Bounty Hunters (2020) #38
THE PATH OF THE RIGHTEOUS, PART 2
T’onga and her bounty hunter crew have brought Valance to a mysterious fixer aboard a secret droid colony in a last-ditch attempt to save their cyborg friend’s failing neural processor.
But unbeknownst to them, their supposed savior, Kligson, has already wiped Valance’s memories—the last vestiges of what made him human.
Other dangers are circling the crew. Even now, a deadly droid army is advancing on Zuckuss and 4-LOM. All of Kligson’s plans tie into a long-simmering crusade—one that dates back to the days of the Clone Wars.
A crusade that has been reignited by a major scourge threatening all droids!
Writer: Ethan Sacks
Artist: Davide Tinto
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Colorist: Arif Prianto
Cover artist: Marco Checchetto
Editor: Mark Paniccia
Publication date: September 20, 2023
We kick off the 38th issue of Bounty Hunters with a dip into the past and the latter days of the Clone Wars as the legendary Separatist General Grievous visits the Haven, in orbit around Kilgson’s Moon. He is there to get reinforcements for the Separatist Army in the hope that will be enough to secure the defeat of the Republic, but in the absense of Ajax, Telemak is in charge and with their conferance brief the meeting soon ignites into violence. Back in the present, Telemak is still present, informing T’onga and her crew that Valance will soon be repaired. We quickly learn that it is Kligson who is feeding Telemak it’s lines, and in fact Valance is far from ok, secured to a wall with his mind wiped.
The T’onga crew are restless and eager to depart, and as we watch 4-LOM and Zuckuss move through the station with a dozen silent droids sneaking up behind them we see a Mouse Droid deploy one of the small ‘scourge’ droids to turn 4-LOM, and as they smash it more appear, their exit blocked by the droids behind them.
They fight, holding the hoard back and backed into a corridor where they find an escape pod, realising there’s not enough time to enter and secure the hatch before the droids are on them. Zuckuss makes a brave decision, pushing 4-LOM into the pod and explaining that it was a better option to see him escape than than being turned to fight them. Agreeing, 4-LOM blasts away as Zuckuss turns to fight as we return to the impatient T’onga crew, waiting for the depowered Telemak to reawaken as T’onga explains why she is so keen to help Valance, because she couldn’t help her brother, Nakano Lash or her wife Losha. If she can save Valance, maybe it’s all for something.
We return to the past as Grievous slices through the droid army in front of him, coming face to face with Telemak as more droids swarm and overpower the general. Tired of the distraction he retreats, claiming droids are replaceable and vowwing to return to finish their encounter. Telemak turns to Kligson behind him, knocking him to the ground, conscious of the debt the droids owe his family but tired of Kligson speaking for droids when he is in fact a cyborg, and we return to Kligson in the ‘now’ as Valance is returned to his friends, but showing no emotion.
Catak makes the choice to shapeshift and change into Yura, hoping to activate the humanity within, but that humanity is gone which we see with devastsating effect as Valance literally blows the head and shoulders off the clawdite and we end as T’onga realises this isn’t the desparate cyborg friend they delivered to Kligson to be helped.
No surprise, another explosive issue as the shadow of Dark Droids looms over the issue but doesn’t steer from the core of the titles ongoing storylines as Valance reaches a crossroads and the Kligson storyline – one very satisfying for old school fans – continues, nudging into the Clone Wars era and the time before the Battle of Endor. Great art, snappy dialogue, fast-paced action, how can you say no?
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Sacks, Ethan (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 22 Pages - 10/04/2023 (Publication Date) - Marvel (Publisher)
