– Spoiler Review –
Hyperspace Stories’ switch to villains continues with issue #6, though this one has writer Cecil Castellucci asking fans to sympathize with…Greedo?! Thanks to the smart script and stellar art, it manages to pull it off in style.
Hyperspace Stories #6 doesn’t go as far back in Greedo’s story as the deleted scene from The Phantom Menace, but it does present readers with a younger Greedo hoping to make a big name for himself, starting with getting noticed by Jabba the Hutt. Bringing a gift he knows Jabba loves, the gangster’s guards think Greedo is about to pull out a weapon and tackle him, spilling the goods and further hurting the Rodian’s chances. Searching for jobs but no one willing to hire someone so fresh, Greedo finds himself enthralled by the Palace’s newest entertainer, Bennun Glau, and he works up the courage to talk with her. They form a connection, but the narration immediately informs us things are going to go south somehow, but as someone who works at a bank, it was pretty clear from the moment he started doing odd jobs for Bennun: romance scam. She ends up stealing a precious jewel from Jabba’s collection, which we’ll return to in a moment, but tricks Greedo into thinking a struggle with a guard was her protecting herself, and she uses Greedo’s hard work to escape. Greedo is none-the-wiser at first, believing Bennun when she tells him to wait at the cantina for her, but it turns out he wasn’t the only one to fall for the alien woman’s wily ways: Jabba the Hutt was romance scammed too in her quest for the jewel! Jabba forces Greedo to hunt her down, which he sees as his chance to redeem himself, only she tricks him one last time by sending him after a hapless Wookiee toymaker. He’s able to turn it around by convincing Jabba the Wookiee will make a toy for the young huttling Rotta while Jabba gets to take a chunk of his profits from this point forward. What I love about this ending, as we see Greedo is on baby watching duty recalling this tale, is how it skirts that darker edge for the all-ages crowd, as Greedo remains a villain to some degree because now this Wookiee is stuck paying Jabba but hasn’t become a slave/indebted to him, so not as dark as the story could’ve gotten. Seeing Greedo struggle and be tricked, while cathartic, did give me pause and feel somewhat sympathetic to him, just another bumbling fool trying to make their way in the universe, which we can all related to a little in our own way.
The precious jewel, a sunburst gem, is the object of Jabba’s eye and Bennun’s ultimate goal, which she succeeds with stealing. Part of me wonders…is this what was hidden in the doll way back in issue #1? The series’ connective tissue hasn’t gone away since the switch to villains and a doll being returned to Viiveenn by Rey in issue #4, and this issue adds an extra wrinkle. We meet Brewhada here, which we learn is the Wookiee toymaker who crafted the little doll that was changing hands throughout the eras in the opening four issues…but it’s far from the only one he’s made, as we see him making a ton here. Is the one Rey gave to Viiveenn the one her father originally gave to her? Is the sunburst gem inside? What her father put in the doll was blue, so maybe it’s the sunburst gem’s pair or something? Or is the mysterious object still out there, inside another doll which looks just like it?? Whether it actually made its way back to Viiveenn or not by the end of the series remains to be seen.
As for art, Eduardo Mello appears on pencils/inks, Nicola Righi offers colors, and Tyler Smith & Jimmy Betancourt once again performing lettering. Both Eduardo Mello and Nicola Righi have graced us with their work in The High Republic Adventures: The Nameless Terror before, so it’s great to have them back alongside the usual lettering suspects. One thing which really stood out to me was Righi’s colors, as he matches the subdued, darker tone of the Jabba’s Palace as we first saw it in Return of the Jedi, full of shadows and insinuating darker, seedier things happen here. When Bennun first appears, the brightness is off-putting almost, as suddenly shadows fade and yet only she can be seen, the star of both Greedo and Jabba’s eyes, and she remains a bright spot in the following pages as Greedo comes to meet her and start doing jobs for her. It’s when Greedo returns and she’s nearly killed one of the guards when her brighter color cades, as while close-up panels of her and Greedo hugging or holding one another are Barbie pink, she’s in the same coloring scheme as how the issue started, the same darker colors of the Palace and around Greedo, showing how she’s not who they hoped she was. Bennun’s design is unique, a new alien species as far as I can tell, with an egg-like head and bird-like mouth, with ridged purple hair up her neck, mostly white body, and blue forearms with more feather-like endings to them near the elbow, and I sort of get the fascination on just how different and intriguing she looks, so bravo to whomever designed her and thanks to Mello for bringing her to such vivid life. Mello gets a lot of mileage out of Greedo’s eyes for emotional effect, while his Jabba is simple yet detailed, showing the mighty gangster’s ferociousness under what seems like a relaxed lifestyle. For Smith & Betancourt’s work, I appreciate the narration box placements, as they often came right under or over a moment in the story, literally undercutting what we’re hearing or saying at times, and added that edge of when things will go wrong, not if. Case in point, I liked how Bennun asks Greedo if he’ll do anything for her, as he’s kissing her hand, and Greedo’s narration tells us she has her hooks in him, then next panel he seals his fate by agreeing to anything, a word bubble placed exactly below the narration box from the previous panel.
Here are a few other things:
- The opening credits page places this story during the Reign of the Empire era but if Rotta is still a tadpole and Jabba mentions Separatists, then this would be closer to the beginning of the Clone Wars…unless Jabba’s still calling anyone against the Empire “Separatists” and the long life span of a Hutt means Rotta will be a little tadpole for awhile, like Grogu.
- Revealed during SDCC 2023, issue #10 of the series will feature the Bad Batch during the Clone Wars! This should help fans of the animated show wait out its return, as well as missing Tech and wanting more of a time when Crosshair was in the group still.
Hyperspace Stories #6 gives Greedo his moment to shine while adding some potential new wrinkles to the connective threads of the series.
+ Greedo fumbling his way into Jabba’s graces
+ Art team’s work with darkness and brightness, Bennun’s design
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.
DISCLOSURE: I received a copy of this comic from the publisher at no charge in order to provide an early review. However, this did not affect the overall review content. All opinions are my own.