– Spoiler Review –
The Battle of Jakku maxiseries rages on! Insurgency Rising #2 introduces even more situations and characters to the story, but manages to begin formulating it all into a cohesive way forward.
Part of my critique of the previous, opening issue to the entire maxiseries was how oddly placed some of this new content to this era felt against what was already released and whether it would really fit in or not if you boiled it down. The disconnect continues in issue #2 and in a way, having read or played other content like Battlefront II, The Princess and the Scoundrel, Aftermath Trilogy, and Alphabet Squadron Trilogy feels sort of like a detriment to enjoying this series, as it’s hard not to start wondering how to fit this all in against the backdrop of those stories. Taking out those concerns and simply enjoying The Battle of Jakku: Insurgency Rising #2 for what it is, a continuation of its own story in this era, positively changed how I viewed this issue, made easier by its expansion with new and familiar characters and pushing the story forwards; let the more dedicated than me put all these events together, I’m just going to try and enjoy the ride instead. In fact, there are probably many readers who haven’t consumed those previous stories, so not everyone’s going to even notice what I am. Either way, like I said earlier, the fact Insurgency Rising #2 coalesces the opening’s disparate threads into forward momentum really helps the series, regardless of how much readers have engaged with other content.
Where to start?! I’m kicking this off with Luke Skywalker, whose actions in this era are less known than most, even though one half of his appearance this issue bumps up against one of the few stories of him anyways. While Luke still has a lot to unpack in his life, with Master Yoda dead and his success with his father against the Emperor, he’s out here dispensing advice and helping others regardless, like a good Jedi would and almost recalling High Republic ones since he’s out and about in the galaxy. In his initial appearance, Luke and Rynn Zenat, the B-wing pilot who crashed on the Forest Moon and warned everyone about Moff Adelhard, discuss keeping hold of hope and their purpose going forward, teaching each other a little something along the way. It recalls his scene with Del Meeko on Pillio in Battlefront II, and later scenes in The Mandal The Book of Boba Fett, as we get to hear his calm, worldly perspective, while the omniscient narrator of the series, and the art team, hint he still has his own questions about his path, of course. The second scene with Luke takes us to the aforementioned Pillio mission, though this is set after he and Meeko part ways since he’s alone and has the compass from the Emperor’s observatory, and that’s when a group of Acolytes of the Beyond attempt to attack him! Despite their leader Yupe Tashu’s threatening statement in the issue’s opening, it’s no surprise Luke makes short work of the attackers, without killing anyone, though it’s their threat the dark side will overtake everything which has a more lasting impression on Luke. I’m interested to see what this encounter, and dealing with them, will bring to us readers in future issues!
I had my questions if Rynn was a plant somehow, maybe even the mysterious Reyna Oskure, the Anzati, but this issue heavily suggests she is who she says she is, but that doesn’t mean the fledgling New Republic still is immediately trusting her intel. Leia and Mon Mothma, alongside Republic Intelligence Agent Calder Behrens, debate Rynn’s accounts of Moff Adelhard’s Iron Blockade vs highly trusted source codenamed “Operator” and their intel (more on that in a moment), and because the NR knows of more imminent and reliable threats, it’s decided to only send a small team to assess, try to help, engage, and if needed, die trying to stop whatever Adelhard’s up to until they know more on where to send their stretched and limited assets. The team Leia chooses consists of Kes Dameron, naturally given Segura’s past writing him and the character’s own success as a reliable Pathfinder, Rynn Zenat, once again the series pointing towards her reliability over my theory, a new character named Therisa Alern, a get-her-hands-dirty intelligence operative type, and lastly…JAREK YEAGER!! Star Wars Resistance, while not necessarily my favorite show, is still a delight overall and its many characters, especially ones who have backstory which extend to this era, have long needed to start being integrated more into stories, so it’s a big joy to see a younger Yeager here. It feels like a cameo only, but hopefully in the issues ahead he’ll have much more to do!
Speaking of Adelhard, while we see him tripling down on his misinformation campaign and asserting his dominance by killing a captured New Republic pilot, he doesn’t have too much to do this issue, though everyone else is talking about him. For starters, Tashu and Reyna Oskure talk about her efforts with Adelhard but it seems like she hasn’t left yet so hopefully the cover for issue #3 with her on it hints she’ll finally make the trip to advise him. Next, we get a pretty cool scene for book fans, with both Grand Admiral RAE SLOANE, a rising star in the Empire and even more so in its post-Endor days who was first introduced in A New Dawn, and Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax, a core component of the Aftermath Trilogy and the Emperor’s posthumous plans for the Empire, catch up about Operation: Cinder, a big plot point from this era. Then they discuss Adelhard’s splinter group, with Rax confident Tashu will have Adelhard under control, despite Sloane’s concerns. Rax is a busy guy trying to fulfill Palpatine’s Contingency plans, which includes taking the nickname of the Operator, mentioned by Mon Mothma/Leia/Behrens earlier, who is feeding the New Republic information to help dismantle the Empire per said plans, though if you hadn’t read the books the comic doesn’t reveal this just yet. I’ll be curious if they’ll finally reveal what he looks like when they uncover him as the “Operator,” while I’m also wondering why he’s claiming the opposite of what Rynn Zenat is telling them regarding Adelhard…part of Tashu and his plans for the Moff?
While galactic forces debate Adelhard’s importance to the post-Endor war efforts, his actions even make it to the underworld, where the leader of the Spice Runners of Kijimi, Zeva Bliss (the mother to The Rise of Skywalker’s Zorii Bliss), attempts to ally with Bib Fortuna, the new ruler on Tatooine in the wake of Jabba’s death, as first seen in The Mandalorian’s season two post-credit sequence (and even hinted at in the recent Star Wars Outlaws game). Bib declines to join her since she wants to help Adelhard, an interesting position given the Empire’s crumbling nature, but she makes a good point to one of her top Lieutenants, Tomasso, that fermenting chaos via Adelhard will give them a chance to take control of the underworld like Zeva, and her mother, always dreamed. One of Bib’s men overhears this, so I’ll be curious if majordomo-turned-crime-lord does try to align with her at some point or if just some of Bib’s men will leave and join her and her efforts. Zeva Bliss, Tomasso, Vigilch, and even Marinda Gan and Gen Tri (seen in the final panel) are all characters Segura introduced in Poe Dameron: Free Fall, which revealed Poe’s time amongst the group before his New Republic days and showed the Bliss family attempts at underworld domination. Insurgency Rising #2 ends with Leia’s crack team from the New Republic being intercepted by the Spice Runners’ fleet, setting up a big roadblock to their efforts in understanding and stopping the Adelhard threat.
With no backup story this issue, on art we have Leonard Kirk, Rachelle Rosenberg for colors, and Joe Caramagna lettering. I really enjoyed seeing the Messenger droids again, the spooky, red robed robots with a holographic face, where the Emperor’s final message shouts out its orders from, and I feel like the team here did a great job of capturing what makes them so unnerving, from the crackling image of Palpatine’s face to the bright, blood red of their outfits. The same to very similar red is used by Rosenberg for Gallius Rax’s showy cape, which helps connect the character to the Emperor’s plans in a subtle yet noticeable way. RAE SLOANE’s professionalism carries across in her brief appearance, her face not betraying much of how she actually feels about these events and what they are doing on behalf of the Emperor, while the Grand Admiral outfit look is splendid for her. The moody, sandy colored feel to the Tatooine/Jabba’s Palace was a nice change of pace, as it immediately evokes a shadier mindset, denoting the underworld on looks alone compared to the other stories we’ve been interacting during the issue. One of my favorite panels in the scene between him and Zeva’s group is where we see him reflected in Bliss’ signature family helmet, as while he’s smiling his ugly, toothy look, the sharp look of the helmet gives Zeva the far more lethal feeling, as does how Caramagna has Bib’s word bubbles coming from off panel, placing them against her reflective visor, almost like they are bouncing off her, useless to her. Luke’s battle with the Acolytes, which is mainly him hopping around like a circus performer and leaving disarmed and unconscious combatants in his wake, was a good sequence from the team. Kirk makes Luke’s movements very coordinated while his face is mostly passive, as if he’s barely trying, while I liked how little sound FX we got during the fight, as his saber lighting up gets one, followed by their various blaster shots trying to hit him, but the next biggest one is a definitive swipe of his sword against enemy blasters and a little, yet satisfying “thunk” when he pushes someone into a nearby structure to knock them out, all of which is showing he’s largely had the control throughout. Both sides might be wearing black, and the more vibrant colors or Pillio are missing, but Rosenberg shades in some white amongst Luke’s outfit to give him a more heroic look against the red shape on the Acolytes’ robes.
Here are a few other things:
- I know Segura knows Shara Bey and her story, and she had her 2015 Shattered Empire miniseries and Star Wars (Vol. 2) series appearances sure, but just seeing her in a quick panel as a doting wife saying goodbye to her husband as he rushes off on a big mission feels like we’re only set to get less with her, not more. Hopefully she’ll get more of her due soon.
- It was a little confusing to have two white, female coded, red-headed characters in the issue and, despite them both getting named, I’m sure someone out there will be wondering if the red-headed Acolyte of the Beyond who warns Luke is canon’s Mara Jade until all is said and done. Yuan Howzell is her name, it seems, and she’s new and not anyone we met in the Aftermath Trilogy or Shadow of the Sith.
- 10/18/2024 is the NYCC Lucasfilm Publishing Panel and they’ve confirmed Marvel comic news will be included, so we’ll soon know what’s next, while last week they revealed something neat: A New Legacy one-shot featuring all the comic-created characters!
- Here’s the current release schedule for the remaining Battle of Jakku story, minus dates for the final two issues: 10/30 Insurgency Rising #3; 11/6 Insurgency Rising #4; 11/20 Republic Under Siege #1; 11/27 Republic Under Siege #2; 12/4 Republic Under Siege #3; 12/11 Republic Under Siege #4; 12/25 Last Stand #1; 1/8/2025 Last Stand #2.
The Battle of Jakku: Insurgency Rising #2 is bringing forward momentum to all its threads, all while introducing even more new and familiar characters, expanding the scope and the scale.
+ Bringing in even more characters/threads of the era
+ Pushing the story forward
+ Connecting Rax to the Emperor and Luke’s cake-walk against the Acolytes are art team highlights
– …even if it means more questions arise (but I’m learning to get over them!)
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.
THE BATTLE OF JAKKU MAXISERIES REVIEWS
Insurgency Rising: #1