– Spoiler Review –
Mynock Manor was still in its infancy when the new canon comics from Marvel began in 2015, and while I hadn’t been much of a comic book reader, I decided to start with Marvel’s new series to see how I felt about covering them on the regular. Star Wars #1 was a compelling argument, as my review said, “Marvel’s starting off their handling of the franchise on the right foot with an adventure worthy of the Star Wars name that’s entertaining through every panel, leaving you wanting more,” and now the comics have become the biggest focus of the Manor, especially with Doctor Aphra being my favorite character. The original writer, Jason Aaron left the series after 37 issues and now Kieron Gillen has picked up the torch, carrying it into a new era since its launch 3 years ago, building to issue #50 over two slow burn arcs. Star Wars #50 is a mostly exciting start to the subtly named “Hope Dies” arc, as the Rebellion learns the hard way this war with the Empire is far from won and far from over. Issue #50 also includes a bonus one-shot that uncovers the tale behind the betrayal instrumental in bringing the Rebellion back to its knees.
Since the Star Wars series started, it has been one victory after another for the Rebellion, with our heroes always beating out the Imperials, riding high on their victory over the Death Star. It starting getting stale and less exciting, as our heroes were never in any real danger of perishing or failing, something I covered in greater detail in my retrospective of Jason Aaron’s run of the series. While Kieron Gillen’s first two arcs weren’t much different, as they both covered important victories, from acquiring the assistance of Queen Trios of Shu-Torun and gathering a fleet of Mon Calamari ships after helping them overthrow the Empire on their planet, the arcs were planting the seeds for something more sinister and less hopeful, a change up that could potentially breathe new life into the Star Wars series. Star Wars #50 is a good start to the long game payoff, getting the Empire’s first strike back since the Death Star off to an explosive start.
Fresh off their victory at Mon Cala and the fleet they’ve amassed with the Mon Cala ships, the Rebellion has assembled all of its assets in one secret place, both to send them off so they aren’t one giant, easy target, and to show the galaxy their might has grown, and joining the Rebellion isn’t a losing proposition anymore. Mon Mothma is toasting Leia, congratulating her work on securing the new fleet, the Partisan’s help, and Queen Trios’ resources to make this new show of force possible. Queen Trios is telling Leia she’d have made a fine ruler of Alderaan, after everything she’s pulled off to far. But Leia isn’t comfortable with such compliments, as while she’s willing to take any and all burdens on her shoulders to alleviate others in her command, she won’t take credit for everything the Rebellion has built to this point, as it took countless, nameless others to bring all the stuff together…she feels like she only got out and pushed, is all.
It’s strange seeing the Rebellion put on a show of opulence, dignitaries in their best formal wear, Mon in her go-to outfit, Luke and some fellow pilots streaming light ribbons through space, the fleet glistening against the blistering sun of their hideout base, and all the Generals (including Hera Syndulla!) in one place; it’s something we’re used to seeing the Empire trot out, like the Empire Day parade as seen in Star Wars Rebels, and it certainly makes the Rebellion feel like it’s closer to equal footing with the forces of the Empire than ever before. Luke gets swept up in the show of force, his farmboy showing at maximum, as he believes the Empire doesn’t have a chance against the Rebellion. Luckily General Dodonna is their to temper Luke’s excitement, as he’s seen a show of solidarity in an early Rebellion fleet go to shambles when Grand Admiral Thrawn checkmated them above Atollon (also seen in Rebels), so this grizzled veteran isn’t letting any excitement past his wondrous beard; I hope we get to hear his thoughts after being proven right here.
As Mon is giving her speech to the visitors, who they hope to bring into the Rebellion with their show of force, everything goes to hell in a wampa cave, as their ships are all locked out and fighters locked in, with the Empire arriving with Darth Vader on the Executor, his Super Star Destroyer, in the lead (which we saw him procure in the first Vader comic series). Vader is radiating a dark excitement, thirsty to taste the fear of his enemies, so they get a chance to truly know just how thoroughly his plans done messed them up. His attack begins by decimating General Willard’s ship (best known to me as the first old guy Leia meets inside the Yavin IV base), and the Rebellion looks on in terror as they are helpless to escape and helpless to respond. To them, as Vader gleefully puts it, hope has died. It’s a giant strike for the Empire, just when the Rebellion was beginning to think their win at the Death Star was the only turning point, but since we all knew they were on the run by Empire Strikes Back, a defeat was all but certain. So, how did this happen? As revealed in Star Wars #49, it’s because Queen Trios betrayed the Rebellion, though it’s more complicated than you’d expect, something I’ll cover in more detail in the review of the one-shot, which explains Trios’ part in all of this madness.
But before we cover Trios, I wanted to quick mention Han and Chewie’s subplot to the Ring of Kafrene (first seen in Rogue One‘s introduction of Cassian Andor): the pair is off on a little side venture to secure some credits to pay off Jabba’s debt, so they are nowhere near the Empire’s sneak attack on the Rebellion, meaning they’ll probably be instrumental in rescuing the Rebellion from total disaster over the next 4 issues of the “Hope Dies” arc.
The final pages of issue #50 includes the bonus one-shot, “Shu-Torun Lives,” written by Gillen, with an art team of Giuseppe Camuncoli (pencils), Cam Smith (inks), and Java Tartaglia (colors), which uncovers how Trios became embroiled in a double-agent plan to destroy the Rebellion, one of Vader’s own machinations. On Mustafar, Admiral Ozzel and General Veers are discussing the troubles fighting the cells of the Rebellion, and how it’s affecting the Empire’s collection of resources, which leads to Vader cooking up a dastardly plan that takes the smarts of Anakin Skywalker and the brutality of Vader in one. Veers mentions the Rebellion is like a weed and Empire like a storm, which is something a storm cannot really harm, but if the Rebellion were a tree, it could snap in a storm. A idea forms, and is solidified as Vader thinks back to his daughter’s words to Tarkin in A New Hope, how star systems will slip through his fingers as he tightens his grip, and Vader decides to help the Rebellion grow so they become an easier target. In a weird way, the idea of the plan, of making the Rebellion stronger so they’d get overconfident, was most recently used in the now Legends multimedia project, The Force Unleashed, where the Emperor and Vader end up being the architects of the Rebellion, as they use Vader’s Secret Apprentice and his shifting loyalties to bring together the the cells of the Rebellion so they can get them all in one swoop, but their plan backfires and it solidifies the Rebellion under a united banner. It was an intriguing idea, the Emperor being responsible for creating what would destroy him, but I wasn’t a big fan of the execution/the whole Secret Apprentice stuff in the end (let’s not even discuss the abysmal second game). I’m happy the much more interesting idea of helping to build up the Rebellion’s confidence so they can be an easier target remains in canon, but I couldn’t help but see a little of the parallels between the two stories.
Vader decides to recruit Queen Trios for the job, figuring she’d be a powerful enough ally to make the Rebellion think they’re truly turning a corner in the war, but mainly because he still has a giant threat hanging over her head. Between issue #49 and #50, it’s pretty easy to tell Trios isn’t happy about her part in the plan, from her code phrase to contact Vader being “There was no other choice” and her dropping a glass of wine as the Empire swoops in to take out the Rebellion, muttering to herself she did this. “Shu-Torun Lives” hammers this point home for those who have read Trios’ introduction in Darth Vader Annual #1, but since that’s not a guarantee, it’s a nice story to include here as it reveals the chunk of Alderaan Vader gave her as a constant reminder he’ll decimate her planet if she doesn’t do what he says. There’s still hope for Trios yet, as I’d kind of like this arc to end with her finding someway to undo her betrayal, maybe even without Vader knowing it, though I’d also be intrigued with her staying under Vader’s thumb until the Rebellion’s victory above Endor…she’d be a great ally to have once unburdened by the looming threat of her planet’s destruction.
Camuncoli has been the main artist of the current Darth Vader – Dark Lord of the Sith series, written by Charles Soule, with Smith and Tartaglia helping on a few issues, and his work is phenomenal as always. From the stark chamber in Vader’s castle on Mustafar to the bloodbath Vader leaves on Shu-Torun so no one knows his plan with Trios, it was a striking team to end this issue. It also highlighted the shortcomings of the main story’s art team of Salvador Larroca (art) and Guru-eFX (colors). The traced faces are frustratingly here to stay, and while the colors matched up so it didn’t look as off as usual, but it’s still so glaring, it’s disappointing the powers that be would rather the issues keep coming at a steady pace than provide better art. Larroca’s big splash pages, ships, and explosions are a sight for sore eyes, but they don’t make up for the continued tracing. Heck, he even did some non-traced faces in the final splash page of Willard’s ship explosion, but they all look so lost and confused not because of what’s happening, but because how they are drawn, it’s still not much better. Letterer for both the main story and the one-shot was Clayton Cowles.
Tom Groneman is the new Assistant Editor for Marvel’s SW comics, and he took the time to introduce himself in between the two stories and offer up a cover gallery of all the issues so far. He was previously co-assistant on several issues since the announcement of Heather Antos and Jordan D. White leaving, alongside an Emily Newcomen on a few, and Christina Harrington on one. I’m going to try my best to overlook Groneman’s misspelling of Wookiee (with only one e) on several occasions (hello, irony) and wish him well, but I’m pretty disappointed there isn’t another female editor involved, as Mark Paniccia is the official replacement for White and thus we have two males in charge. Even when they had a split with male/female, the comics’ track record for hiring diverse voices for writing, and non-males for art, wasn’t terribly great, and I’m worried that trend will continue now. But I’ll cut the discussion short there and bring the editor name-drop section of the review to a close, as that’s a whole other article in of itself.
Here are a few other things:
- Michael Siglain, Creative Director of Lucasfilm Publishing, celebrated the milestone of issue 50 on Twitter.
- Florian of Jedi-Biblothek pointed out hitting 50 issues is a very small club for Star Wars comics, with only two from Legends with a higher issue count at this point.
- If you’ve been following the pure delight and joy that is the Veers Watch Twitter account, as you can imagine, he was more than pleased about Veers’ inclusion this issue. Gillen professed his, “…work here is done.”
- The moment I saw the panel, I had no doubts the Twi’lek General was Hera Syndulla, though since some people have had questions regarding it due to how Larroca/Guru put her on the page (the markings on her lekku), Matt Martin of the Story Group confirmed it was her.
- The alien Han and Chewie meet with, an Alaphani, makes for a pretty sweet design and I hope we see them more!
- I stand by my hope in my 2017 year-in-review that the Star Wars series ends soon, and this is certainly putting it on course for such a move. I’d also not mind, at the very least, a reset to #1 and set it in a different era.
Star Wars issue #50 looks to launch the series into a new era, where the Rebellion is back on the run and the stories aren’t just win, after win, after win.
+ Vader thirsty for some fear
+ Turning a new leaf for the series
+ Filling in Trios’ story so all readers are on the same page
– Art in main story continues to disappoint
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.
Star Wars
Kieron Gillen — Ashes of Jedha (#38-43) / Arc Review by Chris | Mutiny at Mon Cala (#44-49) / Arc Review by Chris | Hope Dies: #51 | #52 | #53 | #54 | #55 / Arc Review by Chris | The Escape (#56-61) / Arc Review by Chris | The Scourging of Shu-Torun (#62-67) / Arc Review by Chris | Kieron Gillen Retrospective
Jason Aaron — Jason Aaron Retrospective (#1-37)
Greg Pak — Rebels and Rogues (#68-72)