Bounty Hunters #4 reveals Nakano Lash’s big secret, though it all pales in comparison to the terrible creative decisions that happen within the issue. I will no longer be reviewing this series after this.
I looked back at my review of the first issue to see what I all guessed Lash’s secret was, what she saw, and while a group of Baby Yoda’s was among the guesses, my first turned out to be correct: Khamus was to have a child with the opposing syndicate’s daughter. Lash killed Khamus to protect the woman and child since he’s eager to kill her suddenly and attacks her, and while the woman later dies in child birth, at least the baby girl grew up under Lash’s watchful eyes, trained by a great bounty hunter to protect herself. As the issue opens with a preview of the destruction the two syndicates, Mourner’s Wail and Unbroken Clan, have wrought upon one another since the botched mission, one can hope Cadeliah is enough to mend the wounds between the two and stop all the carnage.
As interesting as that thread could be, Bounty Hunters #4 has several senseless deaths which hinders my ability to enjoy the series, hence my decision to stop reviews for it. For starters, Ooris perishes at Lash and Cadeliah’s hands, and while she likely wouldn’t have given them any mercy in kind, it’s still unfortunate this potentially interesting new character has to die, while the option to leave her alive, left with severe wounds though able to come back and fight another day, is full of more options and doesn’t kill another female character. Then there’s T’onga’s death, which happens moments after she makes peace with her brother’s death and swears to return to her wife and their tranquil life. The next original character to die, and a POC and LGBTQ+ one at that, T’onga’s death, as written by Ethan Sacks here, only seems to serve the purpose of giving Boba Fett a “big” entrance, which is egregious on all sorts of levels I couldn’t believe it happened. Boba heard what she said and he’s not a complete asshole, or at least not during his growing up years in The Clone Wars, so letting her go so he can attack his real targets, threatening her he’ll come after her if she ever looks his way again, could’ve offered even more fear for the character/upped his reputation. Instead he just kills a POC woman and that’s that, like it’s supposed to be an awesome opening for the character…instead it’s another woman dead this issue, and another POC AND LGBTQ+ rep gone away, in a series full of men, from male creatives. On top of that, Lash herself will be dead soon, but only because she caught what looks to be Space Pneumonia (pneumogray), and somehow it doesn’t have a cure, considering two characters now (last issue and in this one) tell her they are so sorry, hinting she’s a dead woman walking; so we know she won’t live for much longer/will likely sacrifice herself for Valance and/or Cadeliah. Heck, we even learned Cadeliah’s mother died in child birth so there’s another female character dead this issue. I understand letting every character live isn’t good storytelling either, but death is far too easy of a route to take and it being disproportionately happening to female characters makes it all the more glaring and tasteless.
Cadeliah is alive still at least, with the potential to bring peace to warring clans, Lash isn’t quite dead yet, and there’s General Vukorah of the Unbroken Clan still out there, ready to cause potential havoc in her awesome suit, so it’s not like Bounty Hunters still doesn’t have female characters; it’d be disingenuous not to acknowledge some still remaining. But killing off so many, and especially due to giving a well-known male character a deadly, big entrance, doesn’t give me much faith the remaining characters will be treated any better. I imagine Cadeliah will at least live through this arc, uniting the clans, but Lash is basically out the door due to the virus, and Vukorah is likely to get in the way of this peace so her days are numbered too.
The art team of Paolo Villanelli, Arif Prianto (colors), and Travis Lanham (lettering) offers more of their action-focused, aggressive work, needed due to a plethora of action moments in the series so far. The gritty factor to the art really helps this feel like the underworld, but the gruesome, exaggerated details to the aforementioned female deaths only feeds into how unnecessary and cold these deaths feel.
Considering T’onga’s death, and what appears to be violence against the aforementioned pregnant woman being knocked down by her lover, happened under Mark Paniccia’s watch much like the truly terrible issue from a series I hate even mentioning, something needs to change behind the scenes to stop stuff like this from happening. Female fans, and Star Wars fans in general, deserve much better than this. And Star Wars can be SO MUCH BETTER THAN THIS.
Here are a few other things:
- Here’s hoping that if Boba Fett really does end up in The Mandalorian’s second season, they do a lot more with his character, like TCW was trying.
Bounty Hunters #4 finally reveals its central mystery, but it offers up a bigger mystery instead: why I’m still reading and how these acts of senseless violence were ever allowed. I plan on no longer continuing to review this series.
– Death of POC/LGBTQ+ female for male character’s grand entrance
– Unnecessary violence against women
– How was this allowed?!
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Twitter @MynockManor and Instagram @mynockmanor.