– Spoiler Review –
T’onga and crew reignite their search for the girl who will unite warring criminal organizations and Valance comes face-to-face with a hero…on Vader’s kill orders in Bounty Hunters #19.
While things weren’t looking good for T’onga, Losha, Bossk, Zuckuss, and Tashu Leech’s chances of finding Cadeliah last issue, the murderous hunters with the couple at least found some violent release, but now they are sitting and waiting in a safe house, nothing driving them. T’onga rallies the crew, Losha her hype-lady, and Zuckuss reveals he might have a plan for figuring out how Valance kept in contact with whomever was looking after Cadeliah, which is enough to get everyone on board. His plan: track down his former partner 4-LOM and use his considering tracking/hacking skills to find the signal and find the girl. The only problem? 4-LOM was turned into a murderous murderbot by one of the pair’s rivals, as seen in the stellar one-shot War of the Bounty Hunters – 4-LOM & Zuckuss, so this upcoming reunion won’t be as simple as they’d hope. Everyone’s on board with the plan, and eventual payment, and the group sets off to track down the droid. There’s no movement on the potential wedge between T’onga and Losha, who isn’t eager to return to what she considers a boring life anymore, so hopefully next issue gets back into it and gives this group a few more pages.
Meanwhile, most of the issue is focused on Valance’s job to hunt down and kill an Imperial Lieutenant he once idolized as a child, even after the man was rude to him as an Imperial Cadet as seen in the opening flashback. Valance takes his Black Squadron, a crew of elite pilots cut down by a few by the end of the issue, to attack Lt. Sokoli’s ship. One is a familiar name and the other could be: there’s Brebtin, later a member of Shadow Wing, first seen in the okay TIE Fighter miniseries and later in the mind-numbingly good finale to the Alphabet Squadron trilogy; and then Dark Five, that between his damaged helmet and lack of words beyond kill, sort of reminded me of Shen from Star Wars Squadrons, but that’s a headcanon and not confirmed yet. Valance pulls off an aggressive maneuver to board Sokoli’s ship and the two talk before Valance kills him, though he isn’t given much choice as both Sokoli tries to kill him and Valance obviously would rather protect those he cares about, and while the moment feels like it should matter more to Valance, even his dismissive final words agreeing about knowing death is certain makes it feel like he didn’t learn anything new here. The issue ends with Vader looking to pair Valance up with Ochi of Bestoon, and we already saw how that’s going in Darth Vader #19 (Vol. 3), so hopefully the next issue of this series isn’t a rehash of that episode’s action and instead picks up afterwards.
Ramón Bachs and Bryan Valenza, with Travis Lanham on lettering, continue their time on the series, providing some great TIE Defender vs TIE Fighter action. Seriously, I really enjoy the dog-fighting action, balancing between focusing on the pilots and capturing the scale and maneuvers of both sides, while the laser blasts, sense of speed, and giant explosion really made it feel frantic. I wasn’t a big fan of how T’onga and Losha were drawn this issue, as they looked almost childish to baby-like in their faces, a big change even from the previous issue by the same team. I did like the firey look to the scene between Sokoli and Valance, as Valenza’s colors gave it a warm heat, almost like watching all those yule log videos during this time of the year. Lanham’s lettering adds to the frantic nature of the battles, really giving the dog-fighting a concussive feel.
Bounty Hunters #19 doesn’t split its time well enough for my liking, but hopefully both stories have more forward momentum next issue.
+ Starfighter action
– Valance/T’onga scenes feel like spinning wheels
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.
BOUNTY HUNTERS REVIEWS
War of the Bounty Hunters: #12 | #13 | #14 | #15 | #16 | #17 — Galaxy’s Greatest: #18