Bounty Hunters (2020) #33
“IN THE CROSSHAIRS OF INFERNO SQUAD, PART I”
Valance has escaped Darth Vader with the help of T’onga and her fellow bounty hunters. But their problems are just beginning! The elite Imperial unit known as Inferno Squad is hounding them across the galaxy. The crew of the ”Edgehawk” managed to temporarily evade their pursuers, but damage sustained in their escape has forced them to surface for repairs at a remote spaceport. They are more vulnerable than they realize.
Meanwhile, IG-88 is leaving a trail of dead bodies across the underworld as the Empire continues to put bounties on the heads of Crimson Dawn’s allies. But his next target, Unbroken Clan leader Vukorah, is in more immediate peril from her own syndicate….
Writer: Ethan Sacks
Artist: Paolo Villanelli
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Colorist: Arif Prianto
Cover artist: Arif Prianto
Editor: Mark Paniccia
Publication date: April 12, 2023
Issue 33 of Bounty Hunters certainly doesn’t take the foot off the accelerator, and is – as always – all the better for it as we rejoin our cast of characters (and they are as much a cast of characters as any TV show) in the black market spaceport of Depatar, checking the shadows for Imperials. We then see Inferno Squad checking their targets, cautious and wary of the bounty hunters skills and professionalism as we cut to Valance and Bossk tearing into each other, again. This isn’t just a tussle, it’s a brawl and as Bossk insulrtingly calls Beilert a ‘droid’ Valance loses it, only for Tasu Leech leaps in to stop the fight before 4-LOM finally breaks it up. T’onga has had it, reminding them that she’s had to watch them fight since the days of Nakano Lash, and as the current leader of the group she won’t stand for it. Her annoyance at the situation is clear as Bossk and Valance cool their jets and T’onga and 4-LOM head out to get replacement hyperdrive parts, their movements being watched by the Inferno Squad droid.
We cut to Corellia and the fortress of the Unbroken Clan as a mystery starship lands, taking out the guards as we see Vukorah face down the leadership, quitting as Grand Leader only for IG-88 to arrive to claim the bounty on Vukorah and start shooting….
Back with T’onga and 4-LOM as they arrive at their destination to get the hyperdrive parts only for the droid to be taken down and T’onga to realise they’ve walked into an ambush, Iden Versio stepping out to offer T’onga the chance to prove if she’s really as good a fighter as she claims to be. Instead, T’onga leaps away to warn her team, but Versio follows and the two tear it up before Versio’s comrade ends the fight by taking out T’onga with the butt of his rifle. We roll out of the issue as Tasu continues to bristle at the disrespect he is shown by the team as T’onga and 4-LOM return to the ship, a hooded figure promising to ‘iight them up’.
Next months 34th issue promises a shocking conclusion, and if it is the end of this current storyline, as we just saw with the end of the Spark Eternal plot in Doctor Aphra and just as Phase 2 of The High Republic comes to a close, then the 40th anniversary month of Return of the Jedi (it CAN’T be 40 years old!) really will signify both ends and beginnings. Now about to leap beyond Jedi, presumably that means an end to the ongoing Darth Vader title and his presense in the background of the other current titles, as well as (for a number of years) the looming shadow of Palpatine. Whatever Ethan Sacks gives us in the next major storyline for Bounty Hunters, we can only hope it continues to thrill and engage, as the title so far really has been a treat.
