– Spoiler Review –
Qi’ra’s plans for chaos and distractions to strike at the Sith ruling the galaxy with an iron fist crystalize just as the danger increases in Crimson Reign #5, the finale to the miniseries which promises even more chaos and an epic conclusion in the final part of Qi’ra’s comic trilogy starting later this year.
Over the course of the Crimson Reign miniseries, and the surrounding series set in the same era, Qi’ra’s plans and frighteningly large number of spies hiding in every organization have kept the galaxy on edge, as you never know who will utter the phrase “await the dawn” and create schisms in powerful places no one once thought was possible. Qi’ra’s had the Emperor’s Royal Guard poisoned in front of his face, stolen the heir of two powerful syndicates on Corellia (while helping force a confrontation between Rebel hunter Commander Zahra and Princess Leia), sent the Archivist to track down Yoda in the hopes of using him as bait to lure out Sidious and Vader (the Archivist kept the Jedi’s secret however), and had the Knights of Ren steal the bizarre yet mesmerizing Screaming Key from Fortress Vader on Mustafar, all part of her grand coordinated plan, though how they all connect and the purpose of each move hasn’t always been clear, but at least they’ve been entertaining to watch unfold. Reading other series in this era has revealed other aspects or resolutions to these various schemes, while the Darth Vader comic has made it clear the Empire already felt like Crimson Dawn was their enemy, so I was a little confused when this issue starts with Emperor Palpatine acting like they are actually a problem now, but upon reflection it’s a recontextualization of the Dawn’s threat. Palpatine clarifies the Dawn and its leader are targeting the Sith, with his previous orders to Vader about reigning in chaos just him wanting the Dark Lord to keep his Empire from falling apart from the inside out, and he now cares about the Dawn because they only want him gone. The Emperor isn’t always concerned with his Empire or the Rebellion against him because they are just threats to those he considers disposable, but when he becomes the target, when the Sith and their rule are in the sights of someone’s machinations, he takes it seriously. His anger over someone coming after them helps solidify the last few issues of this series and those around it, giving the many actions of Qi’ra’s Dawn context and discernible weight, as it didn’t always feel like their actions were achieving much of anything. With Palpatine well-versed in manipulating all sorts of sides to achieve one’s goals, thus knowing the thread the Dawn poses to him, he directs the entirety of the Empire against the Dawn, claiming them and Qi’ra priority enemies. He might think of the Empire’s many soldiers as disposable, but he’ll gladly use them to protect himself when and if necessary. Palpatine’s pressure against the Dawn and Qi’ra’s plans for the ultimate chaso to take out the Sith increases the stakes in the story ahead, in both the finale to Qi’ra’s comic trilogy out in October and the comics overall, and I’m very eager to see how it all plays out. We know from the Archivist’s holocron in this series’ framing story, and from the original trilogy, it’s a story of tragedy, but how will it all go down? How much of a tragedy? And can Qi’ra live beyond it?
Vader and Palpatine take time to discuss Qi’ra, with Vader finally bringing up an observation he made about her fighting style, which leads both of them to realize she was trained by Maul. There’s the usual Sith Master and Apprentice push and pull during the conversation, Palpatine poking at Vader’s failures and Vader leaving the question in the air if Palpatine trained Qi’ra or not, and I hope we’ll get more of these two together as the pressure campaign against the Dawn increases, if only because in the current Vader comic its not been as witty when these two meet. When they put together it was likely Maul, Palpatine has the great question: what else did he teach her? The issue fades to the next phase of the Knights of Ren and Achivist’s part of the Dawn’s plans, arriving at an absolutely spooky planet where giant, spiky, rocky statues of people, or people frozen in time, litter the landscape, the Screaming Key in hand and a quest before them. I didn’t put it together at first, but we’ve seen a similar creepy statue once before, an abomination of Darth Momin, a recurring player in Soule’s comics! Soule first wrote Momin into his Lando miniseries, where the helmet began possessing people and causing all types of issues for Lando’s latest schemes (stealing Palpatine’s yacht!), and later we actually got to meet and learn more about Momin in Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith as he helped Vader build Fortress Vader on Mustafar, and in those flashbacks is when we see a similar looking statue, so even if he’s finely dead and his helmet recently smashed by the Knights of Ren in their raid, his presence and machinations still remain (and even gets a shout-out in Shadow of the Sith). So why are the Knights and the Archvisit taking the Screaming Key to this Momin-like world of scary statues? The bumbling Knights and Ren himself lead her through the statues, which of course come to life and start attacking them as they approach the biggest one, which is where she climbs into its eyeballs and finds a mechanical brain, inserting the key that quiets the other statues and opens it up to reveal…a spiky hourglass?! Qi’ra’s big scheme involved finding an hourglass?! I know there’s a lot more to it, as there always is with Sith artifacts, but it sort of made me laugh, it was so unexpected. What does it do? How will it help Qi’ra in the fight against the Sith? Does it slow down time? October is only 4 months away as of this writing but the wait got longer due to this intriguing new puzzle.
As it becomes clear to Qi’ra through her contacts that the Empire isn’t about to make the Dawn’s lives hell, she takes the young Cadeliah aside to teach her some lessons before they may never see each other again. There’s some disconnect from where the Bounty Hunters series currently is, Cadeliah’s being a main character and important to the larger story of two warring syndicates on Corellia folding there, and this miniseries, as Cadeliah was pretty defiant against Qi’ra the last we saw them together and now they seem like good friends, so hopefully Hunters can catch up to help bridge the gap a little. Regardless, Qi’ra’s intentions with Cadeliah haven’t been clear until now, as she seems to want the young girl to take over both and help the Dawn by adding their forces to her’s, so she imparts some wisdom gleaned from her own rise to power in the Dawn itself. She teaches the young Cadeliah trusting no one is an important and vital way to run a syndicate, every interaction a transaction, as she has been with the Dawn and her agents, an instinct born from the crucible she’s passed to get to this point, from having to fight her way, literally and figuratively, to stay alive and make it to the top (we even learn Margo tried to kill her three times before accepting her as the new leader!). While Cadeliah isn’t quite sure what to do with this information right now, as a reader and fan of Qi’ra, it made me even more excited the eventual book or comic that’ll dive into her years up to Solo: A Star Wars Story and until now with her return to the galaxy’s stage. Of the two speeches Qi’ra gives, nothing is more rousing than the one that closes out the issue, where she literally says at one point, “…This is my hidden empire. Choke on it.” Like, hells yes it is and they certainly will, Qi’ra!! It’s hard to keep in mind the Archivist’s holocron warnings about the tragedy to unfold still after this speech, where she galvanizes those with her revelation she was prepared for the Emperor to start hunting them and has started the next stage of the plan, issuing the simple order of chaos to all her agents. Will The Hidden Empire miniseries be more a crossover like War of the Bounty Hunters, taking over all the other series’ in the same era again? Or more like this one, where everything’s reacting to and dealing with the larger story but it’s not the focus? Because if these distractions she’s already planned were big but didn’t always feel like it across the 5-issue run, will another 5-issue only story do the chaos she promises, do the coming tragedy, justice? I felt like War of the Bounty Hunters was too large and too unwieldy at times, so I almost don’t want it to go in that direction either, but if it’s not bleeding across the other series’ more prominently than it did this time, will it have the same impact? Could it be more like the crossover Star Wars comics have done in the past, where two series combine to tell the story? I’m stoked to see what Qi’ra all has in store for the Empire, and to see how close she gets, in the final part of her comics’ return trilogy, and while I trust Soule considering his overall work so far, I’m still a little concerned it won’t be as rousing as her speech promises. We’ll know more about what’s to come for The Hidden Empire sometime next month, as the September solicitations were just released so the answers are coming.
I can’t say I’ve seen a better Qi’ra in the comics than the one by the team here: Steve Cummings on art, Victor Olazaba inking, Guru-eFX on colors, and Travis Lanham lettering. I’m hoping they’ll be around for The Hidden Empire, but so far each miniseries in the Qi’ra Trilogy has had different artists, so the chances are slim, but that could potentially come with its own pluses, like finally having a marginalized creative, like a woman or woman-identifying person, as part of Qi’ra’s time in the comics. There’s just been something about the way Cummings draws Qi’ra, and Olazaba makes clear in his inks, that builds off of Emilia Clarke’s performance and yet feels distinct and their own, that has endured their portrayal of her throughout the miniseries. It’s probably will how they capture her calm, reserved, and yet resigned mannerisms, like she’s truly planned for everything and, despite her confidence, she’s still humble enough about having to see it through, that knowing even she could stumble at any point. While this might take away from her rousing demand the galaxy choke on her hidden empire, it only adds to the ferocity of those final moments, as her confidence wins out and helps inspire those around her to take on this deadly, giant mission. Everything with the creepy statue city/world was mesmerizing as well, as even though the resulting panels after the big one-page reveal of the place were smaller, the sense of scale remained with the giant creatures chasing down the little Knights of Ren and the Archivist. And while I might joke a bit about the hourglass, it is an intriguing reveal, the spiky top and bottom giving it a metal vibe that’s totally in step with the Ren and the Knights, while the whole brain apparatus it was hiding had hints of natural design within a cold, machine architecture. Guru’s colors had the near impossible job of mimicking the natural lighting of Solo and the White Worm den, but it’s the closest I’ve felt any art team has gotten to the film’s look in a flashback panel here, while the cold, dead, and barren look to the initial reveal of the statue city betrays the warm, creepy glow of their reanimation happening a few panels after. Lanham’s lettering, the E’s sliding across the top of the page as the Screaming Key, well, screams, brings some humor and adds the key to the Saga-approved silly named things list, while word bubbles placements in Qi’ra’s big speech give her the room she needs to be the focus and yet have her biting words sink their teeth in.
Here are a few other things:
- Hidden in shadow, Emperor Palpatine calls on Director Barsha, who runs their own division within the Imperial Security Bureau, to talk them through how the syndicate wars are unfolding and whom they and their team believe is behind it all. Why is Director Barsha’s face never shown? The name certainly isn’t familiar, nor connected to anyone we know, so what’s their real identity? Is Barsha someone we’ve already met? An operative for Crimson Dawn? Someone we have yet to meet? Is it Moff Gideon, his first name being Barsha, from The Mandalorian like I’ve seen people suggest? Is it the old man who claims to be Han Solo’s father? Is it a female character from Legends repurposed with a new name? It’s interesting the issue ends without Barsha’s identity revealed and I’m wondering if we’ll have to wait until The Hidden Empire begins before we know or if some of the marketing/details about the next series will reveal it. Consider me intrigued!
- Before we see Soule return with Qi’ra in October, don’t forget to check out issue #25 of his Star Wars run, which will feature stories from his previous series, The Rise of Kylo Ren, Poe Dameron, Obi-Wan & Anakin, and Darth Vader! It releases July 20!
Crimson Reign #5 adds weight to Qi’ra’s many plans and sets the stage for a hopefully rousing finale to her comics’ return trilogy!
+ An hourglass?! Tell me more!
+ Qi’ra’s speeches and the promise of chaos
– Leaves me curious how the chaos will be depicted
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.