Canon Comic Retrospective: Poe Dameron Series

– Full Spoiler Review –

If there’s anybody who can write Star Wars comics well, it is Charles Soule. The man has an incredible range of gifts: from the Master-Padawan relationship of Obi-Wan & Anakin to the tortured mind of a Sith Lord in Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith. If anyone was going to lead the charge into the New Republic era of comic books, I wouldn’t trust anybody more than I would Soule. Poe Dameron, at least at its conception, took us on the search for Lor San Tekka, the occasion shown at the beginning of The Force Awakens. Instead of showing us a straightforward search and rescue mission, the series took some mighty fun pit stops: a cult that worshiped a kaiju-bearing egg, Mr. Bones against the First Order, revisiting Cato Nemoidia, and more. I mean, a lot more.

But the thing is, no matter where the series went, it never lost its heart: Black Squadron. Poe Dameron, the titular character, is the heart and soul of Black Squadron. Soule had a tough task of writing the character before both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, both of which showed Poe make huge strides in his character (How well this was accomplished is dealt with below). Thankfully, Poe was always surrounded by an amazing cast of characters. General Leia Organa played a strong role in the series, proving yet again why she is the leader the galaxy needs. From giving missions, making hard decisions, and even getting her hands dirty, the General will always take central place in our hearts – and the series. Black Squadron is rounded out by characters from The Force Awakens, letting us see even more intimate and in-depth looks at the heroes of the Resistance. We see more of Snap Wexley and Karé Kun as they grow closer in their relationship while seeing Jess Pava’s troubled relationship with astromech droids.

The real surprise of the series (which always seemed to live on a bubble) was the final arc. Instead of ending with rescuing Lor San Tekka from a Cato Nemoidian prison (and Agent Terex), the series pushed into post-Battle of Crait territory! While I (Chris) cover a bit of this later on, I would be remiss to talk about this series without mentioning how often and how well it pushed us beyond the limits of the films. Poe Dameron was one of the trailblazers of the Sequel Trilogy, and for that, I will always be thankful. In retrospect for a mostly extremely well-done series, Head Butler Ryan and I are offering an in-depth discussion. We’ll be discussing our favorite parts (and I think I speak for both of us when I note how hard it was to chose; so much so, in fact, I decided to work around the restriction a bit!) In fairness, we both picked our least favorite element of the series. This was remarkably easy as the series had few low points, the sign of a good series.

Thanks Chris for that really awesome intro! Before we go any further, writer Charles Soule wasn’t alone in his efforts to bring us high-flying, pilot spectacular month in and month out, so I’d (Ryan) like to note everyone else who was involved in the series over its run: Editors include Jordan D. White, with Heather Antos and Tom Groneman as Assistant Editors; Phil Noto was the series artist for issue #1-6, 8-13, and he did cover art for the entire series; Angel Unzueta (art) and Arif Prianto (colors) did art for issues #14-31, and I personally consider them the definitive artist team for the series; Angel Unzeuta (art) and Frank D’Armata (colors) for issue #7; Robbie Thompson (writer), Nik Virella (art), and Jordan Boyd (colors) were the team for Annual #1; and Jody Houser (writer), Andrea Broccardo (art), and Stefani Renee (colors) were Annual #2’s team. Letterer across it all: Joe Caramagna,

Now join Chris and Ryan for the Good, Bad, and In-Between of the Poe Dameron series:

The Good

Agent Terex (Ryan): It might seem like a weird place to start “The Good” section by highlighting the series’ main antagonist, Agent Terex of the First Order, but he’s such a compelling, dynamic character, it’s really easy to love to hate him. Terex is a great foil for hot-shot pilot Poe Dameron for several reasons: they are both charming, as Terex has a bravado for his misdeeds that Poe has for his righteousness; for Poe’s tireless fight for what is right, Terex is relentless in achieving his own nefarious goals, from burning ancient eggs for breakfast to betraying crime lords when they don’t deliver; where Poe has squad-mates he calls friends and family, with superiors who help him through his failures, Terex has slaves being held as blackmail to ensure compliance from spies, with superiors who punish him harshly for his failures. But he’s not just a shadow version of Poe, he has his own desires, outside of the First Order’s, and his own flaws, like an obsessive nature, which make him a well-rounded individual. And what really makes him stand out is how Soule spends so much time developing his character, providing readers Terex’s backstory (loyal Empire soldier, turned crime lord, turned First Order Agent) and giving him a character arc across a majority of the series, which left me cheering for him at the very end, even though he was still the bad guy. With his story left unfinished, his particular brand of devilish charm is free to menace or entertain the galaxy in the future, something I hope to see one day, maybe even in a return of this comic series in the future. Poe is such a big personality, Soule had to ensure someone could match it and Terex does on every level, sometimes even outshining the series’ lead, and is an important part of what made this series so much fun in the first place.

R2-D2 and BB-8 Chat! (Chris): If it was weird to start with the villain of the series, is it even weirder to focus on half an issue of a 31 issue run? I didn’t think so either! Poe Dameron has never been afraid to take risks, big or small. In terms of smaller, yet still amusing risks, we are made privy to a discussion on board the Millennium Falcon between some of our favorite droids! Humorously enough, R2 and BB-8 talk about the battle on Starkiller Base. And we don’t just read their beeps and whistles, either – no, we read their binary conversation translated into Basic! I find this scene really encapsulates a lot of the way that Soule writes Star Wars: his writing is charming, witty, and, really sort of weird! He’s also not afraid to take risks, which is really nice compared to a lot of the “safe” Star Wars that we’ve seen recently. We kind of forget, I think, how quirky the franchise can be at times. Remember when Luke rode a mammalian lizard on a snow planet? Remember when murderous teddy bears tried to eat the Rebels before taking down the Empire? We don’t see risks taken like that anymore, and most people are content to write Star Wars as either simple sci-fi or fantasy. We love a weird franchise, friends, and Soule gets that. R2 and BB-8’s little chat captures the heart of Star Wars when droids can talk, horse-humanoids can be pilots, and giant monsters emerge from underground eggs. That’s right, Soule took a huge risk by starting his brand new series, the first protracted look outside of the films of the post-Endor galaxy, by putting Poe and Terex in the sights of two massive kaiju! No one would have thought the search for Lor San Tekka would start with dragon-pterodactyl-Zillo beast amalgamations, but Soule decided to treat us to something completely unexpected. I know that this opening arc didn’t suit everyone’s tastes, but I thought it was an excellent risk worth taking.

Connectivity (Ryan): One thing Soule is very good at is weaving in bits and pieces of canon from all over into his stories, deepening his tales into the fabric of canon. His connectivity for Poe was no different, covering a wide swath of content from all over the current canon, like: Threepio accidentally setting up Kanjiklub and the Guavian Death Gang’s joint hunt for Han Solo; saving Grakkus the Hutt, who originally appeared in the Star Wars series, results in help later down the line for Poe; Papa Toren from Soule’s own Lando miniseries makes an appearance; Tarkin’s personal ship the Carrion Spike, seen in the novel Tarkin, is used by Terex; L’ulo was first introduced in the Shattered Empire miniseries; and even Mister Bones from the Aftermath Trilogy gets a fitting cameo. Since Soule pulls from a variety of canon sources, like the comics, novels, and even the movies, no matter how much of the current content you’ve read or seen, you’re guaranteed to appreciate some appearance or Easter Egg within.

The Bad

Agent Malarus (Chris): It doesn’t seem quite fair to gang up on poor Agent Malarus, does it? Out of two people’s reviews, both felt the need to call her out specifically as the worst part of a fairly excellent series. I do think this is to be expected: if a series is really good, the bad parts start to stand out like a sore thumb, unfortunately. Malarus was the sore thumb, unable to compare to the heights of the brilliance of Soule’s handling of Black Squadron and Agent Terex. Malarus has very few discernible personality quirks: she is a First Order officer, and that brings about everything you might expect from a villainous officer. Instead of having a distinct personality, she has a huge flaw: she is addicted to space steroids. This does serve to set her apart from the rest of the First Order officers we have met (and really, a lot of characters in general, as I can’t think of many people who abuse steroids in the galaxy!). If I may give a backhanded compliment of sorts: Malarus really wasn’t a bad character. Maybe a bit flat, but not unforgivably so. But in comparison to the rest of the series? She felt like the odd woman out, a fill-in villain while the true villain’s story (Terex) was getting really interesting.

Annual #1 (Ryan): There are several aspects to Poe Dameron’s first Annual issue I enjoyed, from having Poe and BB-8 struggling to survive in outer space, the way Leia’s expressions tell Poe everything he needs to know about her feelings, to the interactions between Poe and his loyal puppy droid, BB-8. However, and I don’t know where the blame all lies, it has some strange continuity issues that make one scratch the head at how they were allowed to happen. For starters, there’s an A-wing with Black Squad when they come and rescue Poe, but this issue is set after L’ulo, the squad’s resident A-winger, has perished. We for sure know it takes place after his death because Poe learns Agent Terex is still alive, something he didn’t think would be the case when he gave Terex over to the First Order in the very same issue as L’ulo’s death. This becomes even more bizarre when you factor in the fact Poe and crew don’t know Terex survived until the “War Stories” arc (#17-19) in the series proper, despite this one ending with them learning he’s alive. And odder still, the discussions Poe and Leia have in scenes set before and after Poe’s mission are the exact same ones he and Leia had in issue #14. Whatever confluence of events lead to this Annual full of problems, hopefully something as error-ridden doesn’t come again, especially since it robs a decent issue of being enjoyable. The second Annual was quite good, at least!

The In-Between

Poe’s Lack of Development (Ryan): Due to Poe originating in the movies and the series taking place relatively close to said films, Poe is basically the same character over the course of the comic as he is in the movies, up until his lesson in leadership during The Last Jedi. Poe’s development as a character was always going to be reserved for the films, especially with a third movie on the way, so while Leia makes attempts at instilling leadership in her top hot-shot pilot prior to the events of TLJ, they won’t truly stick until the lesson he learns in the film. It’s hard to fault this against the comic, as Soule didn’t have any real option in the matter, but out of all the writers working on Star Wars comics, I believe him more than capable to give Poe compelling character development, as he was even touching on the TLJ-like topics before the film came out. Poe as a hot-shot pilot most of the series still made for a fun, enjoyable time, and Terex got the development Poe couldn’t, but it would’ve added to the strength of the series if he changed over time. Sure, the final arc deals with a Poe changed from the events of TLJ, with Soule expertly blending it into his characterization, but Soule’s just reacting to the films, not getting to take the initiative himself. In the end, this was neither a loss nor a plus for the series, but maybe a return of the Poe Dameron comic wouldn’t have the films to contend with and Soule, or whatever writer would take on the series, could drive change in the character instead.

Life on the Bubble (Chris): Originally, my in-between was going to focus on Suralinda Javos. Introduced in the series’ first standalone issue, Suralinda was a journalist who (sort of) joined the Resistance as an eyes on the ground reporter, hoping to report the abuses of the First Order to the galaxy at large. As time progressed, she began to even fly with Black Squadron, going out to help them find allies after the destruction of Starkiller Base. Unfortunately, her path into Black Squadron was fraught with mistrust. At many points, her true allegiances are called into question by Poe and the rest of Black Squadron. Unfortunately, the series never really explores her possibly duplicity, instead resting on telling us that she was maybe/potentially untrustworthy.

I realized now, after talking with Ryan, that the series’ inability to focus on Suralinda’s allegiances may be due to the fact that the series lived its entire life on the verge of cancellation. I am no numbers expert – not by a long shot – but I understand that this series never had the highest sales numbers. (I always track these through Comics With Kenobi on Twitter, who shares the figures as Previews makes them available!) It seems as if Soule wasn’t sure how long the series had, but he noted that it continually came back again and again due to fan demand. So, on one hand, we were blessed to have as much of the series as we did! But, the downside to that was Soule’s ambitious writing style and plotting ability continually ran up against its terminal end date. (This makes me very thankful that Soule had a clear end date for Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith in order to give it the send off it really needs!)

Backstories Come and Gone (Ryan): After two, one panel each flashbacks to Jess Pava’s youth, hinting at a dangerous past due to her and her family being enslaved by pirates at one point, her backstory isn’t explored again. Sure, these teases were used to help us understand some of Jess’ idiosyncrasies and give the character some minor developments, but her past is left untold by series’ end. The same goes for the rest of Black Squadron, minus Temmin Wexley considering he got three novels already, as characters like Karé Kun, L’ulo, and Oddy Muva don’t even get little flashbacks. Considering the medium, there isn’t always a time or place for such details and their present problems and victories are arguably more important to the story of the comic anyways, hence why this isn’t a ding against Poe Dameron, but simply something that would’ve been nice to have.

QUICK HITS:

Favorite Arc: Ryan – “The Awakening” due to it’s post-The Last Jedi framing story and poetic end for the series. | Chris – “Legend Found” was a really good arc, in retrospect. I liked it a lot in my initial arc review, but as time has gone on, I’ve come to appreciate it more and more. I noted in my review that it is usually a bad sign when the titular character becomes the least interesting thing in the series (as a nod to Ryan’s in-between point above), but this arc proved that it doesn’t always need to be a bad thing. General Organa really shines in this arc as she finally steps on the field herself. Between Battlefront II, Poe Dameron arcs before this one, The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and presumably Resistance, Leia’s major job as general has been “hand out other people’s jobs”. In this arc, she plans heists and acts as a decoy with Nemoidian storage specialists in order to get Lor San Tekka off Cato Nemoidia. Not only that, but the arc also introduces Ivee, BB-8’s girlfriend! We finally see the hunt for Lor San Tekka come to an end, but we don’t really spend a lot of time with him personally. This was too bad, but it was a nice end to the series (in a sense, as we did get the post-Crait arc in issues 26-31!)

Least Favorite Arc: Ryan – “Black Squadron” while the beginning arc is solid and fun, it set up expectations for weird, bizarre things but the series never returned to such a tone, while the kaiju felt like a big dues ex machina | Chris – I have a hard time coming up with my least favorite arc. For the most part, the series operated on an above-average level. If I was forced to choose, I might choose “The Gathering Storm.” I loved the concept of C-3PO’s spy network (whom we met in TFA!), I loved the return of Mr. Bones (he was a lot more likable in the hands of Soule), and it was our first prolonged arc for Terex to fight against Black Squadron. Phil Noto’s final arc on the series was a real treat, as well, so it was hard to choose this arc. I think, in the end, most of the other arcs were either too short to be that bad (many arcs were only three issues) and the longer arcs really just shined in comparison. So, as much as this feels like a cop out – and it is! – I have to go with this one.

Top 5 Overall Moments (in no particular order):

Chris

Carrie Fisher’s Memorial: Poe Dameron #14 may have one of the most poignant moments in the entirety of Marvel’s Star Wars comics. Fresh off the death of L’ulo, Black Squadron and the Resistance come together to celebrate his life and mourn his loss. In real life, Carrie Fisher’s passing had rocked the community; of course, every writer in the middle of a book would be honoring that legacy. Soule brings the weight of his grief to bear on this issue, making it a super memorable and heartbreaking and hope-filled reflection on lives that give hope.
Terex breaking free of the restraints: Terex is easily one of Marvel’s best villains. What happens when the First Order tries to break him down? By robbing him of his agency, the First Order threatened to turn a wonderfully 3-D villain into a mindless drone. Thankfully, Terex wouldn’t stand for that and fights against the First Order. He holds Lor San Tekka as a bargaining chip for his escape, smashing his implants with a riot baton to maintain his autonomy.
BB-8’s girlfriend: Do droids need love? Seems like it! Love is in the air as BB-8 and his new girlfriend, Ivee, fix Poe Dameron’s X-Wing. Ivee is a talented R-series mechanic and she uses her skills to impress BB. She would later sacrifice herself in order to save Jess Pava, reminding us that war leaves many, many victims.
Lor San Tekka and Poe’s discussion at the end of #25: After the long search for Lor San Tekka is finalized in issue #25, Lor and Poe have a quick chat during the wedding of Karé Kun and Snap Wexley. Lor explains a bit of the Force to Poe, teaching him that the Force is all around him and is made up of everything living. Soule has such a beautiful understanding of the Force, and it really shines here. If anyone were to write a Force-lore heavy book, I think Soule would be the man to do it!
Jess Pava…destroyer of astromechs??: Jess Pava, a side-character in The Force Awakens, gets new life in the series. Thankfully, Charles Soule is masterful at capturing a multitude of voices, making each character distinct in their own right. But he takes it a step further, giving the characters quirks and character traits, and, well, sometimes, dangerous reputations! Jess develops a reputation as an astromech destroyer, as everyone whom she has flown with has eventually blown up. This comes to bear when Ivee offers to navigate for her, which has fatal consequences as well.

Ryan

Remembering Carrie Fisher (Issue #14): I wrote about this before in my 2017 comics’ year-in-review, but turning the funeral for L’ulo into a way to remember the late, great Carrie Fisher after her surprise passing in December 2016 was a respectful, moving decision by Soule.
Look Who’s Talking, Droid Edition (Issue #28): It was clear the narrators for the attack on Starkiller Base were not Poe, Finn, or Rey, who had been giving their version of movie events in the newly started “The Awakening” arc, but the truth turned out to be even more moving and intriguing then I could’ve imagined: BB-8 and R2-D2! It’s a somber scene that ends with a great laugh, but using droids to tell the stories also hearkens back to an ideal George Lucas set for Threepio and Artoo as narrators of the events we see unfold within the movies.
Terex’s Backstory Makes Me a Villain Fan (Issues #8-13): Diving into Terex’s backstory revealed how he went from wide-eyed Imperial Stormtrooper to charming, but deadly First Order was a surprising, but welcomed move that paid off in dividends, both in strengthening an already memorable character and making me sympathetic to his situation once Phasma shackles him with a cybernetic implant. My favorite part of his backstory is when he comes to realize the goals of his new friends re not the same as his, and his violent reaction sends him down a dark path as a ruthless gang leader for a few decades.
Suralinda Creates Hard Hitting Journalism (Issue #19): While Chris might not have been a fan of Suralinda Javos, she ended up being my favorite character behind Agent Terex, specifically because she came from an ambiguous place when we meet her, having left the New Republic navy years before to become a journalist. At first she’s using Poe to get a lead on the biggest scoop in the galaxy, the Resistance’s location, only to find purpose in the Resistance’s mission and join the cause, even eventually earning her way onto Black Squad after serving a bit of penance as a refresher cleaner. On her very first mission, in keeping with her journalist attitude, she’s taking footage of the First Order’s atrocities to help bring their evil nature to light, but her footage is sacrificed to save the day. How does she make the sacrifice? Using the drones she brought to shoot footage as weapons, plunging into the First Order stormtroopers holding Suralinda, Jess, and Karé, building up to a wonderful pun about hard hitting journalism by Karé. Eager for a story but willing to sacrifice it to save her friends, that’s Suralinda in a nutshell and I’m glad she’s lived to see another day by series end.
Black Squad Saves Itself…Together…One Last Time (Issue #31): While the series is named Poe Dameron, Black Squadron has been alongside the titular character at every step, with the series showing they are an inseparable team. While they get through numerable scraps working together throughout the series, including help from their droids, to me nothing encapsulates this aspect of the comic more than the events in the final issue. In the series’ finale arc, “The Awakening,” Black Squad is in dire straits and in need of assistance against an overwhelming First Order presence, with Poe on-board the Millennium Falcon post-The Last Jedi. He comes to their aide in the squad’s greatest time of need, but it takes the actions of every member of Black Squad to pull off their victory, just as it was from the very beginning.

Words From Elsewhere On Poe Dameron’s End:

As for Charles Soule’s word on the Poe Dameron series, look no further than his lengthy, insightful interview with Comics With Kenobi! The interview begins at the 47:34 mark and is a really delicious piece of behind-the-scenes fun about the comic which I (Ryan) highly suggest you check out. Some of the highlights, which include teases at future content and other fun tidbits: Editor Jordan D. White approached him about the series in the summer of 2015 (roughly) and Soule was intrigued enough about the timeline to want the job; the series was originally scheduled for 12 issues, which wouldn’t have even finished the search for Lor San Tekka storyline; the kaiju-filled egg of the first arc was originally not an egg, but it was too close to something else in the works (!!) they had to switch it to an egg; Soule believes the series should fit organically with the films (I would say they do); Suralinda was created because Soule felt we haven’t really seen propaganda weaponized for conflicts in the GFFA like we do here; he got to basically choose who lived or died from Black Squad so we have him to thank they all survived!; In one of the biggest teases, Soule found out some of the things he’s created for Poe are already TURNING UP ELSEWHERE/possible hinting Resistance since he’s keeping his eyes on it (please be Terex, please be Terex! Or maybe that’s who Richard E. Grant is playing in Ep. IX…); he wanted Poe to be in a Jedi Starfighter in the final issue, but that was squashed as well (potentially too close to an upcoming story beat?); and, as a self-confessed Palpatine fan, he’s been in discussion about a novel for ol’ Sheev but it hasn’t been much more than that right now. Seriously, there are so many more good tidbits within so go give it a listen!
Over at Star Wars Explained, an excellent YouTube fan channel that is actually made by an upstanding citizen of the galaxy unlike most of the scum on there, Alex provided his Top Five Moments of the series to commemorate its ending. It’s a great list and no arguments here!

January 2019 will be the first month since Charles Soule started on the Lando miniseries there won’t a comic written by him, which says a lot about Lucasfilm/Marvel’s confidence in his quality of work, something us readers have been able to enjoy over the years. Soule brought his considerable talents to Poe Dameron, like he does with everything else, and he had some excellent art teams, Phil Noto, Angel Unzueta, and Arif Prianto, which complemented him in their own stunning, refreshing ways, while it’s been a blast while it lasted considering Poe Dameron lasted longer than ever planned, another good sign of Soule’s writing quality. Though Poe’s series might be ending, we’re sure to see the hotshot pilot again, be it in Age of Resistance, Star Wars Resistance, and of course Episode IX, among other things, but none of these projects will focus on what really made this comic special: the teamwork Poe has with Black Squadron. Thankfully we might get to see Poe and Black Squad in action again one day, as Soule has been teasing he’s certain this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Poe in comics, which if a return is anything like what this series produced, with the potential to be unfettered from tying into any movies and striking its own mark into the ever expanding canon, I can only hope Soule is there for the ride too. Until then, the current Poe Dameron series, while sad to have it over, is now luminous in our hearts and minds.

Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. Chris is the Manor’s Sous Chef. You can follow him on Twitter @ChrisWerms, You can follow the website @MynockManor.

All comic panel images credited to Marvel/Lucasfilm