– Spoiler Review –
Opening up the first ever Star Wars theme park is quite the big deal, so of course to both build up the location within the universe and hype up the park, a publishing program launched, including the 5-issue miniseries, Galaxy’s Edge. Written by Ethan Sacks, with art by Will Sliney and Dono Sánchez-Almara, the comic explores the background to several objects within Dok-Ondar’s Den of Antiquities, tying them into a ‘present’ set heist story for the mythical Sword of Khashyun. While full of some intriguing and fun tales with familiar characters, Galaxy’s Edge doesn’t spend enough time at the park, meaning the heist or new characters don’t steal the show.
Set between The Last Jedi and the day the park takes place on (yes, the park is basically Groundhog Day for Star Wars), Galaxy’s Edge introduces us to Kendoh’s Gang, a group with their eyes set on stealing a valuable item from Dok-Ondar, the Ithorian purveyor of unique antiquities who operates out of Black Spire Outpost (whose shop you can visit and purchase items at, like lightsaber crystals and Jedi/Sith statues). Plenty of good mysteries arise from this set-up, but by miniseries’ end, the development of Kendoh and her crew, plus Dok-Ondar himself, is only skin deep and most answers leave lingering threads one wonders if we’ll pick up on or if one should really worry if we do or not. Of the crew, their leader Kendoh Voss is the only one to receive backstory: forced to find fortunes on her own to restore the status of her family from her native Serenno (aka Count Dooku’s homeworld), a possibility-laden thread used only as a reason for her to be there. Otherwise Remex Io, the Clawdite of the group, or Wooro, the Aqualish brute, are there to round out her crew, nothing more. They seem like an intriguing enough group, especially when we hear some of their notorious exploits, but there’s not enough personality to them by series’ end to make readers care much for what happens to them or what happens next, which I hope is one day rectified by expanding on them further. Even details on Dok-Ondar’s past, like the Sword of Khashyun somehow tied to his quest to understand his parents’ murder, are left unresolved beyond surface motivation; in fact, part of me was left wondering if his parents were even murdered/he cared to bring them justice anyways. There are plenty of ideas presented I enjoyed in the main story, especially Dok’s role in events within
The main reason the new characters, and even park stalwart Dok, remain enigmas comes from the usage of flashbacks to flesh out the backstories for interesting items at Dok’s shop. These stories are highly entertaining, from Han and Chewie capturing baby sarlaccs to Doctor Aphra skating through Moraband like it’s no big deal, but they overshadow much of the ‘present’ set drama. The overshadowing comes from both the entertainment factor, as all the flashbacks are a blast to read, even the one that paints Greedo into a box, and also the amount of space per issue used for them. It turns the ‘present’ narrative into more of a framing device than main story, but getting to see Dok’s reach and some fun-filled, side adventures for familiar characters certainly makes them worth the price of admission. Connections abound all over canon, as Dok and Honda Ohnaka (also someone you can run into at the park) raid the Kyber Temple on Jedha and deal with a Guardian of the Whills named Chirrut(!), or Doctor Aphra flits through Moraband like it isn’t some ancient repository for evil and offers plenty of laughs like she’s wont to do in her own comic series. The objects focused on in these stories come into play in the final issue, helping Kendoh and her crew escape a First Order inquiry, and as far as I know, you can at least even see the baby sarlacc if you visit Dok’s Den if you ever make it to Galaxy’s Edge, so it’s neat to see the origins and them be useful to the end story. However, with the introduction of Dok’s family’s deaths plotline as I mentioned before, not having these items explain or uncover details seems like a missed opportunity, as we’re told both the kyber statue and Sword of Khashyun are linked to them, but the ‘how’ remains nebulous.
Across all 5 issues, the art team consisted of Will Sliney on pencils, Dono Sánchez-Almara with Protobunker for colors, and Travis Lanham lettering. A great delight of their work comes from parts of the park lovingly recreated for the comic series, as comparing a photo of the park to some of the panels in the series results in little differences, otherwise it’d been weird to read this and see something different when visiting/appreciating the park from afar or vice versa so it’s neat they were able to collaborate with Disney Imagineering. Several other aspects of the art I enjoyed: the baby sarlaccs, as they look deadly cute; getting a glimpse inside Jedha’s Temple before the Empire ravages it/blows it up; Aphra’s tomb raiding on Moraband; and even how heroic they made Greedo look. Sliney’s style might not be my favorite, but the work is fantastic regardless!
Here are a few other things:
- Check out A Crash of Fate and Myths & Fables for more Galaxy’s Edge related publishing!
The Galaxy’s Edge miniseries has some wonderful peeks into the world of the park and even more wonderful glimpses of popular character’s pasts, though it deals in too much of the latter than the former and comes up short on several aspects, including the new characters.
+ Fun, intriguing flashbacks
+ Connections across canon
– New characters overshadowed
– Plotlines in framing story left unresolved/explored
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.