Billed as a crossover event between Marvel and Del Rey’s Alphabet Squadron novel, Jody Houser’s TIE Fighter miniseries came with expectations it wasn’t designed to meet. Having had some time to think on the series, and rereading it all together, TIE Fighter’s character focus certainly engaged, but it was never enough for readers to neither connect to the characters nor distract from plots which ended before you even realized they started, but had it not been linked to the novel, maybe it would’ve had a better chance.
Introducing a brand new cast of characters, especially those playing for the Imperials, isn’t always a risk, but doing so in a 5-issue comic miniseries can be. The promise of TIE Fighter crossing over with Alphabet Squadron seemed to negate the risk, as it meant the two would connect to some extent, but once the first novel released, the promise proved to be more tenuous than assumed. Therein might be the problem, by hyping up the crossover aspect, even changing the novel’s cover to include a mention to it and the first issue of the comic including an excerpt of the novel, expectations for what crossovers mean were established by readers. The comic never matches those, as only one of the new characters (Lt. Broosh) is mentioned in the book while two others cameo in the comic (one being Commander Nuress aka “Grandmother”), and both have starring roles in the novel, while the team here flies for Shadow Wing, the main enemy of the novel, but we never see them in the big battle at Pandem Nai as the focus of the novel is on the titular Alphabet Squad. If the subsequent entries in the novel trilogy manage to fulfill the promise of this crossover, maybe TIE Fighter can be viewed in a new light, but for now it ended up making the overall miniseries feel superfluous. However, the fault doesn’t lie solely with the comic, as the novel doesn’t develop Alphabet’s opponents, beyond the two aforementioned members of Shadow Wing (one is part of a ‘surprise’ reveal), also leaving the promise of connection in the wind, hence some hope the following two books might spend more time with Shadow Wing or even include some of the characters from the comic. Until then, the crossover branding remains a misnomer on both ends.
Take away the expectations and crossover promises and TIE Fighter’s character focus, and really fantastic main art, helped the overall series remain enjoyable, even if I didn’t connect enough with most of the characters. The two I did connect with perish by issue #3 unfortunately, leaving us with two new cast members and the remaining team members aren’t interesting/established enough to carry the final two issues. The one character I connected the most with, Lyttan Dree, was mainly due to his previous appearance and antics in the Han Solo – Imperial Cadet miniseries, though since it can’t be guaranteed everyone read it, not everyone might’ve latched to Lyttan like I did reading TF. Because I’d met him before, and we even get a scene between him and his brother in a back-up story, his death hit harder than I realized it would due to it coming so suddenly, especially since I didn’t think he would die, and it did something unexpected: it made me hate the rebels for just a moment. How could they kill the funny character I liked, with a brother whose antics in the previous comic resulted in a Vegas-like marriage? If this was part of the point of this series, it succeeds briefly, with one character, about midway through its run, but didn’t replicate it again. Zin Graw was another character I enjoyed, as the revelation she’s working for the Rebellion made for an interesting development, and her sudden death left the team without answers regarding her intentions, a sober reflection on how when people leave us unexpectedly, questions linger and the answers may never come. These are both great stories to tell with the backdrop of the Galactic Civil War, and it’s even better to change it up a bit and show it from the villains’ side, but beyond these two characters, the rest of the cast doesn’t offer any truly interesting stories.
There’s Ganem, Zin’s boyfriend, left wondering how she ended up being more Rebellion-friendly than he when he was the one talking in ways some would consider traitorous. Beyond a fun little scene with his Grandma, he remains a Shadow Wing pilot by the series end. Second Lt. Broosh has an interesting stigma associated with his career, but he washes away Lyttan’s concerns early on and besides an almost fake-out, he quickly proves the rumors false. Jeela’s silence and aloofness from the group helps them see her as an ‘other,’ just as she assumes they do, but they all still work together with her anyways and nothing really comes from it, with the only real character moment for her coming in the final issue’s back-up story, far too late. And then there are two new recruits for the final two issues, but they join the squadron and the story continues, and while it might mean to paint a picture of how disposable the Empire sees its ranks, the team is victorious in its latest mission and the series abruptly ends, leaving the ideas unexplored.
Due to the character focus and the extra space the backup stories take up, the missions Shadow Wing go on either start too late in the series or end before being explored more. The first one, retrieving a Star Destroyer from a deserting Admiral, is over by issue #3 and their final mission, begins and ends in the final issue. With both of them not having a lot of significance to the larger war around them, the victories for the villains feel hollow, especially with the series ending and relying on the novel to show where Shadow Wing at large goes next. Considering Jody Houser’s Age of Republic miniseries is the best of the “Age of…” maxiseries so far, with the same strong sense of character carrying through here, how this series overall feels superfluous even without the novel involved does make me wonder if the nature of the crossover changed as she started the series, as rumblings suggest the banner on the hardcover declaring the crossover is being removed, so is that to save space on the paperback cover (as it could still include preview pages for the comic) or due to the novels’ trajectory changing over time? Either way, TIE Fighter offers some interesting ideas, achieving some mid-way through its run, and waltzes through an ending that doesn’t quite feel earned, so reading it as its risks and rewards, much like a TIE pilot takes going out in a shield-less ball into the infinite space.
On art, the main team of Rogê Antônio (art) and Arif Prianto (colors), with Joe Caramagna as letterer, is rather exceptional on several fronts, including producing one of my favorite effects in comics for the simplest of things: clear helmets so we can see a pilots emotions play across their face in the middle of battle. The battles themselves are staged well, looking busy and dangerous, with wonderful explosions brightening the scene or feeling like a punch to gut. Even the quiet moments, stylish to a degree, convey enough that the dialogue is the backup, not the other way around from time to time. Each issue has guest artists for backup stories, little codas at the end of each issue that both give us more insight to these characters but eat up space for the main story to thrive, and while every artist’s style was different from the main story, the difference helped set the backup stories apart. It’s in these backup stories we meet some of the big players in the novel series, further making the little codas feel more like setup for it rather than character building for the series’ stars. The art teams were: #1 had Michael Dowling (art) and Lee Loughridge (colors); #2 Josh Cassara (art) and Neeraj Menon (colors);#3 Geraldo Borges (art) and Lee Loughridge (colors); #4 Ig Guara (art) and Jean-François Beaulieu (colors); and #5 had Juan Gedeon (art) and Dono Sánchez-Almara (colors). As for series’ covers by Tommy Lee Edwards…we were most blessed!
The TIE Fighter miniseries has its moments, with one of them remaining on my mind long after it finished, but it feels like it ended long before it ever truly got started, which is a shame as there’s good kernels hiding within.
+ Some great character moments hidden within
+ Solid art showing with one of my favorite effects of the year
– Falters as meaningful crossover (so far)
– And also falters on its own, ending as it gets started
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.
TIE FIGHTER
#1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5
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