– Spoiler Review –
In Star Wars #4 (Vol. 2), the L-Squad (Luke, Leia, Lando, and now Lobot!) finds a way to wiggle out of their various predicaments on Cloud City in another entertaining, and transitional, issue.
While Lando Style certainly got the Baron Administrator very close to his goal of rescuing his old pal, Lobot, just like in their adventures before the implants took over, Lobot plays a crucial role in helping make Lando’s plans work. Lobot takes out all the encroaching troopers with a little army of mouse droids (!!), clearing their way to begin their escape, and I loved getting to see these two working together, even if Lobot is still tragically affected by the implants. The overall escape ends up with not only Leia rescued, but also several Cloud City employees/citizens released from carbon prisons, who end up thanking Lando for coming back and getting them, fighting with the Rebellion to do so. From knowing Lando in the films alone, getting to hear such praise and gratitude takes him by surprise, more so by how good it feels, less about the words themselves. Knowing Lando after Soule’s Lando miniseries, which is where his debt to Lobot comes from, the look on Lando’s face here as he looks at Lobot is one of understanding, as he finally gets what Lobot meant in his final message before the implants took over (my #1 unforgettable comic moment of the new canon, by the way).
For Luke, with a nearly impossible search in front of him, reaches out to the Force to help him locate his saber, but instead it offers him a vision. Part of it connects him to the robed figure we saw holding his blade in Cloud City from an earlier vision, now on a strange, but beautiful planet and luring him there. There are also moments from past and future, like Palpatine tempting him to take his blade in the throne room or Yoda telling him he won’t need a weapon to visit the dark side cave. Lastly, he sees Leia, frozen in carbonite, reaching towards him. This call to action is enough to help him get over his misconnection with the Force, and he confidently strolls in to rescue Lando/Lobot and, after a quick tutorial from Lando, unfreezes Leia and the Cloud City employees/citizens with the Force too. Luke realizes the lightsaber doesn’t make a Jedi, it’s just one of their many tools, and its connection to his father allows him to let it go, for now. It felt a little too easy that he’s over his Force problems, but the questions still remain, understandably so, which is why he heads off to locate the mysterious woman in his visions. She might not be what she seems, considering it’s revealed here she doesn’t actually have the Skywalker lightsaber, since the Ugnaughts randomly find it after Luke and the rest of L-Squad leaves. So for all those sites that went overboard on those click-bait articles about what happened to Luke’s lightsaber, maybe just wait and see what else the comic has to say first, as it seems the full tale of the Skywalker lightsaber’s journey to Maz Kanata’s castle remains untold. As for what this means for the mysterious woman…looks like we won’t have to wait too much longer!
It’s a little disappointing Leia spent most of the issue frozen, and while she leaps into action the moment she’s free, it still didn’t feel like enough. As I imagined last review, she went to the freezing chamber to learn how to save Han when the time came, without having to rely on anyone else, as trusting Lando last time led to Han’s entire predicament, in her eyes. This is likely why she bypassed asking Lando for the info, which led to her getting frozen like Han; damned if she did, damned if she didn’t. She seems to have begun changing her mind about Lando, upon learning his whole reason for coming back was to both stick it to the Empire and save his friend, both selfless actions she didn’t think he was capable of.
The fantastic character-focused art continues with Jesús Saiz, while Rachelle Rosenberg joins Arif Prianto on colors. Normally she seems to hue a little brighter, but I couldn’t tell much of a difference between her and Prianto’s work, keeping the grittier/dark tone and feel intact throughout. Once again, Saiz’s work makes grasping character’s emotions without dialogue much easier, as it’s clear Lando is surprised but enjoys being called hero, the look of determination and clarity on Luke’s face is pronounced, and Leia’s feistiness is infectious.
Here are a few other things:
- I just thought Luke’s X-wing in Return of the Jedi was a new one, so that he manages to rescue the one he left on Cloud City here was a little surprising answer for me.
- The little stormtrooper dialogue continues to delight…more of this in all things, please!
- L-Squad turned out to be the perfect nickname for the lead characters of this arc, as now Lobot joins their ranks making it 4 L-named characters! How many more L names will there be?!
Star Wars #4 (Vol. 2) wraps up the chaos on Cloud City as the L-Squad learns to work better with one another.
+ Lando and Lobot as a team again
+ L-Squad coming together
– Little too fast with Luke’s recovery
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.
STAR WARS (Vol. 2)
The Destiny Path: #1 | #2 | #3 | #5 | #6 / Arc Review