Bounty Hunters (2020) #30
“BEDLAM ON BESTINE, PART TWO”
There is a shadow war raging across the galaxy between the Empire and the criminal syndicate known as Crimson Dawn.
That conflict has T’onga’s bounty hunter crew–Bossk, Zuckuss, 4-LOM, Losha and Tasu Leech–on a collision course
with Valance’s team of heroes aboard a supply transport on the Imperial outpost of Bestine.One of them is also harboring a secret that may tear Valance’s world apart….
Writer: Ethan Sacks
Artist: Paolo Villanelli
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Colorist: Arif Prianto
Cover artist: Giuseppe Camuncoli
Editor: Mark Paniccia
Publication date: January 18, 2023
We kick off the 30th issue of Bounty Hunters in the past, on the Outer Rim World of Varkana and a bar in Vargo Spaceport filled with familiar faces. T’onga, and her twin brother T’ongor, Losha tending the bar, Nakano Lash, Bossk and Valance, all of them enjoying a well-earned beverage after yet another successful mission. As they ply Bossk away from another brawl, Nakano reminds them how they’re family – despite Bossk actually eating all of his – and that despite what lies ahead, they’re never alone. Step back to the now, and Valance and T’onga reunite on Bestine as water swamps the crashed ship they’re both on. A terse exchange follows, T’onga shocked he’d throw his lot in with the Empire, but as Valance explains he’s doing all of this to protect Yura and Cadeliah, T’onga has to step out to explain the current situation – how Cadeliah is now with Crimson Dawn, and how despite going to rescue her from the Vermillion, she didn’t want to be saved. Valance is incredulous, and then shocked as he learns Yura and the Rebel base was destroyed, most likely from the memories extracted from him. Falling to his knees in grief, T’onga echoes what Nakano said all those years ago – you’re with family now.
Meanwhile, Losha, Tasu Leech and Zuckuss are being held captive by the Empire, and their patience running thin they prepare to execute them, just as Valance returns and starts tearing into the troopers, completely losing it and ripping into their ranks like a terminator. S’ira is furious, the medical supplies now surely falling into the hands of Crimson Dawn, but Valance tears the crates apart to reveal explosives. They’ve been conned.
As TIE Fighters come screaming in he takes one down using wreckage and a strong arm, while Zuckuss takes the other, and above on the ISD Righteous Fist they quickly realise that communications have been lost. When Valance calls in and angrily reveals that he now knows the truth of the situation, how he’s been played, they realise that their supply base at Jannae is under attack, and as the team ponder on the explosive siutuation Valance reveals it was all a ploy, bait to bring the dark lord himself Darth Vader down to the ground, lightsaber in hand as we roll out of another excellent issue as all the threads of the recent storylines coalesce into what feels like the beginning of a conclusion.
Valance has ridden his luck, while the hunters he occasionally travels with have more lives than a very lucky Nexu. In the wrong hands, this could be come off as cripplingly contrived, but Ethan Sacks has found – and most trickily maintained – the knack of making these skilled combatants bounce from impossible to impossible situation, and as an admirer of this titles kinetic, energetic style, that means a monthly treat that, even as Vaders blade ignites and the fate of Valance is far from secure, rarely fails to deliver maximum enjoyment.
