Star Wars (2020) #48
THE PATH OF DARKNESS
After an arduous trial for Lando Calrissian, it is time for the rebels to focus on the war against the Empire.
But while one hero of the Rebellion makes peace with their past, another still struggles with great loss….
Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: Jethro Morales
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Cover artist: Stephen Segovia
Editor: Mark Paniccia
Publication date: July 17 2024
With the stresses and strains of command, it’s incredible that Leia Organa – who don’t forget is only twenty-three years old at the time of Return of the Jedi – holds it together so well. A princess, a senator, a general and a friend, her young shoulders have a lot to carry, so the opening pages of Star Wars (2020) #48 do feel like a long overdue release of emotion for the last princess of Alderaan.
We open on Alderaan as a young Leia sits on the balcony of the Royal Palace drawing the cityscape outside when suddenly the skies darken and in the red skies above sits the dreaded Death Star. Running inside she asks her parents what it is as we cut to an older Leia and the scene from A New Hope as Grand Moff Tarkin asks for the location of the Rebel base. However, instead of playing out as it did in the film we see Leia forced to fire on her home planet, and watch the panic on the ground as the world is turned to rubble, the young Leia, Bail and Breha clinging together as they die. It’s a dream, one that sees Leia sit bolt upright in a cold sweat, and as Threepio enters to check on her she decides to speak to Luke Skywalker who is similarly restless. She opens up to her friend, telling him she’s not sure she can do this anymore, the pressures of command too much and her hopes of finding Han Solo stronger than ever now she knows lando is aware of his exacrt whereabouts. Luke reminds her that she’s the strongest person he knows, how she cares more than anyone, and as she composes herself she gets a call from fellow Aleraanian Evaan Verlaine who asks to meet her in the hangar.
Luke and Leia walk to the hangar together and learn that the Survivors Fleet – a fleet that carries the last survivors of Alderaan, hunted by the Empire – haven’t been in contact for the last three check-ins. Evaan believes they have vanished and asks for permission to investigate, and while Leia initially opts to stay behind it’s Luke who persuades her that this may well be the distraction she needs to get her head back in the game. He decides to come along, and we see the two vessels in the depths of space, scanning for the fleet, which they locate when they find one of their ships, the Thranta. Luke and Leia board while Evaan patrols, and as they run the options of why they lost contact they get a life sign.
Leia identifies the body hooked up inside a bacta tank as Jora Astane, a woman who worked to preserve what she could of Alderaanian culture. However, Luke is suspicious, feeling nothing from Jora within the Force. He senses a trap, and that’s confirmd as Evaan tells them to get back to the shuttle right away as they’re under attack, which they do until their ship is fired upon and an explosion knocks Leia to the ground, injured. Boarded, Luke fights their attackers and gets Leia into a pod – a one-man pod, which he launches before she can stop him. Tumbling through space she watches in pain as the ship takes hit after hit, and sees it explode as her pod is captured by a grapple hook and pulled inside a larger vessel. Much to her surprise she’s confronted by a familiar (albeit cybernetically repaired) face, the former Imperial Commander Ellian Zahra.
With the 2020 run of Star Wars ending with issue 50, and the long run from Empire to Jedi finally complete, it may seem like an odd moment to choose to show Leia’s uncertainty at leadership, but when you think of the events about to unfold in Episode VI it makes all the sense. In Jedi they’ve decided to place saving their friend above the immediate needs of the Rebellion, and while it’s a choice that pays off given Han’s involvement in the ground battle on Endor, you have to wonder whether rescuing him above staying with the fleet massing near Sullust was more for Leia’s peace of mind than anything else. For a year she’s kept it together, almost emotionless at times and cool in her decisions but breaking down in front of Luke we realise that she’s a young woman in love who needs Han Solo. She told him she loved him, and she’s lost enough – her cold sweat nightmares about Alderaan make that clear.
Beautifully observed as always by Charles Soule and carefully crafted by Jethro Morales (who draws emotions fantastically well) this is a little gem on the final stretch to the end of this current volume of Star Wars.
