War of the Bounty Hunters – IG-88 #1
“BORN TO KILL”
IG-88 is a ruthless assassin droid with an unparralleled reputation
for mahyem, violence and efficiency.The droid recently met its match at the hands of Darth Vader.
Are IG-88’s destructive days finally done?
Writer: Rodney Barnes
Artist: Guiu Vilanova
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Colorist: Antonio Fabela
Cover artist: Mahmud Asrar
Editors: Tom Groneman, Mark Paniccia
Publication date: October 27, 2021
If the War of the Bounty Hunters series and the ongoing monthly Bounty Hunters title have shown us nothing else, it’s how extremely hard work it is to be a successful bounty hunter. 4-LOM loses his head, Bossk gets tied to a rock in freezing conditions, Dengar floats off on an iceberg, Boba Fett not only has his reputation shredded to bits (for a while anyway) but is constantly in combat, Valance gets fixed….which sounds good until he discovers it’s by Darth Vader, and as for IG-88? He arguably has it toughest of them all, if an expertly manufactured artificial creation of wires, tubes and semi-psychotic circuits can consider anything to be ‘tough‘. Here, in his very own well-deserved one-shot, we get inside the Phlut droids head where we find him in bits – literally – on a cold planet, dismembered by the lightsaber blade of Darth Vader.
IG-88 is very much aware of his reputation and how easily that can be damaged, and it’s following his keen desire to become a legend in the bounty hunting world that forms the spine of the issue. For an organic being, to lose to Vader is the end of all things (corporeal at least, less so if a Force ghost) but for IG-88 it’s a mere bump in the road. Found by the droid recommisioner RB-919, the assassin droid is expertly repaired and we quickly get to know this master mechanic, in such a way it feels logical and right that he could become a permanent fixture in the life of IG-88, fixing, upgrading and repairing him as he re-enters the bounty hunting profession. Unfortunately for RB-919 that’s a vastly inaccurate assumption. As the droid is reactivated from his repair, now stronger than ever and tasked with a mission from Deva Lompop, the first thing he does is test his new capabilities by ending RB-919.
With a clear directive to ‘kill all who are no longer needed‘ and with RB-919’s ship at his disposal, the Phlut droid heads off in search of Fett, contacting Lompop to be told he now works for Crimson Dawn and is the back-up plan to reacquire Solo after being taken by Fett. Knowing where Slave 1 is, IG-88 heads to Tatooine, evading and destroying pirates along the way, and gains access to Fetts ship where the carbonite frozen Solo silently waits. It all feels too easy, which it is as Fett returns to the ship and a fight breaks out that sees the two go at it hammer and tong until IG-88 is lured into a carbonite chamber where he is frozen solid and left on the desert sands as Fett leaves with Solo. We end as IG-88 returns to his ship and back to the world we first saw him to ponder on his failures and work on a way to improve so he can finally become the galaxy’s greatest bounty hunter.
This really is a top-notch issue, with superb art and coloring by Guiu Vilanova and Antonio Fabela, bringing a thoughtful script by Rodney Barnes to life. All through the one-shot, IG-88 is very much aware of his capabilities, and yet somewhere in his programming something is hindering his ascent to the top of the bounty hunting mountain. We know from decades of stories he has few peers, but this really does – in a way his infamous Tales of the Bounty Hunters short story never quite did – get inside not only his head but also his motivations. Leaving him pondering his shortcomings and his existence at the end of the issue sets up some juicy future stories and potential appearances for the droid. Perhaps one of those will be in The Book of Boba Fett? We can but hope, but whatever his future, this is an issue you need to have, not only as a part of the War of the Bounty Hunters but as a story on its own merits.
Star Wars: The Mandalorian: Black Series Action Figure: Cobb Vanth @ ForbiddenPlanet.com
