Canon Comic Review: Poe Dameron #29

– Spoiler Review –

The Poe Dameron series marches towards its grand finale with issue #29, setting the stage for a less than gleeful ending, the exact opposite way this series started two years ago.

Poe Dameron #29 does something myself and many other fans have been asking for: beginning to explore how the rest of the galaxy is dealing with the First Order’s destruction of the Hosnian System in The Force Awakens. If there’s one thing you could call a flaw with the sequel trilogy era so far, it’s that they’ve not spent a lot of time dealing with how the galaxy continues on in the wake of the First Order and Resistance battling it out. Sure, we got a glimpse that certain parts, like the Canto Bight casinos, pretty much carry on like nothing’s happened, but Poe #29 takes us away from the war profiteers and to an Outer Rim world where we get closer to the commoners’ perspective on the First Order’s attempt to take over the galaxy. And while it’s with a brand new species and characters, and a King even, it’s an exciting glimpse nonetheless.

At the end of issue #28, Leia tells Black Squadron, Snap Wexley, Jess Pava, Karé Kun, and Suralinda Javos, they have the mission of drumming up allies for the Resistance, thus beginning to explain where these characters were during the events of The Last Jedi. Issue #29 begins with their first stop, a planet named Pastoria, whose King holds considerable clout with nearby star systems, so they attempt to appease the insectoid King so he will spread the word to fight for the Resistance. King Siroc seems to say all the right things, though the journalist in Suralinda is skeptical as hell about them, and he offers to help them if they help him. Issue #29 doesn’t quite start lighthearted, which we’ll get to in a moment, but things on Pastoria seem cheery in the beginning, but the Black Squad’s role in an escort mission gets dark real quick. Their escort mission turns out to be an unprovoked attack against a political rival, though it’s far too late when Black Squad figures it out to prevent the bloodshed and they must live with the consequences of offering to help Siroc when he only said a lot of pretty things to coerce them into doing what he wanted. I didn’t expect anything particularly happy to happen in these final three (for now….maybe, see below) issues of the Poe Dameron series, but being duped into killing innocents and not gaining any allies is a tough start to their mission.

Siroc’s reasoning for taking out his political rival is that he didn’t want a lesser being to negotiate with the First Order, whom he’s afraid to fight against because their show of strength by destroying an entire star system is far too chilling for his mostly defenseless planet. This is not a surprising outcome of Starkiller Base’s actions, as while it might be destroyed, it does make a galaxy which was comfortable under relative peace for sometime shudder when thinking what else the First Order may have up their sleeves. There will certainly be those who will still end up siding with the Resistance, but it’s telling how much the galaxy needed the hope Luke Skywalker brings on Crait because right now planets might be more willing to accept the First Order’s control rather than fight against evil. Knowing more about the galaxy’s “peace” since the end of the Galactic Civil War and how the rest of the galaxy is reeling from the events of TFA are things I look forward to seeing explored in the years ahead, but I’m happy we’re finally getting little bits of it here in this series.

As I mentioned before, this issue doesn’t begin the happiest, as teased by #28, because Poe slowly comes to terms with the fact the footage he’s about to watch of Black Sqaudron’s last transmission is incomplete and he’ll likely have no idea if his friends are alive or dead at the end. It’s a striking thing to consider and it felt like a wake-up call for us readers too, because as much as I hoped we might get some Episode IX teases and I was under no delusions they wouldn’t really pepper hints for the next film in this comic, this seems like the clearest signal those looking for answers hidden in this final arc won’t find any. Having Poe deal with these realities of command makes for sobering reading and I hope Rey and Finn and cheer him up a bit depending on what the final parts of Black Sqaud’s transmission reveals.

Charles Soule steps into uncharted territory, introduces a new species and conflict, and makes it seem like it’s as easy as 1-2-3. Seriously, he’s an excellent writer and how he shapes the Pastorians so quickly is a thing of beauty. Speaking of beauty, what really finalizes the story and characters is the art from Angel Unzueta (artist) and Arif Prianto (colorist), which perfectly compliments Soule’s writing. I especially enjoyed the bug-like ships the buggy Pastorians fly, while the exaggerated showmanship of the King flapping about his wings would’ve probably felt over-the-top with anyone else.

Here are a few other things:

No notes for Poe Dameron #29 just yet at Charles Soule’s site, but I’d like to bring back up his little tease in the notes for issue #28, as he mentions issue #31 could only be a temporary goodbye to the series, though we won’t know more until after that issue drops in September.
Soule did tease it probably won’t be a happy ending for Poe during the SDCC 2018 Publishing panel, which we’ll have a post about very soon!
I really liked Snap’s final line about stepping into the wind, the exact opposite of the King’s advice to them.
UPDATE: Soule has added his notes for #29, basically confirming it’s grim tone and how glad he is that he gets to say such a goodbye to the series thanks to how the fans kept it alive for much longer than anticipated.

Poe Dameron #29 reveals looking for Resistance allies is the serious type of business.

+ Exploring the galaxy’s take on big events
+ Poe and readers having to deal with lack of (understandable) answers
+ Introduction of new species, handled well by both writing and art

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

Canon Comic Review: Poe Dameron #29

+ Exploring the galaxy’s take on big events

+ Poe and readers having to deal with lack of (understandable) answers

+ Introduction of new species, handled well by both writing and art

Check out the rest of our Canon Comic Reviews here!

Like this:

Related

Share your thoughts with the Manor!Cancel reply