– Spoiler Review –
Star Wars #7 (Vol. 2) begins the next arc of Charles Soule’s relaunched series, “The Will of Tarkin,” digging into the intriguing Commander Zahra’s past while the Leia and the rebels begin enacting plans to save the Rebel Fleet.
Commander Zahra seems like one tough and smart cookie, from how she’s broken the Rebellion’s codes, her crazy but interesting laser fire corridor, to her usage of probe droids this issue and Star Wars #7 (Vol. 2) begins to explore and how why she is like this today. After her parents’ deaths, she joined up with the Empire and her status as an orphan, along with her skills and brilliant mind, brought her to the attention of Grand Moff Tarkin. She wasn’t the only protégé he had in mind, but she reigns victorious in the same gauntlet he passed many years ago (as seen in Tarkin), but takes it to a whole other ruthless level: taking out the rest of the competition beyond hunting an apex predator, as originally ordered. There’s a series of panels that show how important she is to Tarkin, and how valuable he finds her input, as he has in on Project Stardust meetings, interrogating prisoners, or asking Vader to consider her input, but the high regard eventually comes to an end. Despite being sent on a rather easy mission, below her skill set, she manages to fail by not specifically following Tarkin’s desire for the target’s head, thus earning the stiffest of cold shoulders from the Moff. In order to prove herself to him again, she takes a shuttle from the Death Star (the exact one prepared for Tarkin during the Rebellion’s attack) to successfully take out the target this time…only for the Death Star to blow up and leave her desire to be accepted again left in pieces.
She didn’t think the Rebellion posed much of threat, much like her mentor, but I don’t believe she’s going to make the same mistake again, which will be interesting to watch considering this is almost a “what if” scenario for a Tarkin survival…how would he have adapted and learned from his failure to believe in the rebel threat against the Death Star? Zahra isn’t Tarkin though, as he so ruthlessly tells her after her failure with the warlord, and in reality that’s what makes her better and soon to be more formidable to the Rebellion. The whole flashback sequence and new details don’t answer why Zahra’s so dead-set on Leia specifically, could it be because she had a hand securing the Death Star plans from Jyn and crew; a figure-head to blame Tarkin’s death on and how it prevents her from closure; does it have to do with the death of her parents somehow; or is the true reason yet to come still?
Leia and the Fourth Division decide to go on the offensive, using a transmission from the Seventh Division to spring a trap, but the calm, almost excited Zahra makes me fear this’ll be less of a trap for her and more of a trap for the Rebellion. I’m really enjoying the expansion of the villain for Soule’s series, as far too often the Star Wars series introduced some intriguing new bad guys but they were dispatched of quickly, beyond maybe Queen Trios. I’m certainly not rooting for Zahra, but I’m definitely engaged with her character and worried what she could do next.
New arc, new art team, I guess! Ramon Rosanas, who took home the Manor’s top award for Hero art in the Age of Star Wars maxiseries from last year, takes over as artist, with Rachel Rosenberg joining on colors, who I’m glad to see being part of more projects, and Clayton Cowles on lettering. What I enjoyed about Rosanas’ work in Age of Resistance continues on here, from his ability to provide expressive faces, and capture familiar characters, like Tarkin, but do it without seemingly any tracing and give it his own flair; it builds off of Saiz’s work from the previous arc, as does the muted, but dark colors from Rosenberg. Some of my favorite panels include the Carrion Spike‘s attack on Ro’s compound and the progression of the day over the plains of Eriadu, while Tarkin looks as imposing as ever.
Here are a few other things:
- Our next The High Republic reference is here! It’s one of the few mentions of the era’s nefarious forces, the Nihil, as Tarkin mentions them and their propaganda methods; I’m very curious how they use propaganda to make the Jedi’s job difficult in combating them…potentially to make them seem like the heroes or they’re fighting for the common folk. We’ll find out in January when it all launches, but head over to our High Republic hub for our latest coverage!
- The idea of body doubles, hinted at in the probe droid’s assessment of certainty they tagged the right warlord, was a nice little twist, and it almost felt like Tarkin purposefully left it out in hopes Zahra would fail. Considering how he swept the DS from Krennic’s fingers, it wouldn’t be far-fetched for him.
- Ikkrukk, the planet Burnium Ro is hiding on, appeared in Soule’s Poe Dameron comic for the final arc.
- Battlefront: Twilight Company explored the exploits of the ground troops after the defeat of Hoth and the lead-in to Endor, so I’m curious if we’ll see any overlap with that company’s exploits and what’s a head for Leia, Luke, and Lando.
- Issue #8, out November, promise the series’ biggest dogfight, ever. Can’t wait to see if it can live up to such hype, but the art team will likely make it happen.
Star Wars #7 (Vol. 2) offers a glimpse behind the sharp mind of Commander Zahra, enriching the fight ahead as the Rebellion struggles to regroup after Hoth.
+ Exploring Zahra’s past
+ Her ascension and Tarkin’s cold shoulder
+ Loving the new art team!
– Still hoping for a little more Leia soon…
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