– Spoiler Review –
The first issue for Justina Ireland and Pere Pérez’s Sana Starros miniseries was a refreshing and mesmerizing beginning, so my hopes were high it could keep up the quality going forward. I can comfortably confirm Sana Starros #2 is much of the same, and even exceeds the opening, as it combines fun action, great character work, and some exciting reveals for fans of everything from Solo to The High Republic!
The enchanting energy from the first issue doesn’t let up in the second, even as we get a little more backstory for the current bind the Starros family finds themselves in and Sana is an unwitting part of. That writer Justina Ireland can keep the pace moving at such a enthralling pace, all while exploring new details, is one of the miniseries’ biggest charms, though the champion of its charms falls to the Starroses themselves, who continue to delight. Grammy Thea contains multitudes, either being delighted stringing along a life-threatening situation to see her daughter try a new toy or being real with Sana the next, while all the new details of her backstory make her more compelling by the moment. Mevera, Sana’s aunt and the aforementioned daughter to Thea, is still standoff-ish to Sana, yet her willingness to still love a person despite their choices is something Sana could learn from her. And Aryssha, Sana’s cousin and Mevera’s daughter, doubles down on her capacity to mislead others, continuing a charade to help the others catch up to her and her Imperial husband. And of course Sana herself, willing to go with the flow but demanding as ever, showing off piloting skills while still finding time to question her family, begins to feel comfortable amongst the others after feeling so removed last issue, while this issue also takes the time to explore the fallout from the breakup with Doctor Chelli Aphra. Overall, there’s a tight, enjoyable script and story to follow in the Sana Starros miniseries so far, but what’s making me eager to come back every issue is the Starroses themselves, though I should’ve guessed from how quickly I fell in love with Avon Starros, a character Justina Ireland originated in The High Republic era she helped created.
Speaking of Avon…the family heirloom the Starros clan is after which the Imperials have is finally revealed and as a big fan of Avon and the High Republic era overall, I was jumping like Grogu in excitement. If you’ve never read any of The High Republic content, set 200 years prior to the prequels, Ireland makes it easy for readers by not going into much detail, but for those who have, what details she gives allows the upcoming third and final Phase of the initiative to fill in the blanks. Avon was a skilled inventor and tinkerer, enduring herself to fans (like me!) in The High Republic – A Test of Courage (part of Phase I’s opening Wave), where her interest in kyber crystals got my mind whirring about the potential of her work to be exploited centuries later by the Empire for a little thing called the Death Star, and she took a step closer to completing her work, though trying to harness the power of the kyber, via a synthetic one, to help provide planets endless energy (ironic!), in The High Republic – Mission to Disaster (part of Phase I’s closing Wave). According to Grammy Thea, which I loved hearing about Avon via her descendants as it really grounds the newer era and character in the grand tapestry of the galaxy far far away, Avon grew concerned about people using her research for nefarious purposes so she had it locked away in their family vault. Young Thea, a tinkerer herself, found the research and unlocked its secrets…but somehow it found its way into the hands the Empire. To protect Avon and their family’s legacy, they are desperate to get it back, least it be used how Avon didn’t want it to, but the biggest question mark remains how it got into Imperial hands. I have a theory: it was Phel, Sana’s twin brother, who is a sore, sore subject amongst the remaining Starroses. As for Avon, the issue leaves her ultimate fate unknown, claiming she disappeared…could she join Jedi Knight Vernestra Rwoh to her mysterious hyperspace coordinates? In the end the issue leaves Phase III, which launches in November and will pick up after Phase I’s events (Phase II went even further back in time), open to explore what happens to her next.
In more recent Starros history, after they manage to get a pesky bounty hunter off their back thanks to Sana’s flying and Mevera’s ion cannon (the tinkering is a Starros gift!), Aunt and Niece sit down to chat over some liquor after Thea wants them to try and leave the past in the past. The bounty hunter claimed to know Sana, though she had never been to where he said they met, but his reveal she supposedly left with his girlfriend makes her imagine she knew who it really was: Aphra. Mevera won’t talk about her potential arms dealing past and Sana avoids the reference to Aphra, leaving the two to chat instead about the current situation and Phel. This is when we see Mevera is a far more forgiving Starros, as she doesn’t judge her family for their decisions since she loves them, not allowing their choices to affect her feelings for them. Sana is harsh and quick to judge, which is why she’s at odds with Mevera because it’s revealed she helped Phel with his choice to, as far as I can tell and helps build into my theory, join the Empire. The liquor is expensive and overpowering, though their little session helps ease the tension between the two, especially since they are closing in on a way to help Aryssha.
But it leaves Sana with a bad hangover and dreams of someone she just can’t shake: Aphra. Chelli Aphra has been the prominent figure in all our interactions with those around her, so we’ve mainly got her side of things as she flits through their lives, making her choices and sometimes, rarely, worrying about the consequences. So as much as Aphra is my current favorite character in all of Star Wars, it’s refreshing to see her from someone else’s POV more and explore those consequences she doesn’t take the time to learn. The dream she has references the wonderful scene where the two first truly meet at university, wonderfully performed in the audiobook Doctor Aphra, and it shows how much Sana cared about Aphra, as she’s finding her way back to their happy moments despite the recent breakup. Considering this helps really nail down this series takes place before A New Hope, and knowing how much of a grudge she forms against her brother and even her aunt, this begins to explain the depth of her hatred going as far as it does for her ex. I hope the miniseries continues to unpack and explore this throughout, even in these little moments, as it fleshes out Sana even more and fits with her larger journey.
Aboard her husband’s personal vessel, Aryssha is doing an excellent job playing up her current pregnant condition so she can sneak around and deliver a message to her family, while she’s a master of playing up her fasle love for Officer Cerasus Ehllo in an attempt to force a detour to help the family catch up. This family is good at thinking on their feet and she’s a master improvisor to the point she even has me wondering the full extent of this ruse (if Sana hadn’t felt the kids kicking, I’d almost wonder if she was actually pregnant!). Her detour plans are giving Thea enough time to take the rest of the family to see an old relative, someone she claims Sana’s met before yet the youngest Starros doesn’t remember: Deva Lompop! Introduced first in the War of the Bounty Hunters crossover event in Jabba the Hutt #1, Deva is a formidable bounty hunter with a scary large jaw, while her species’ long life has allowed her to know many Starroses over the centuries, including Avon! Thea calls Deva “aunt” and in kind Deva calls her “Starfall,” which Mevera reveals was a name from Grammy’s time as a sniper for Enfys Nest!! The High Republic callback was cool, but since we’re guaranteed more time with Avon, any little trickle of Enfys Nest related bits is quite the moment since we don’t know when or if we’ll get to see her again. From Thea figuring out Avon’s mysteries to her getting involve with Enfys, consider me all signed up and ready for the Thea Starros miniseries next! How Deva will be able to help them, or if she’ll even want to, will be an interesting development to see next issue!
While the writing is a key component for what makes these issues great so far, Pere Pérez’s art, this time with Dono Sánchez-Almara on colors and Travis Lanham again on lettering, is the final part which brings another amazing issue together. How about that zippy action sequence in space to start?! I love the sense of speed Pérez brings to the ships in space with the simple elongated lines of the stars behind them, an effect which is used to show how effective Mevera’s ion cannon is against the hunter, as their ship continues to have the lines stretched around them and his is surrounded by the stars as dots, his movement arrested. Lanham’s SFX for the ion cannon is as electrifying as the sparks Pérez laces over the hunter’s ship, a cackling blue by Sánchez-Almara which leaves little to the imagination on what’s happening to the ship. I also really liked the differences in colors between the two ships, as the hunter’s was shiny and clean, fitting for what looks like a professional, older hunter, while the Starros’ Vector Bundle is an aging bronze, fitting for the clunky name and likely age of the ship, showing how old it probably is, though also making it one a pursuer could easily underestimate. Sana’s drunken memories of her and Aphra have a cool, grainy tint to it, fuzzy in some aspects to make it feel like we’re viewing it through Sana’s liquor-fogged brain, while the panel of the two about to kiss, it just being their silhouettes is both beautiful and sad, like she can remember the good times but they don’t come in clear because of the pain she still has over it. As the issue jumps back and forth to locations, the switch between the interior of the Vector Bundle and Ehllo’s ship was a nice contrast: whereas his ship is clean and polished, sterile in its brightness, the Starros’ isn’t as clean, dirt and less shine, but where Ehllo’s ship would make you think it’s full of upstanding people and the Bundle hinting at shady people, there’s only honesty on the Bundle and only lies on Ehllo’s. As much as Aryssha believes she’s fooling Ehllo, the art cues us in he’s suspicious of her, and while I think she’ll pull a fast one on him in the end, he’s one to watch out for too.
Here are a few other things:
- Gracing the Women’s History Month variant cover by Peach Momoko, and fittingly so considering all the great content we get with her this issue, is Grammy Thea!
- Issue #3 should be out April 19 and it features Sana riding a rancor…I need to know why and how now!!
Sana Starros #2 explores all our characters more and opens its world in another exciting, well-written, and wonderfully drawn issue that shows the first issue was just the start of something special.
+ The Starros clan continues to be a big draw
+ Callbacks to Avon Starros/Enfys Nest
+ Exploring Sana’s side of the breakup fallout
+ Art team led by Pérez once again makes a magical issue
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.
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