Bounty Hunters (2020) #39
THE PATH OF THE RIGHTEOUS, PART 3
T’onga has sacrificed everything to bring a damaged Valance to a mysterious fixer named Kligson in time to save his memories, his last remaining vestige of humanity. But little do the bounty hunters know that they have walked into a trap!
For Kligson has nefarious designs on his fellow cyborg. Plans that are at the very center of a vast scourge enveloping droids across the galaxy.
And the only hope for the hunters crew may come from the unlikeliest of sources….
Writer: Ethan Sacks
Artist: Davide Tinto
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Colorist: Arif Prianto
Cover artist: Marco Checchetto
Editor: Mark Paniccia
Publication date: October 4, 2023
We open on The Haven, in orbit around Kligson’s Moon as the droid Lord Telemak faces off with Kligson, and we quickly learn that the cyborg has brought the scourge on board, and watch as his forces take down Telemak, but only after informing him of the return of Ajax and how the iconic droid dind’t look for his followers as Kligson made sure to purge the data logs so he never knew they existed, and tears the head off Lord Telemak. We cut to the prior day onboard the Enigma Catalyst as Valance sits alone, his door buzzing as T’onga enters. She promises to do her level best to help repair him, but he replies with a chilling request; if he can’t be fixed, she needs to end him before he becomes a merciless killing machine. She sadly promises to do as he asks, his logic inarguable.
We cut to today as Valance stands before T’onga, bodies strewn around and Kligson explains his actions – he has perfected Valance by stripping out the last vestiges of humanity from him, and as the headless body of Catak lies on the cold floor, we see Valance grab T’onga and pull back for what would surely be a death blow as Zuckuss leaps in and pulls them apart. Beilert begins to attack, knocking Zuckuss to the floor as Bossk leaps in and is similarly dispatched. With no consciousness inhibiting his actions he is the perfect killing machine, and an empty vessel for a ‘higher consciousness’. Deathstick leaps in, confident she can stop him, but he’s faster than ever and knocks her down before T’onga once again steps in front of him to appeal to his humanity.
One member of the T’onga team remains, and the hulking Durge tries to stop Valance, but even he is defeated as Kligson takes Valance away for further experimentation as T’onga weakly pleads for her cyborg friend to fight it. We step away to the Kirkeide Station and see T’onga’s wife Losha enter the control room. Droid bounty hunters across the system are glitching but instead she is tasked with logging in a new bounty hunter who has just arrived, who we learn is Vukorah, former general of the Unbroken Clan crime syndicate who’s arrived with a ship full of Tooka cats. She opens the door to find a furious Losha waiting, who knocks her to the ground demanding vengeance for her murdered Nexu. Vukorah pulls a gun but relents, explaining how she’s trying to turn over a new leaf, just as the station manager cries out as his small pit droids start attacking him. Together Losha and Vukorah fight the droids, and as they battle she realises that this scourge isn’t only attacking droids but cyborgs as well, meaning her wife T’onga is in danger.
Back to T’onga who is fighting to stop valance being taken away. Kligson is ready for his next step with the scourge, but he is denied the chance as they determine him to be too human to change or to accept his limitations, one of the last things he experiences as Durge grabs his skull and ends him off-camera. T’onga watches Valance be flown away and rallies her crew, explaining that she knows where the cyborg is being taken and that she’s not going to save him, but to keep her promise kill him.
This past weekends New York Comic Con saw the Star Wars: Stories From A Galaxy Far, Far Away…panel reveal that Bounty Hunters will end in just 3 issues time with issue 42, and while this reviewer is saddened by the news there’s also an upside to the series ending. At no juncture has Bounty Hunters been anything other than top notch, and with this particular storyline racing towards it’s issue 41 conclusion with a big finale planned for the final issue I’m confident that we’ll look back at the series in a few years time with the same satisfaction we have over the past 3 years. Ethan Sacks, Paulo Villanelli and the rest of the artistic team have done a superb job with this title, a series that could easily have fallen into a repetitive rut but instead challenged readers with heart, wit, action and intrigue. With just 3 more issues left, let’s enjoy the last leg of this tremendous ride.
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Sacks, Ethan (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 21 Pages - 11/22/2023 (Publication Date) - Marvel (Publisher)
