– Spoiler Review –
Princess Leia #4 lets the travelling band of Alderaanians in on the secret of the traitor and shuffles us, somewhat slowly, to the final issue.
The issue is split between two storylines, one focusing on Leia’s dealings with Tace and her traitorous sister Tula, while the other follows Uwa and Jora recruiting more Alderaanians on the (new) planet of Espirion. Both are heavy dialogue affairs, with some awkward interactions, that come to odds with the pace at which each storyline unfolds. Things go pretty quickly from Leia learning about Tace’s sister working for the Empire to Leia offering herself as a trade, while Jora’s disgust at the half-Alderaanians seemingly comes out of nowhere and mucks up the situation on Espirion before you know it. And while the plot seemingly moves quickly, the dialogue comes on so thick and awkward in some situations its always surprising when we’re jumping to the next plot point in the story.
We’ve not spent a lot of time with Jora, something I lamented in my review of #3 because I wanted to see why she’d have such a big mistrust/dislike of Leia, and she continues to be an enigma here leaving her intentions and motivations firmly and disappointingly in the dark. Even one of Jora’s men points out her shifting ideals, asking why she’s complaining about Leia one moment and bowing down to her left and right the next. Of course then it’s the person we know little about, Jora, who happens to bring things on Espirion to a screeching halt, and despite Uwa’s diplomatic words, nothing can undo the small, but pointed damage she wrought. With a lack of knowledge about the character, it makes me wonder if Jora is pretending to be bigoted against half-Alderaanians to mess up Leia’s plans or if she’s just bigoted, but either way the mission on Espirion won’t go on until they can get Leia to show up.
However, that won’t be so easy, as Leia makes the rather rash decision to trade herself to the Empire for Tula’s safe return. A move like that sounds like something right out of Anakin’s playbook; like father, like daughter I guess. How she arrived to that moment and her reasoning behind the decision is thankfully explored here in a conversation between herself and Evaan. As I’ve said before and easily say again, Evaan and Leia have been a really great pairing, as it’s nice to have someone who isn’t afraid to tell her the truth nor hide it behind some sarcastic wall (of love) like Han. And having Evaan finally admit she’s come to rely on Leia’s guidance shows how far these two have come together since the first issue (here’s hoping that doesn’t mean Evaan will die).
Here are a few other things:
- Evaan originally started the series wearing an outfit similar to Luke from the end of A New Hope and now she’s wearing an all black outfit similar to Luke’s in Return of the Jedi. I’m not sure what the significance of those design choices might be or if they have any significance at all, but it’s definitely not on accident.
- There’s a little line where Leia has a some jealousy of Tace for having a sibling, and while a nice wink-and-nod moment, it kind of doesn’t make sense in the scene given they are talking about Tula being a possible traitor.
- Nien Nunb isn’t just Lando’s buddy, but Evaan’s too I guess.
- The Dodson’s lack of detail in their background art have me wondering if Espirion is made out of giant polka-dot mushrooms or is part of the Willy Wonka factory. Their lack of background detail has been the only real issue I’ve continually had with the series so far.
For everything I end up liking in an issue of the Princess Leia series, it always seems like there’s something I can find that I don’t like. While Princess Leia #4 isn’t the worst of the series, it definitely has some rough patches as it sets us up for the finale.
+ Leia and Evaan
+ Leia’s convictions
– Underdeveloped societal issues
– Awkward dialogue in parts
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.
Princess Leia
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