Star Wars (2025) #3
COMPLICATIONS
After investigating a raid on New Republic supplies, LUKE SKYWALKER, RYNN ZENAT, and their squadron tracked down the pirates responsible to the edges of the Fenril sector, only to be ambushed.
When Luke located the pirate’s crashed ship, the wounded scoundrel revealed that he was part of a Nagai rebellion and instructed Luke to travel to the planet Gadrilam. There, Luke was to find a rare artifact known as the Crown of Verity that would help reveal the truth of what is happening to the Nagai people.
After battling a brutal group of evil Nagai traitors, Luke learned about a man named GARLEV, who is leading the group of resistance fighters….
Writer: Alex Segura
Artist: Phil Noto
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Colorist: Phil Noto
Cover artist: Phil Noto
Editor: Mark Pannicia
Publication date: July 16 2025
When Star Wars comics are coolking – really cooking – then they feel like an adaptation of a film or an episode, and issue 3 of the latest volume of Star Wars sits snugly in that bracket as writer Alex Segura and artist Phil Noto kick off the issue with a long shot of Cloud City, hanging in lavender skies as a ship roars towards the city, plumes of smoke trailing behind it and we watch as Bespin guards tracks its descent and crash landing on platform East 211. The ship is a wreck and immediately we head to the past, and the world of Karimenen where Han Solo, Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian and Garlev are pinned down by heavy fire, the eye-patched Nagai running as his colleagues follow. In the now we see an older Garlev crawling from the wreckage, pleading to see Lando and we cut away to a bar on the world of Suboreen where han and bounty hunter Beilert Valance are sharing a drink, Han’s plain ale drab by comparison to Valance’s exotic cocktail. Solo requested a meeting, and as they discuss the Zantarrks, and how they’ve crept into the Southern Reaches, bypassing the Pykes and other syndicates. They also have lots of guns, and when Han asks how they moved that much weaponry without being seen, Valance inadvertantly touches a nerve when he asks of Han is ashamed of his old life, firing Han up as he reminds Beilert of how they all have to do what’s necessary to get by, regardless of shame.
Their tense conversation is interrupted by Lando Calrissian on Cloud City, who tells Solo of Garev’s crash landing and perilous condition. He has informartion for the New Republic, and will only give it to Solo, and we cut to the now locked off Fenril sector as Rynn Zenat waits in her X-wing, speaking to her girlfriend Preeti who assures her that while Leia is frustrated that Rynn ‘lost‘ Luke when he blasted off last issue, it’s certainly not her fault. As their conversation comes to a close, Luke arrives, and pooling information – Luke learning what’s happened since his absense – they head back to base.
We’re back in the past as Garlev tells han, Lando and Chewie he knows where the ‘rest’ are, and blaster fire raining on them they separate, Garlev staying behind to do something he can’t ignore. Han lays down cover fire as Garlev thanks him, and we see him in a control room, checking a map and opening a holo of three figures – Mika, Kariss and Tuula – and see Solo return, asking of he had what he needs. He doesn’t, not yet and we return to the present and a key moment as Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon return to Cloud City for the first time since The Empire Strikes Back and those fateful events, as Lando explains the situation.
They walk quickly to the med bay, remembering the past and we see Garlev in the cockpit of a Corellian freighter, Han, Lando and Chewie beside him as they fly around the outskirts of the Moraysian sector. Garlev tells Solo of the weapons they have stashed in the hold, much to Han’s annoyance, and once in the hold we learn the truth; along with the weapons there are people, and Han explodes at the thought of transporting slaves (something he swore never to do as far back as Brian Daley’s Han Solo trilogy of ’79 – ’80). However, we swiftly learn that they’re not slaves at all, but Garlev’s people who he’s trying to save, and we’re back on Cloud City in the present as they arrive at the med bay to find Garlev, the guards and the medical droid all dead.
They give chase and see the assassin down the corridor, and as they try to take them down with carefully aimed blaster fire, Han gets close enough to tackle them to the ground. It’s clearly a woman, but she’s too quick for Solo and with a couple of uppercuts she wrestles him off and manages to get to her ship, up and away from Cloud City.
TYhe next day we see a memorail for Garlev. a solemn affair as Han and Lando say a few words, Solo reminding all that Garlev was just like himself, Valance and Lando, a complicated, contradictory man. With his death, Han is determined to find out what it was he risked his life to say, and we cut to the desert world of Loradil on the edge of the Fenril sector where the now crashed Blockade Runner lies on the sands. The survivors are few, but determined to contact the New republic for help, but as they work on getting a signal out they’re interrupted by a phalanx of Battle Droids.
What a fantastic issue, action packed and full of fascinating nuggets (Solo’s first return to Cloud City since Empire, Han, Lando and Chewie in an adventure after Solo and before Empire) moving the action forward significantly, giving us the mystery of Garlev’s assassination to solve and all delivered with another great Segura script and sumptuous artwork by Phil Noto who matches his beautiful covers with interior art to drool over. Kudos must also go to Noto for coluring his own pensmanship and washing the issue in luscious tones, and with issue 4’s cover promising us a Leia-led adventure, the countdown to Wednesday 20th August is well and truly on.
