– Spoiler Review –
Starlight Squadron fights for its life while Lando fights for his friend’s in an action packed 11th issue of Star Wars (Vol. 2)!
T
he standoff over Lobot’s life, where the ancient Talky droid with the unbreakable code holds the key to Starlight’s survival but he’s holding Lobot hostage to ensure they don’t replace/shut him down again, pits Lando’s friendship with Lobot against the wishes and desires of the Rebellion. Shara Bey’s husband, Kes Dameron (yes, the parents of Poe Dameron), won’t let Lando get his way and save Lobot, as he’d prefer to save his wife, and surprisingly Leia agrees with Kes. Lando reacts as you’d expect at Leia’s words, attacking Kes and the Talky, but he’s quickly back under Kes’ gun and Leia orders him to the brig. It’s not a totally surprising move by Leia, once you think about it, as she’s always got her priorities towards the Rebellion and the fight against the Empire, but she’s also looks out for everyone, if she can, so it’s nice to see what she was scheming with Threepio: for him to reverse-engineer the arcane language and take Talky out of the process, thus allowing Lobot to live. I get why Leia couldn’t say this to Lando outright, as the Talky would’ve taken drastic measures to ensure his continued survival, but a little apology or something acknowledging her real plans all along seems ration for her to make though she doesn’t this issue. Leia’s actions, despite saving Lobot, still leave a bitter taste in Lando’s mouth and he returns to the deal he made with Jabba the Hutt back in issue #2, seemingly offering to bring Talky to the Hutt. I’ll be curious to see how this plays out, and what Talky being with Jabba could mean, as I’m beginning to wonder if Leia will catch Lando and he’ll play it off…and maybe this will all happen after they learn Jabba has Han’s carbonite slab, so he’ll gain her trust despite his plans with Talky and Jabba.
As for Starlight Squadron, their story doesn’t end as happily, though there are a few bright spots. The team pulls off some tricky and fun maneuvers, using Commander Zahra’s Star Destroyer tractor beams against themselves, thus giving them a chance to cause chaos in the hanger as they procure some astromechs to make the jump back to lightspeed and out of the Commander’s trap. In the process, Shara makes the choice to sacrifice herself so the others may return, giving them tons of Imperial intel while she’s left behind and captured. The good news? The intel the remaining members of Starlight Squadron returned with allows them to finally go on the hunt! It’ll be interesting to see how Leia goes after Zahra, and how she might manage to escape, considering there’s still an unresolved thread about Zahra’s strange tactics to instill a type of fear in Leia that will cause her to doubt her own resolve (issue #8). We haven’t seen it really bother Leia yet, as far as I’ve noticed, but having it hanging there, and if we just touched on Lando’s deal with Jabba again, I’m sure we’ll return to the Zahra/Leia stuff too.
There’s a lot more I enjoyed this issue from Jan Bazaldua (art), Rachelle Rosenberg (colors), and Clayton Cowles (lettering) than I didn’t, but the problem with the faces did return. It didn’t start out too bad, but by the end most of the characters looked like kids, and it undercut some of the seriousness and emotional tension over Shara’s capture. But like I said, I enjoyed more than I disliked and the action sequences with Starlight Squadron, from the explosions to the daring tactics, all looked and felt thrilling. Likewise, Lando’s resolve and standoff also felt like it had added tension from the framing and colors, and his malice after the Rebellion’s actions noticeable in his face, giving his words extra weight.
Here are a few other things:
- The symbol on Starlight Squadron’s ships, which I honestly didn’t notice in the previous issue, is an artistic way to represent the actual Starlight Beacon of The High Republic era; I just wish the Squadron had gotten a little more to do, to honor the team and the team assembled. Honestly, I don’t even more if I noticed/saw Evaan Verlaine the entire issue.
- I just sort of noticed but…where is Luke during all this? He was told he couldn’t participate in the Coruscant mission to get Talky and…hasn’t been seen since. Is he napping somewhere? Training with his newly acquired saber? I’m surprised he’s not even involved with the situation with Talky, which makes his absence more apparent and in need of an answer.
- As for where this story will all go after we wrap up the struggles against Zahra, I’m not quite sure (we have another issue in March but a break in April), but much like the current Darth Vader volume (the third, believe it or not), I’m beginning to wonder how much more steam these stories will have considering they are set before Return of the Jedi. I see this series building to them starting the mission to rescue Han from Jabba, but as the pace of the series doesn’t let up, I don’t know if there will be much more to do before we’re at that part. In the end, what I’m trying to say is I’ve been largely enjoying Soule’s run so far but it feels like we’re running out of story to tell.
- Like last arc, this was such a short arc I’m not really going to do an arc review and instead consider this whole issue’s review about it.
Star Wars #11 (Vol. 2) has tons of action and resolves some threads but barrels on a fast pace towards the next cliffhanger without slowing down too much.
+ Leia’s little deceit to circumvent the Talky
+ Following up on Lando’s deal with Jabba
– Art has the same stumbles
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.
STAR WARS (Vol. 2)
The Destiny Path: #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | #6 / Arc Review — The Will of Tarkin: #7 | #8/Arc Review — Operation Starlight: #9 | #10