Star Wars: Halcyon Legacy #4
PART 4
“THE HEIST ON THE HALCYON”
The ”Halcyon” has been assailed by the notorious pirate Crimson Jack, who seeks to capture a Resistance spy on board for a lucrative First Order bounty.
But the heroic Captain Keevan and Cruise Director Lenka Mok may have a trick or two up their sleeves.
Meanwhile, amid all the terror, logistics droid D3-O9 is distracting a young passenger with tales from throughout the legendary ship’s long history.
Writer: Ethan Sacks
Artist: Will Sliney
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Colourist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Cover artist: E.M. Gist
Editor: Mark Paniccia
Publication date: July 6, 2022
The nefarious pirate Crimson Jack continues to assail the Halycon in search of the Resistance spy for The First Order. Captain Keeva and Cruise Director Lenka Mok fight through a solar storm as they try to wrestle the ship out of the pirates hands. Meanwhile D3-09 tries to distract young Cimina by telling her a story of a duo of scoundrels that managed to overcome impossible odds against The Empire.
I’ll be honest, I’ve struggled somewhat with this series. It has moments of fun and I admire the range of era’s that the stories are set in but I’ve found the the quality to be inconsistent. It’s a common criticism of anthology series’ and the Galaxy’s Edge run from 2019 suffered with the same problems. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some fantastic Star Wars anthologies like the Legends Tales comics, Vader’s Castle by Cavan Scott and the current and wonderful Obi-Wan run, that just make this all the more frustrating as this series was already at a disadvantage because of cynicism amongst the fanbase due to it’s commercial ties to Disney World.
This issue, however, is probably the most enjoyable so far due to the forever entertaining lead characters of Honda and Lando. It’s always great to see Hondo and there’s been a distinct lack of him in canon since Rebels finished. He’s always provided wonderful levity in the franchise when thing’s have gotten too dark or serious. That’s not the case here but his inclusion gels well the comics lighter tone and makes me wish that all the issues were narrated by him. Can we get a Hondo anthology series Lucasfilm?
Lando is on fine rascally form too as it’s set just before he finds his morals on Bespin. The Lando here is definitely written more frivolously than the stellar work by Charles Soule in his Lando miniseries and Star Wars (2020) but like Hondo, it works for the story being told. It would have been a little bit jarring to find the more sexually ambiguous and quietly tortured version of Lando aboard the Halycon and working with eternal jokester Hondo Ohnaka. The third member of the three intergalactic amigo’s is Maz Kanata! As an unapologetic fan of (most of) the sequel era I’ve found myself hungry for more content the focus shifted after the release of The Rise of Skywalker. Maz is a mysterious and fascinating character so I will happily welcome and encourage any future Maz content. In this issue she’s a little less the wise sage of exposition and more of the Pirate Queen we’ve heard of but never really seen before. It’s a strange grouping but one that works. There’s also a nice little nod to a certain artefact from The Force Awakens.
The framing story finally moves forward after lollygagging for a couple of issues. With the spy revealed actual stakes are introduced as the spy, Shorr Komrrin, attempts to lead the pirates away from the cruiser in a bid to save his granddaughter Cimina. I appreciate the gesture but using your granddaughter as cover for your covert operations isn’t going to win you any Grandfather of the Year awards. Poor girl. I actually care about what happens to her now in the next and final issue. Only took four issues to actually connect with someone.
Star Wars Halcyon Legacy #4 (Rahzzah Variant) @ ForbiddenPlanet.com