– Spoiler Review –
The Battle of Jakku: Last Stand #1 kicks off the maxiseries’ final miniseries, rocketing to the big finale much like it has before.
Like the previous two miniseries in The Battle of Jakku, Last Stand #1 has its main story carrying the series forward, but it also contains a backup tale to help explore Grand Moff Adelhard’s decisions and mindset for what’s yet to come. Yes, that means Adelhard didn’t die at the end of Republic Under Siege #4, somehow surviving instead, and unlike what we were told before between the end of Insurgency Rising and the start of Republic Under Siege, Adelhard has finally changed. For starters, he’s no longer delusional about his place in the Empire’s plans, seeing now he was a pawn they planned to use, not one they wanted to lead, while he’s gone a bit unhinged about paving a deadly path forward, a new path, that’s neither Empire or New Republic. Him being at odds with what both the Empire and New Republic are up to isn’t anything new, though how he wants to go about it and what he looks to plan to do certainly are, as he not only attacks the NR, but the Empire too. It’s the first time he’s really seemed interesting to me and it’s got me wondering, is he being set up by the comics here to help with the exodus into the Unknown Regions by the remaining Imperials, like RAE SLOANE, following the actual Battle of Jakku? His mindset about being something else, being something new, certainly would fit the bill of what could help start what eventually becomes the First Order. And with Marvel still likely having comics to announce, could one of them be about following the Imperials in the Unknown Regions? And then there’s the tease the final issue of the whole maxiseries promises the first ever appearance of a historic character, if Adelhard or this series leads to the Imperials going into hiding, would Snoke make the list, as the verbiage for who it could be is loose enough it might as well be bait? Joruus C’baoth, maybe? I asked writer Alex Segura (and he was kind enough to answer) if he’d seen anyone guess who the character is and, while I don’t know where or how hard he’s looked, he revealed no one had yet, which I’d hazard a guess meant any Mara Jade theories are out the window as I feel like I saw her the most out there, but still leaves plenty on the table. Adelhard’s new groove and the upcoming potential character reveal are certainly things keeping me intrigued, even if it still is barreling too fast through its story.
I still feel like Luke Skywalker doesn’t seem right, as his desire to see Adelhard gone forever just doesn’t track. I get the Grand Moff almost derailed their fledgling New Republic and has hit close to home, coming after Luke, Leia, and Mon Mothma, even coming close to Leia another time via the Acolytes of the Beyond this issue, but it doesn’t read as enough to justify the Jedi’s vengeful mission against Adelhard, plus it doesn’t help most of those instances, especially the “derailment” didn’t feel that grand given the pace of this series. Luke gets pulled away from his and Rynn’s chase of Adelhard by issue’s end, as Leia wants them all to regroup…again, which they had done before until Luke wanted to follow up on an escape pod from Adelhard’s ship despite Oskure assuring them the Moff would be dead. Lando and Preeti are out in the Anoat sector, patrolling, and just when they are similarly called back by Leia, they come into contact with a coalition of Adelhard’s forces and decide to duke it out, weaken it, rather than let them go. The double, triple or whatever crossing is a little confusing, as now Adelhard is back in control of his forces from Oskure thanks to the Spice Runners of Kijimi via Kranor, the Trandoshan who helped kick Adelhard and Bragh off the ship in the first place and claimed he took care of them, so it seems a little redundant to have him kick them off only to help reinstall them, as it now makes this feel necessary only to force Adelhard where Alex Segura needed him to go, over the edge, rather than a logical character driven plot point. In fact, Lt. Alaytia is put in a cell as a traitor early in the issue, but is it because she was tattling on Oskure’s connection Grand Moff Randd and Gallius Rax’s group or because they found out she’s part of the New Republic? It’s not totally clear, and while I guess it doesn’t seem to matter, as I’m sure she’ll still factor into the story going forward, it just makes an already complicated double/triple agent situation even less clear, as we don’t know who knows what or how much.
The issue main story ends with the return of Han Solo, making his first non-frozen Haniscle appearance, outside of the Han Solo & Chewbacca maxiseries which took place earlier in the timeline, since 2019. Given his beard, him being near Takodana, and how he’s alone with no Chewbacca, this seems to take place after the Battlefront II mission on Takodana with Han and before the liberation of Kashyyyk in Aftermath: Life Debt, but with Leia mentioning Rae Sloane had visited Chandrila, which means the Liberation Day attack by the prisoners Han and Aftermath’s main cast, but were chipped by Gallius Rax….where is Chewie, who Han also rescued alongside the other prisoners? Not only has this series been hard to pin down with when and how it mixes in with the other stories of his era, stuff like this only confuses matters more, though if you’ve not read those other stories, it wouldn’t be much of an issue, but reading them afterwards might lead to some confusion. Regardless, it’ll be neat to see Luke, Leia, and Han together again in the current era, as it’ll be one of the first stories since The Princess and the Scoundrel which will have them all together post-Return of the Jedi.
On art, both Jethro Morales and Leonard Kirk return, though Morales has sole credit on the main story and only Kirk for the backup story, with Jim Campbell on colors and Joe Caramanga lettering on both. Morales feels like the best fit for this series overall, as he has a pulpy look to his art that makes action and smiles so dashing you can’t help to smirk with the characters, though his style doesn’t lessen any of the more serious moments, like when Leia’s new security agent is killed early in the story. One of my favorite aspects to Morales’ work is what he’s done with Adelhard, with scraggly hair, tattered robe, and tired looking eyes, Campbell really doing a subtly good job with the bags under his eyes, while he frequently looks vicious, shouting or angry, so he seems like grand and more petty and small because of it. The opening several pages really work well together, as Campbell soft, bright colors make things seem peaceful, serene, though when the Acolytes appear, they stick out due to their deep blacks and stark red ‘v’s, but even with that warning the big one page reveal of the explosion, which Caramagna rattles the eyes with a giant sound FX, feels sudden and unnatural to the serenity we saw before, with lots of yellows and oranges for the explosion covering up the whites and greens of the city around them, while the following pages retain a flaming/hazy background of deeper oranges to show how thoroughly the attack ruined the mood on Chandrila. Kirk similarly does a great job showing the progression of Adelhard’s sanity and anger, especially in two panels where the first is a flashback, his hair proper and his head held high, like he’s important and he knows it, while the following panel, while Bragh doesn’t change and Lt. Alaytia is no longer at his side, his hair and face are disheveled, Campbell providing those baggy under eyes again, while there are little creases and dirt on his uniform as well. I think these depictions work better than the wide eyed close-ups of the previous miniseries. The one page of the Imperial light cruise crashing into the Star Destroyer is a gorgeous bit of work, as having details like burn marks on the Destroyer even before the impact is a bit of visual language to show readers how on the run and spread thin the Imperial remnants really are, while the SFX for the explosion using the same letters, just different font and coloring, helps match it back to the previous surprise moment to show how much of a surprise this move really is.
Here is one other thing:
- Here’s the current release schedule for the remaining Battle of Jakku story: 1/8/2025 Last Stand #2; 1/15/2025 Last Stand #3; 1/22/2025 Last Stand #4.
The Battle of Jakku: Last Stand #1 keeps up the throttle as we head into the final three issues.
+ Still intrigued to see where it all goes
– Luke is off still and too much telling, not showing continues
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 | #2 | #3 | #4 – Republic Under Siege: #1 | #2 | #3 | #4