Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #26
“RAID ON THE VERMILLION, PART THREE”
After her team was badly beaten by the Knights of Ren, T’onga continues her incursion on the Crimson Dawn flagship—alone— in a desperate bid to rescue Cadeliah, the young heir to two rival crime syndicates. But while T’onga thinks her wife is safe aboard their ship, the fledging bounty hunter is viciously attacked by the crime lord Vukorah!
Elsewhere, Valance is reluctantly living his childhood dream of becoming an Imperial hero after being conscripted by Darth Vader to lead a team against Crimson Dawn. Forced into his role in order to save the lives of those he cares about on a secret rebel base, he does not know that the Empire has already bombed that planet to oblivion.
Writer:Â Ethan Sacks
Artist: Paolo Villanelli
Letterer:Â Travis Lanham
Colorist: Arif Prianto
Cover artist: Giuseppe Camuncoli
Editor:Â Mark Paniccia
Publication date: August 10 2022
Raid on the Vermillion Part III picks up straight where Part II left off. T’Onga has managed to survive the Knights of Ren and gone ahead to alone go find Cadeliah, sending the rest of her crew back to the Edgehawk. On the Edgehawk, Losha faces down the vicious Lady Vukorah in a fight for life against all odds. However, she may have a furry ace card yet to play…
As T’Onga nears the end of her gruelling fight through the bowels of The Vermillion you really start to feel the emotional and physical toll this has had on her. The fights are violent and ugly, a far stretch away from the beautiful dances of Jedi seen elsewhere. All that’s left in her crusade is hope and the only wall to climb is more bloody murder. Since the death of her brother and her misguided and regretful hunting of Nakano Lash, T’Onga has risked her life, her marriage and the lives of her crew on finding Cadeliah and putting an end to this needless war. What she finds at the end of her crusade is not all what she expected and it’s enough to break her. It’s an emotional gut punch that absolutely cements T’Onga as one of the strongest new additions to the canon and also this arc, in my opinion, as writer Sacks’ masterpiece.
This is also an issue of parallels. When confronted with Qi’ra at the end of her blood soaked yellow brick road it becomes clear that the two woman are after the very same thing; Peace. The difference is that T’Onga’s quest is idealistic and full of heart whereas Qi’ra is seeking peace through domination. Ultimately the end goal remains the same but the methods are vastly different. There is, of course, the more self-serving motivations behind Qi’ra’s plan with the peace-through-control idea more about gathering more power to take on her true enemies, The Sith.
That’s the other strange parallel here, Qi’ra is doing all of this to combat the Empire and the Sith, but they are both trying to achieve the same thing, order. Granted Qi’ra tends to enlist her enemies as much as destroy or subjugate them, but ultimately they’re very similar enterprises.
The second story in this issue is also a corker as Losha faces down Vukorah in a fight for her life. Starting just before the end of this story we see a cornered Losha unleash her furry ace card in the form of the hulking great Nexu Furball. This story goes in an unexpected direction and we finally get a glimpse of the humanity in Vukorah. It’s an extra layer revealed to the already compelling villain, and I’m genuinely excited to see where it takes us. Vukorah has always been an unhinged and unpredictable antagonist and whilst we may have been shown her more vulnerable side I feel that this is going to make her even more dangerous and unpredictable. She’s a ticking time bomb of bloodshed just waiting to go off.
There’s also a couple of third tier stories in this packed issue that focus on Valance, Tasu and Dengar. Good stuff indeed, but lacking the emotional weight of the main two arcs. Sacks has really turned this series around and has delivered maybe the best arc in the whole Crimson Reign crossover, rivalled mainly by Soule’s Star Wars run.
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