Star Wars #17 (2020)
WAR OF THE BOUNTY HUNTERS:
The Chase
Darth Vader has claimed the carbonite-imprisoned Han Solo for himself and threatened to destroy Solo to draw Luke Skywalker out.
Luke approached, then quickly fled, leading Vader away from the ”Vermillion” and Solo.
Now Luke must keep Vader at bay while Leia attempts to save her love, Han Solo….
Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: Ramon Rosanas
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Cover artist: Carlo Pagulayan, Jason Paz, Rain Beredo
Editor: Mark Paniccia
Publication date: September 29, 2021
When the Dark Lord of the Sith is hot on your tail, it’s normal to check left, right, up and down to find him, but as Luke Skywalker and R2-D2 blast across the Polar Sea of Jekara, staying as low as possible to keep off enemy radars, the last place they’d expect Darth Vader’s TIE Advanced x1 to appear from is underneath the icy waters and up into the sky, but that’s exactly where he springs from. He immediately goads Luke as he speeds away, reigning fire down on the T-65 he tells Luke how he’ll never see Han Solo again, the carbonite-frozen Corellian captain now on a Lambda class shuttle headed for the Executor.
Luke notices the waters of Jekara’s Polar Sea freezing as it sprays up and pulls a sudden turn, lashing water towards Vader’s TIE which freezes in mid-air, clipping the TIE Advanced and sending it crashing into the ice floes below. Here, at his mercy, Luke has a quandry. Vader pops the cockpit window and steps out, igniting his blade as Luke swings the X-Wing around but instead decides not to fire, instead speeding away. He’s not yet ready to face the man who could be his father, and while logically we know he can’t best him yet – we’re in the year between Empire and Jedi, so certain meetings need to be avoided – it’s undoubtedly a tense moment.
Luke contacts the Millennium Falcon to confirm Vader’s story about Solo and learns that it is indeed true, but also finds that the ships in orbit are all knocked out – it’s a race to repair and get to the shuttle before it can complete its journey to the Executor. Luke tells Lando that Vaders ship is down and out just as we see the Sith lord raise the x1 from the icy waters while back on the Falcon Lando deduces that the problem affecting all ships was a seismic charge, a signature weapoin most likely set off by Boba Fett. Solo’s captaincy of the Falcon has been far less maintenance-focused than Calrissians was and so the work begins to check diagnostics. Lando offers to crawl through the tight service crawlway to run the diagnostic as a fleet of Hutt ships arrive, presumably also looking for Solo.
Here we get to the heart of this issue. We may be deep in Empire – Jedi territory, but the events of the criminally overlooked Solo: A Star Wars Story continue to ripple through the Star Wars saga and as Lando works to run those diagnostics he talks to L3-37, jury-rigged and made a part of the Millennium Collective years before during the infamous Kessel Run. Lando carries a ton of guilt, about that and other choices he’s made and asks that she hold off on the next reactor pulse long enough for him to complete the scan and get out, which is exactly what happens, leaving a lone Lando to thank her one more time.
With repairs now possible and the Hutts closing in, Leia calls Luke but the revivied x1 with Vader at the helm attacks, meaning Luke has to break off to watch his six as Lando and Leia have a brief moment to have a heart to heart and come to an udnerstanding about Lando and his own motivations. It’s understandable that a bruised and betrayed Leia would look at Lando’s actions as selfish and self-motivated, but finally she steps back to see the man he truly is, willing to risk it all – gamble in his parlance – to fight for a win, and what matters. The ship ready to go thanks to Chewie’s mechanical skills, they vow to rescue Solo as the issue ends.
For a tale of the Star Wars story told in pen and ink rather than actors, sets and VFX, to say it feels like it should be cast, shot, scored and adored is the highest praise, but this absolutelty feels like it deserves to be seen in live action with the art of Rosanas and Rosenberg used as the storyboards to follow. It’s grand, cinematic storytelling scripted by Charles Soule who continues to find the voices of the characters, carve new wrinkles in a story we’ve known for almost 40 years and fold in newer elements that have been lovingly added to this classic story. It’s far more difficult to get right than get wrong but when it’s done as skillfully as this then it adds up to an impressive tale that not only adds peril and depth to The War of the Bounty Hunters but deepens our understanding of that key Empire to Jedi period. Excellent work all round.
Star Wars #18 (Wobh) @ ForbiddenPlanet.com
