Star Wars: Jango Fett #2
TRAIL OF LOST HOPE, PART 2
In the years before the Clone Wars, a lone bounty hunter makes is way through thevgalaxy, one hunt at a time. His name is….
After a brazen heist of the priceless Hope of Glee Anselm, the galaxy braces for war! The Republic has hired the legendary bounty hunter Jango Fett to track down the thief before it’s too late.
But little does Fett know that an old adversary is hot on his trail–the assassin known as Aurra Sing….
Writer: Ethan Sacks
Artist: Luke Ross
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Colorist: Nolan Wood
Cover artist: Leinil Francis Yu
Editor: Mark Paniccia
Release Date: April 24, 2024
Where better to open an issue of a bounty hunting based comic than Level 1313 on Coruscant? There can’t be many, and that’s where we find Jango Fett at the start of the second issue as he lies in wait only to be found by a trio of Trandoshans who ignore his sage advice and instead of skulking away they attack. Moments later we watch Jango calmly walk down the street as around him are the unconscious (most likely terminally) bodies of the Trandoshans, and we watch as he enters an oval room where the Anselmi wait for him. Fett is hunting for the Hope of Glee Anselm, and while they believe it rightfully belongs to them Fett is only interested in business, and they’re in his way. They tell him that no one knows about their secret project to retrieve the Hope, and from that Fett takes away the fact that if it’s secret, then he can take them out and no one will be any the wiser. He goes into attack mode as they scatter, using his whistling birds gauntlet launcher to take them all down.
That just leaves Fett and a youngster who at first feigns ignorance but quickly starts to offer up information on the latest news regarding the Hope. War is about to restart between the Nautolans and the Anselmi, something Supreme Chancellor Valorum could well do without as his own administration flounders. He shows Fett images of an unidentified vessel which Fett grabs and takes away as we cut to Aurra Sing watching him through her scope from high above, and see her launch a tracker to clamp to Slave 1 as he leaves Coruscant.
As he leaves Coruscant airspace he’s contacted by Fiarok, the head of the Nautolan Peace Delegation who tells Fett that he shouldn’t have relied on a bounty hunter to complete such a vital mission and cancels the contract. Fett bluntly refuses, telling Fiarok he has a deal with the Republic, so he will find the thief and Jango will receive his payment. He cancels the call to take another, this time from Kligson (yes, that Kligson) who has decoded the mystery of the unidentified vessel and tracked it to Hallitron-7 in the Jalor sector. Fett lands, and as he wordlessly works his way to the centre of the scrapyard, using his range finder to scope out his surroundings he finds the Blood Oath Syndicate, a group of hulking Chevin who at first act tough but quickly back off as Jango moves in and roughs them up, demanding to know more about the location of the Hope. The lead Chevin Renzoh was just the pilot, instructed to fly the thief and the Hope, but it was a double-cross and out of sympathy Renzoh decided to help the young thief.
Suddenly a vibroaxe comes whistling in and Jango is attacked by Vigor Struk, and we pull back to see Aurra Sing who is instructed by Judicial Huijari (the green-skinned alien who freed her from prison in the last issue) to head to the computer systems and see what information she can find, which she does by dropping into the computer room amidst a throng of aliens. We see a skittish Renzoh make a run for it, only to have his huge head and neck snapped by Huijari, and watch Sing make short work of the room of attackers, leaving only a single droid who wisely agrees to help her.
We return to Jango battling Vigor, who has the drop on Fett and brings him to his knees but not before Jango can activate his gauntlet and we see Slave 1 rise, lights glaring and open fire, hitting Vigor in the arm and giving Jango time to rocket-pack his way back to his ship. Aurra returns to Huijari, telling him she believes their quarry is on the mining colony of Roxuli and we skip to Slave 1 to see Jango first use a medkit to repair himself and then receive a message, telling him to go to Roxuli. It’s a message from the fugitive….
The run up to the May the 4th weekend and a slew of events meant I’d fallen behind on my comic reviews, so I’m very much in ‘catch-up’ mode, something that can be a tad daunting when the issues start to pile up. Thankfully, I chose Jango Fett #2 as the first comic to review and it’s very effectively reminded me why I enjoy Star Wars comics (and reviewing them) so much. Here the action skips along like a stone skimming the surface of a lake, always moving and making splashes as it hops along. Jango is good – very good – but not infalible, and we see him get his backside handed to him in an intense fight, which then goes to highlight his resourcefulness when he uses Slave 1 to bail him out and escape. Aurra is every bit the lethal threat we know her to be, while the chase for the Hope continues to hot up. Even the Nautolan Delegate who thinks he can simply cancel a contract on Jango gets a laugh; if this was animation landing on Disney Plus at 8.00am on a Wednesday rather than a comic that’s review embargoed until 2.00pm, it would be grabbing all the attention.
As always Ethan Sacks soars with this chase for the Hope of Glee Anselm storyline, while Luke Ross delivers mouth-watering artwork that makes you want to turn the page to see more as well as scour the page for details (in comics that’s the perfect balance). Two issues to go and no idea whether Sacks and Ross have any plans to work together again, but if they don’t then maybe they should consider it as so far this is working like a charm.
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Sacks, Ethan (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 23 Pages - 05/29/2024 (Publication Date) - Marvel (Publisher)
