– Spoiler Review –
Star Wars #69 balances three separate storylines with finesse, including plenty of humor and intrigue, all set at an excellent pace that has me truly excited for the series again.
I find I enjoy Star Wars a lot more when it manages to stop and poke fun at itself from time to time, which is why I love Doctor Aphra so much, as she balances the humor and seriousness better than any Jedi balanced anything. Star Wars #69 contains great tidbits of self-referential humor, infusing Greg Pak’s run with a sense of fun not fully felt since Jason Aaron was on the series a few years ago. From Han questioning the legitimacy of Dar Champion’s last name, only for Leia to turn around and question his last name as a knowing nod and wink at the scene from Solo; a bartender asking Luke if it stopped raining outside because, as Star Wars characters (especially Jedi) like to do, he’s wearing a poncho on a desert planet; and Threepio needs one more form of communication because his six million isn’t enough to chat with the rock people of K43. I laughed more at Pak’s humor because it felt natural to the characters and the situations they were in, whereas a lot of Gillen’s humor, while funny, felt like he went out of his way to add things to the story to make humorous moments.
It wasn’t just the humor that made this issue so enjoyable, it’s also Pak’s ability to juggle three disparate storylines at a delightful pace. Never once in issue #69 did I feel like any one storyline had more panel time than the other, even if you count pages and find one actually did, as each one escalated in a fitting way, from Han and Leia dealing with Champion’s presence in Leia’s younger life, Threepio and Chewie making a commitment to saving the rock people just as things get worse; and Luke getting caught up in a troublemaker’s life who might have the Force while on his quest to destroy some probe droids. When the solicits revealed each issue would continue to focus on all three storylines at once, I was worried one adventure would be more prominent than the others, and while it would’ve been better than each issue covering only one, it all depended on the pacing to make juggling three adventures enjoyable and Pak pulls it off excellently here. Let’s hope he can continue to do so!
Just as Leia’s reaction to Sana Starros was appropriately Leia, Han’s response to Dar Champion is pitch perfect Han, from him calling her out for actually apologizing for something while in Dar’s presence to pointing out she still likes him and it might be affecting her judgment; all the while, it manages to feel similar to the end of Return of the Jedi where Han is willing to step aside if she cares enough about someone else because he doesn’t think he’s good enough for Leia, ever. It was fun to have Han as the voice of reason for once, as I too have some questions about Dar regardless of his affiliation with Leia in the past. I’ll be very curious to see who was spying on the pair towards the end of their section and I’m betting it was Dar.
To avoid Imperial detection, Luke begins hunting down the probes on foot while warning the local rebel cell to stay out of the air as well, though Luke ends up wandering the desert for hours with no luck. Trusting in the Force, it points him to a nearby town, where he wanders into a bar and gets involved with altercation regarding cheating in a game of cards. He helps out Warba, a young miscreant, and she claims she has the Force after she notices his lightsaber on his belt; think young Anakin noticing Qui-Gon’s saber on his belt, under his poncho, in The Phantom Menace. Whether she has the Force or not, and why the Force pointed Luke in her direction in the first place remains a mystery, but it’s a mystery worth exploring.
I said in my review of the previous issue, the Chewie and Threepio mission could very well be the highlight of this arc and it didn’t disappoint here. There was plenty of humor with both the back and forth of Chewie and Threepio, and Chewie lugging him around as they escape the rock creatures once Goldenrod’s attempt at communication misfires spectacularly. But for all the humor, their story didn’t skimp on tackling the issues of sentience, as Threepio realizes the rock creatures, no matter how much they want to kill the two of them at the moment, are alive just as much as him. Chewie can’t argue against it, and had Threepio been paired with any of the human characters, there’s the real possibility they would’ve ignored the comment and went along their business, but thankfully canon has been full of opportunities discussing droid sentience/ownership and this the latest to do so. It probably wouldn’t have been hard to disarm the detonators despite the rock people, but when they realize Chewie already activated the beacon meant to lure the Empire there, that’s where things get exciting…and come to an end for the issue. Consider me hooked.
What really ties it all together is Phil Noto’s fantastic art, from how the panel/page layouts push you to keep reading to how his framing captures just enough to hook you onto the next moment, I feel oddly compelled, or addicted to keep reading. I particularly enjoyed Luke’s wandering in the desert, as it might be part of a fitting reference to Spaghetti Westerns,* the physical comedy of Chewie carrying around Threepio, and how he conveyed a sense of pathos to Threepio’s comment regarding his own sentience with only a tilt of the head. We are lucky to have Noto for the time being and I hope he can stay on to close out Pak’s run (especially if that means the end of the series too).
Here are a few other things:
- It’s a little thing, but I can’t quite describe the delight I had once I saw the garbage droid/Han throw his trash away in the garbage droid…how often do we see a character do something like that? So mundane? Like never. Another reason to love Phil Noto’s work.
- *A desert planet named Sergia…is this mayhaps a Sergio Leone reference?! The Italian director’s Spaghetti Western films are all classics in their own right, like A Fistful of Dollars and Once Upon a Time in the West, and Luke’s adventure here feels like it has a similar tone and look, right down to a lot of wide shots mixing with close-ups by Noto.
- We got a few more covers for the rest of the arc at SDCC 2019, while solicits will be up shortly!
Star Wars #69 continues to prove Greg Pak and Phil Noto’s first issue of their run was no fluke.
+ Excellent pace for three different stories
+ Self referential humor
+ The art *Chef’s kisses*
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.
STAR WARS
Greg Pak — Rebels and Rogues: #68
Kieron Gillen — Ashes of Jedha (#38-43)| Mutiny at Mon Cala (#44-49) | Hope Dies (#50-55) | The Escape (#56-61) | The Scourging of Shu-Torun (#62-67) | Kieron Gillen Retrospective (#38-67)
Jason Aaron — Jason Aaron Retrospective (#1-37)
CURRENT SERIES COMIC REVIEWS:
Doctor Aphra
Aphra (#1-6) | And the Enormous Profit (#9-13) | Remastered (#14-19) | The Catastrophe Con (#20-25) | Worst Among Equals (#26-31) | Unspeakable Rebel Superweapon (#32-37) | Annual: #2
TIE Fighter (miniseries)
Galaxy’s Edge (miniseries)
Age of Rebellion (miniseries) | Age of Resistance (miniseries)