Star Wars (2025) #5
INTO THE PAST
After investigating a series of brazen raids raids on New Republic supply ships, LUKE SKYWALKER, RYNN ZENAT and their squadron tracked down the pirates to the edges of the Fenril sector.
There, Luke learned that the pirates are exploiting Fenril sector residents, the Nagai, in collusion with the villainous Zantarrk gang, a group Valance and Han Solo have already been tracking.
Meanwhile, when a New Republic trading vessel attacked by the Zantarrk crash-lands on Loradil, the surviving crew comes face-to-face with Clone Wars-era battle droids! At the behest of Mon Mothma, Luke, Han, Valance and Rynm race to
investigate….
Writer: Alex Segura
Artist: Phil Noto
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Colorist: Phil Noto
Cover artist: Phil Noto
Editor: Mark Pannicia
Publication date: September 17 2025
We open the fifth issue on Loradil as Luke, Han, Valance and Rynn step off the ramp of the Millennium Falcon, the outline of a Providence class carrier flagship visbile in the distance. Luke is curious – he’s not seen one outside of a junkyard, and so fixes to investigate. Valance is on guard, the quiet unsettling him, and as they begin their walk, remembering the survivors were calling for help only a few hours before, Han warns for caution. Once inside Rynn reroutes the ships systems to illuminate the vessel and see what they’re up against, but as they prepare to move to a nearby vessel to see if the crew managed to escape over there we ‘hear‘ a familiar voice – a Clone Wars era command droid, flanked by B1 Battle droids, telling them they’re now prisoners of the Separatist Alliance.
Cut to Kaltrais and Stormtroopers assessing the damage done by Leia Organa and her people, now long departed. They decide to put the Nagai prisoners to work cleaning up, and order them to move when suddenly there’s a flash and one of the troopers falls, dead. We see the silhouette of a Nagai, who blasts the others down and reveals himself to be the believed-dead Jesrit, who rallies the Nagai to fight back.
Back on Loradil our Republic heroes are shocked, realising the droids are unaware the Clone Wars ended decades ago. However, they have more immediate problems. Rynn reminds them that they’re surrounded, which only spurs Valance to open fire with his palm blasters and give us the very welcome sight of Luke Skywalker and his green blade slicing through Battle Droids (a few years ahead of cutting through an unforgettable swathe of Dark Troopers in The Mandalorian season 2). In the melee Rynn is grabbed and pulled away, but as Han tries to reason with the droids their commander tells them they oppose everything the Separatist Alliance stands for.
Valance quickly shuts down the commander with a blast, but he and Han are knocked off their feet by a huge explosion and we see that it came from a towering Super Battle Droid, flanked by a droideka and other droids who tell them they were on their way to Agamar when they were pulled down to Loradil, and are more than happy to hunt again.
Cut to a fleeing Rynn, who has managed to slip her captors and is looking for cover, and as she catches her breath we see a hidden, mysterious figure who offers their hand and their help, which she accepts.
We switch location once again to Chandrila where Mon Mothma and General Organa who are reviewing recent events. With Reyna Oskure once again on the scene, and Leia regretting not hunting for her after the Battle of Jakku, the entire situation has once again become complicated. She knows they have to address and tackle the situation with the Fenril Consortium and the threat it poses to the Republic, a reality which clearly saddens Mothma who hoped for more time to establish the New Republic rather than continue to fight. Their meeting is interrupted by Alaytia, who dashes in to tell Mothma that a Fenril Consortium fleet has been assembled, and it’s racing towards New Republic space as they speak.
Faced by overwhelming odds, Valance and Solo agree that retreat might be the wisest option, just as Luke appears and tells them to fall around the corner and wait for him as he mops up the droids, so together they can find Rynn. Meanwhile, Solo and Valance hunt around for things to help them, and open a compartment that spills its contents onto the floor just as Luke finishes his attack and joins them – Clone Trooper armour.
Great fun as ever, snappily scripted and plotted by Alex Segura and oh-so-beautifully drawn by Phil Noto. it’s fascinating to see Valance so at ease with life, willing to fight alongside people he’d previously clashed with, and for them to accept this change (as opposed to how they took a year to trust Lando Calrissian after his no-win scenario at Bespin). To find a way to blend the eras like this is always fun, seeing Luke take on Battle Droids just as his mentor Ben and father Anakin did so often is a treat, but perhaps it’s the recent Emmy win for Andor and Mon Mothma’s unforgettably brave speech that elevates even the briefest scene with her, but invested as we are in her story it only adds to the sorrow she feels as the fighting post Endor and Jakku continues, now with new adversaries.
There’s a lot to follow with the Fenril Consortium and its players, the Nagai and more (and without the much-missed narrative boxes to remind you who’s who in certain scenes – if ever a title required that kind of assistance, it’s Star Wars, so perhaps the return of the classic ‘Who’s Who in Star Wars‘ page might be a help. A small gripe for a title that is a joy to read in every way, carving out the post-Jedi era with aplomb.
