in that sector. Cold and windswept, the world holds little appeal, especially when Snowtroopers and TIE Fighters are found – there’s more going on here than first appearances offered. Keen to avoid any Imperial entanglements, they duck into a shop where Leia finds a wookiee plush which makes the Princess remember her childhood on Alderaan.

They’re interrupted by a young mother and child coming into the shop, no scan docs and desperate to hide from the Imperials scouring the city. Leia gives the wookiee doll to the child to calm her down, paying the shopkeeper for her own silence as the Imperials approach the show. True to her word, the shopkeeper stalls as long as she can until she admits she was paid off….and sends the Imps in the wrong direction, away from the shop and Luke and Leia hiding among rolls of carpets and hides. With them gone but her shop wrecked she steers Luke and Leia to a safer route to escape, but they decide the wisest route is the most dangerous path and head out into the mountains to find the other landing platform. It turns out the shopkeeper knows exactly who Luke and Leia are and while not joining the wider fight does the right thing by vowing to help the mother and child.

Heading into the mountains, Luke and Leia are looking at a few days of bitter cold and dangerous wildlife, and as they stop by a small fire they talk about each others childhoods, Alderaan so very different from Tatooine. They continue and stumble upon a mining operation orchestrated by the Empire and spotted they flee, blaster fire pinning them down to the point of separating to make their escape. Snowtroopers follow them both, the wildlife attacking all parties as Leia eventually makes it to the landing platform where the shopkeepers cousin greets her, pledging to help as Leia sorrowfully remembers her lost friend Luke…who of course is already there, his own diplomacy skills sharpened by watching Leia and together they blast off, promising to help the planet and their ‘spy’ now in place.

A fun, easy episode, this is very much a storyline that could have easily sustained a far longer story thread in the mainline Marvel series. There’s far more going on here than initial appearances would suggest, and while the artwork by Megan Huang is on the simplistic side (big time hats off to that gorgeous cover), there’s a charm and innocence to the tale written by Cecil Castellucci and coloured by Michael Atiyah that pulls it all together. If this is the plan for Dark Horse comic stories in this new era then we’re in for some gems, as this works well, telling a day-to-day story in the Star Wars galaxy (well, day-to-day for folks like Luke and Leia at least) that sits comfortably within the wider hustle and bustle of running a rebellion.