– Spoiler Review –
Han Solo – Imperial Cadet #1 begins an intriguing miniseries that will cover Han’s time in the Imperial Academy during the time-jump in Solo: A Star Wars Story, something I’m way more excited for than another adaptation. While the first issue doesn’t quite live up to the description made at NYCC, Star Wars meets Full Metal Jacket meets Stripes(what could?), it offers some fun potential I hope it can take advantage of in the next four issues.
UPDATE 12/16/18: After a lot of consideration, I will not be reviewing this series again until the miniseries has been completed with issue #5 in March 2019. This has nothing to do with the quality but rather time constraints and how my review process works. I apologize for any inconvenience, but I will tweet mini-reviews about each new issue, at the very least. Thanks for reading!
UPDATE 4/7/19: My review of the full miniseries is up!
What I appreciated most about Han Solo – Imperial Cadet #1 is how the issue goes back a bit before the opening events of Solo, setting up Han and Qi’ra’s drive to get off of Corellia and their plan to eventually steal the right item from their jobs for Lady Proxima, so that you could jump into this comic without having seen the movie/read the novel and still largely get the same experience as those who have. Reducing the barrier to entry was a smart play and could really help this miniseries in the long run, as the other Solo tie-in, Lando – Double or Nothing, felt like one really convoluted, unnecessary explanation for how/why Lando ended up at the sabacc table where he and Han meet for the very first time. If Imperial Cadet can feel more like a standalone mini, potential for which is bolstered by this opening issue, it’ll be able to avoid such a unfortunate fate.
The basic parts of classic military training films like Full Metal Jacket and Stripes are hiding in this issue, but it only feels like an echo so far, like how Han has both a tough-as-nails drill sergeant Triosa Broog, who punishes everyone for his flippant remarks, and a bully who doesn’t like him (or anyone, for that matter). He meets a ragtag group who help him when he’s down, a young woman named Kanina and two twins named Lyttan and Tamu Dree, and it seems like they’ll be his “friends” for a time during his academy days. For Broog, she sounds and acts like Full Metal Jacket’s drill instructor, Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (as played by R. Lee Ermey), though she has only two or so interactions with Han and his group, meaning she doesn’t come off as more than a caricature of Hartman, delivering some similar punishments though not much else, so hopefully she factors in some more otherwise it’ll feel a bit like a missed opportunity. By the end of this issue, and from what some of the solicits have teased, it looks like this mini will be more Stripes, a really funny 80’s military comedy with Billy Murray, going forward, something I’m anticipating instead of more FMJ.
This first issue ends with Han doing something drastic, in typical Han fashion, but it felt his first big rebellious act against the Imperial training system came too fast and too early, as while he does go through a tough time, it didn’t quite seem enough to warrant him stealing a TIE fighter to go back to Corellia, potentially harming/killing fellow Imperials along the way. He might be able to talk himself out of the whole situation, as he tells Chewie he always does in The Force Awakens, but I’m honestly surprised he lived another day (aka the Empire didn’t execute him) after his actions here. His move to steal the TIE to go back to Corellia being more of a reaction to wanting to get back to Qi’ra, when he’s told it’ll take a long time for him to even get to flight training after his progress through basic, does help his actions make a little more sense, as the sense of urgency to get back and save Qi’ra didn’t go away overnight. We know Han working within a system is never going to be comfortable or a good fit for him, but in the end this still felt way too early, though we’ll see what the repercussions are and how he acts going forward, balancing things out a bit.
Writer Robbie Thompson is off to a solid enough start, hitting a fun and breezy pace, with a good grasp on Han. The art team consists of Leonard Kirk (art) and Arif Prianto (colors), with Kirk’s art being overall good, but it feels too busy at times, with some odd poses/faces might not always look like the character we know, like Han’s face when he’s getting an Imperial hair cut, while the colors lean a little dark, making the rain scenes towards the end a little hard to make out certain aspects, but this might be Kirk’s deeper shadows and less about Prianto’s colors considering his work on Poe Dameron. Their letterer is Joe Caramagna, with Tom Groneman as assistant editor.
Here are a few other things:
- For some extra connectivity, Robbie Thompson is also writing the Solo: A Star Wars Story adaptation, so I’m curious how well this entire series will fit within that comic, as if you can find a spot to stop reading Solo, read all of this, and then dive right back into Solo….otherwise, pause the movie before it shows Han on Mimban and read this! Though we’ll know for certain if it’s worth doing before the series is through.
- While I enjoyed the unique design of the credits page, whomever decided on that typeface made a mistake, as the K and H’s look too identical to tell apart, leading to me think Kanina’s name was Hanina until the interior of the issue corrected that for me.
- Also, in the latest issue of Star Wars #56, the heroes visited a planet named Hubin and only a few arcs earlier dealt with a Moff named Hubi, while Imperial Cadet’s Triosa is very close to Queen Trios from the comics. I get this’ll happen from time to time, but weird to see it so close together.
Han Solo – Imperial Cadet #1 gets off to a fun enough start and let’s hope it stays that way.
+ Low barrier to entry
+ Has some fun promise if it leans more towards Stripes
– The Full Metal Jacket part doesn’t quite work yet
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.
Han Solo – Imperial Cadet: Full Miniseries Review
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