– Spoiler Review –
Will the adorable murder bears survive the deadly mercenaries and the Gorax? Find out how they do and how Ewoks #4 brings the series to a satisfactory close in our review!
The honorable ways of the little but mighty Ewoks pays off in dividends in the finale, as Koll Orvenk and E-X77 protect Wicket from the Gorax and eventually from Koyatta’s orders, defying them, while it even gets Zuckuss and 4-LOM to side with them over the Imperial holding the purse-strings. There’s a lot of unique and fun visuals in this final issue, be it the AT-ST and the Gorax fighting to the arrival of the Yuzzums, and we wouldn’t have gotten such memorable images had this miniseries stopped leaning into the wild and weird world of the forest moon of Endor. Koyatta’s overdue comeuppance was satisfying, as Wicket’s pressure gets him to admit his true motivation/story and when he’s delivered to Grand Moff Ubrik Adelhard, his ultimate punishment is fitting (and if he’s still doing his assigned job, he’s likely dead after the events of The Battle of Jakku: Last Stand #4). What made the ending so satisfying, besides a bunch of big, fun action, was the way the Ewoks all worked together, especially Meedro and Asha, while Wicket brought in new allies on the strength of his convictions and persuasiveness, giving us a reminder of the murder bears’ resourcefulness without feeling like retreading old ground. And the overall message of the series, about how the Ewoks come to let others in and work together to build their moon’s future, is one readers should take to heart, especially if they have any misguided notions that voting for far-right candidates in government is still the path of the good guys, as those people are driving away all sorts of diversity and flavors of life for a white supremist future no one should ever want. In short, be more like the Ewoks and accept and welcome your neighbors, don’t fear them or shun them because they aren’t like you!
Álvaro López and Laura Braga on art, with Antonio Fabela for colors and Joe Caramagna lettering, return one and final time to close out the miniseries. The confrontation with the Gorax needed to be a big showcase, as we steadily built up the creatures the Ewoks face on the daily basis throughout, and the team doesn’t disappoint in the showdown. There’s an initial panel of the AT-ST and Gorax where the two titans, with panel consuming sound FX from Caramagna in the background, collide, but we get to focus on their fight a few pages later. It starts with Koll slamming into the Gorax’s foot, it screaming in silent pain while it knocks back the AT-ST in the process, making for a good sense of scale for the fight and the two giants. Even Koll, who looked so big two issues ago when holding back Koyatta, is so small when, in the next panel, the Gorax kicks Koll backyards, its foot the same size as the mighty Dowutin. The following panel, where the Gorax rends the front weapons of the AT-ST, there’s some metal-grinding good SFX and Gorax screaming SFX which fits with how the beast seems to be winning in the fight, which makes the subsequent panel of little Koyatta popping out of the AT-ST hatch with a big ol’ cannon all the funnier, as he just looks so small and insignificant. Yet when the page shows us the Gorax’s face, it’s in utter shock, almost scared, and when you get to the next page, the first panel is Koyatta’s big cannon blasting a hole into the Gorax, and while it’s in focus and takes up the majority of the panel, the perspective has us behind Koyatta and he looks much bigger now, as he fells the beast. Glad this team was around to give the Gorax just a fitting fight!
Ewoks #4 is an overall bit-size delight of a finale about these fuzzy heroes of the galaxy.
+ Koyatta’s comeuppance and message of unity
+ Art team giving Gorax fight its due
– Closure was too neat
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Bluesky, Twitter @MynockManor, and Instagram @mynockmanor.