Sana Starros #1
Family Matters
Part One: Back To Basics
Sana Starros has made her way across the galaxy, pulling heists with Han Solo, getting mixed up with Doctor Aphra, and everything inbetween.
After a bad breakup, Sana decides to chart a new path…
Writer: Justina Ireland
Artist: Pere Pérez
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Colorist: Jay David Ramos
Cover artist: Ken Lashley
Editor: Mark Paniccia
Publication date: February 1, 2023
While she’s a character with a unique history – former lover of Doctor Aphra, ex-wife of Han Solo and occassional employee of the Tagge family – Sana Starros initially may seem to be an odd choice for a limited series, but this debut issue from writer Justina Ireland and artist Pere Pérez justifies that choice by bringing us a change of pace that in classic Star Wars fashion soon descends (or ascends) into action.
We kick off at the entrance of an Imperial warehouse on E’ronoh as Sana and Weequay slicer Jand – a character who talks in engaging third person – attempt to break into the facility, a simple enough task until Stormtroopers arrive to see what’s going on, leading to Sana strafing them with blaster fire as Jand breaks in to find passive Po’acksters being milked for pink milk (shoutout to the podcast of the same name I chose to be given a mainstage namecheck at Celebration Anaheim as one of the highlights of the podcast stage that year). Livestock and brightly coloured dairy products were not what Sana expected to find as her ‘prize’, and so a deflated Starros heads to Hosnian Prime for a break from the fast-living life on the lanes as she steps off Jand’s starship and heads into the woods where she finds a door. Not the slicer that Jand is, she forgets the correct code and clambers over the wall, blasting a security droid as an assortment of reconditioned battle droids, medical droids and other automatons go down in a hail of fire as Sana excises some frustration.
Taking shelter up in a tree, the droids are stood down by her Grammy Thea, who chides her for not checking her messages and retrieving the updated door code and invbites her inside where her pregnant cousin Aryssha is waiting. They catch up on family matters, the subject of Sana’s twin brother stinging her as Sana relaxes on a simple bed, thinking about Chelli.
She returns to the family area to hear her cousin and aunt talking, keen to not let Sana in on a secret, when suddenly the house alarms begin to whoop out and a massive explosion marks the arrival of Imperials. Sana understandably asks why they are there, and it’s then Sana learns that her cousin is married to an Imperial commander, a classically twisted individual who Asyssha believd she could ‘fix’. As he enters the house and makes it very clear that she is coming with him, regardless of her wanting to give birth in her family home, Sana crawls through the air vents to listen closer. Her husband Ehllo waits until Aryssha has been taken to the shop, then tells her mother and grandmother that their house will be raised to the grwith them in it. Not quite believing what she is about to do, Sana leaps into the fray, blasting away at the troopers as her family fight back and make their way to the armory and their ship the Vector Bundle to follow Aryssha and reveal their plan to steal back a valuable heirloom from the Empire. We end as Aryssha and Ehllo speak outside her room, the Imperial asking for her promise to not disappoint him again, and his wife giving her word as the final frame shows the Starros family roaring to the rescue.
An interesting issue, this sets the groundwork for what could be a fascinating delve into the Starros family, and more importantly her many connections. While the Star Wars galaxy continues to appear to be occupied by only around 1000 people, most of whom know each other, Sana has always been a capable, no-nonsense do-er of a character who finds her way out of tough spots and into new ones with pleasing regularity (for the reader, anyway). The art is pleasing, the script snappy and issue two is on the way – it will be interesting to see who joins Sana, other than Justina Ireland character Deva Lompop who adorns the cover of the next issue.
