– Spoiler Review –
First it comes for the metal…and then it comes for all the other comics: the Dark Droids crossover event kicked off last week and has begun to propagate across several other series now. Star Wars #37 (Vol. 2) charts a course for how this series will handle the crossover’s story in a more personal manner, as writer Charles Soule tears open old wounds by focusing on Lando and Lobot’s complicated friendship.
The Lando miniseries from 2015 to me is still one of Star Wars comics all time greats, as Charles Soule builds up a funny and deep friendship between Lobot and Lando Calrissian, loads the story with fun twists and turns to keeps readers guessing, gives the script plenty of humor, and ends it with an emotional finale (that’s my Top Comics Moment from 2015-2019) which still hits 8 years later; it’s partly replayed this issue. Soule took to Twitter to remark how this Dark Droids tie-in arc would be a direct sequel to said miniseries, so at least we can be emotionally prepared for the impending roller coaster, while it uses something he’s set up and toyed with earlier in this run and brings back here in a big way. Even though we know the outcome, the journey should be quite memorable, if this opening issue of the sequel arc is anything to go by. For readers who’ve missed out on the Lando comic, which I’d even suggest leaving this review right now to go read because it’s just that good, Soule’s script crafts the set up well, as we’ve not only visited some of this drama in the War of the Bounty Hunters arc, but he brings in a scene set prior to the series and then revisits its emotional ending to get everyone up to speed. On top of getting everyone set for what’s to come between Lando and Lobot, why Lando’s doing what he’s doing during this arc, Soule balances this being part of the Dark Droids crossover event well, as readers who didn’t check out the opening salvo have a good enough tease from the issue’s opening crawl while the creepy, weird purple eyes or POV from a few droids we see this issue offer a potential answer to the crawl’s hint about what’s coming for the metal aka droids, meaning readers of this series don’t necessarily have to read the main miniseries to still enjoy what’s to come in Star Wars (Vol. 2). In fact, if you’re just here for the Lando comic sequel, readers could easily jump in and enjoy the emotional turmoil it already has and will offer. These crossovers have had varying levels of success for the individual series dealing with the larger story and Star Wars #37 (Vol. 2) holds great promise for how it’ll interact and connect.
The issue opens with Lobot waking up and his implants going haywire, hacking into Home One itself, the prize jewel of Admiral Ackbar’s fleet, making it erupt into battle mode and begin to fire on the ships around it. Lando’s confused about the alarms and goes to Lobot to see if ‘they’ can fix the problem, instead finding him contorted and his implants obviously going off the rails, and after a few shouts to wake him up, Lando has no other recourse than to smash a nearby object against his friend’s head, ending the implants takeover of the ship. A visit to the doctor, who happens to be a droid, reveals Lobot’s implants were running through old Imperial battles, as if there was some type of threat to combat. Does this mean Lobot and his implants were able to sense the Scourge, the ancient evil slowly spreading across droid-kind as part of this crossover’s story…or they were already hacked by it? Regardless, the droid delivers the worst of the news, the implants are almost at the point of no return for taking over his mind, and if they do, they wouldn’t know how to function his body…meaning Lobot would die! Look, we all know he lives past Return of the Jedi, but we don’t know how much and how long after, so how does Lando manage to get him past this current crisis but still stuck in the implants? This arc looks to answer that question and I can only hope it has a more hopeful promise of what could come next for these two after RotJ. Lando realizes the best way to help Lobot, to save his friend, is to try and get him to the Talky, the ancient droid the Rebellion used to create new communication codes, who was also able to put Lobot’s implants at bay and let the man emerge briefly several issues ago. The only problem…Lando realized this too late and completed his deal to sell the Talky to Jabba the Hutt to help negate some debts, so it resides in the Palace now! Even worse, we see its combative personality has gotten it in trouble with Jabba to the point he’s being sent down to EV-9D9 and her torture crew, where some of them are under the Scourge’s control already, and she’s scheduling him for a memory wipe, potentially erasing their hope to save Lobot!
Soule’s proven over the years he has a great handle on Lando, especially considering that’s where he started, and this series has contained a lot of great content for the character following the events of The Empire Strikes Back, from how he’s gained everyone’s trust despite his actions on Cloud City to finding himself committing to the cause. The last bit seems to fulfill Lobot’s message to Lando before the implants took their control, as we see the ex-Baron Administrator as a hero in the eyes of Rebellion’s people, be it from his recent escapade to Coruscant or how he’s helped steer Cloud City refugees after he came back briefly early in this series. His choice to abandon all these new friends, to withhold the truth about Lobot and his mission to save him, weighs heavily on him as he puts on his best smile with the adoring fans or misleads Leia to get clearance to take the Falcon. How does he come back from this and still be a respected member of the Rebellion to the point he’s in charge of the attack group on the Death Star II? Watching how he’ll navigate not only his fight for his friend’s life as well as explain his actions to do so to all the new friends and obligations he has in the Rebellion is one of many things I’m looking forward to reading across the next four issues.
On art Madibek Musabekov returns to the driver’s seat, alongside colorist Rachelle Rosenberg, and letterer Clayton Cowles, and they deliver on some good emotional beats and add to the distressing ending. As a big fan of the Lando series, the subtle way Rosenberg calls back to it at one point was such a delight, as when Lando is telling the unconscious Lobot he’ll make things how they used to be, this final panel on the page is drenched in neon colors and shadows, mimicking Paul Mounts colors from the 2015 series, setting us up for the flashback to earlier days between the two in a scene that’s set just before the start of the older series. She keeps these colors up, though gives the characters themselves were usual, non-neon look to differentiate them from the flashback colors of the older series, and she maintains this look for the next few pages, right up until we come back to the present. It’s a small thing, but it both helped readers know these were flashbacks on look alone, while they honored the fantastic styling of the series the issue is calling back to. Musabekov really grew on me during his earlier time on the series and he reminds me why throughout, though the biggest aspect is Lando’s expressions. His shock at seeing Lobot all possessed looking, the regret when he has to smash his friend on the head, and the look of horror learning Lobot could die bring so much of their past struggles and friendship to the surface. It’s quite jarring, after all this time with Lobot mainly in implant-induced silence, to see him smiling and happy again, showing any emotion, in the flashback scene, which makes his dead-eyed look in the present even more saddening and tragic. I particularly enjoyed the sequence of panels on a later page as Lando walks through the crowds of people who adore him, already having made up his mind of leaving them to save his pal, and the smile he has on during these interactions is just shy of his classic grin, as if he’s barely able to lie to them, and the final panel ends with his head hung low, regret over lying to them, despite how it’s just so he can help a friend. Cowles really helps transition us to how much worse things are going to get before they get better, as Lando’s telling Lobot Jabba’s taking good care of the Talky droid, a small little box of narration at the top of the page, only for us to see the biggest, loudest shout of a word bubble ever as Jabba’s admonishing Talky in big, bold red letters. There’s a sound effect (SFX) I really liked here, the “krsh” as Talky slams into the wall Jabba throws him at, as it’s sprawled out on the floor behind him, crackly like you’d expect a droid crunching up against a wall would sounds like. Musabekov’s Jabba here is exquisitely disgusting and powerful, with his massive paws and angry, sharp eyes, and then the yucky, slimy spit coming out of his mouth almost reminding me of tentacles; never been more afraid of Jabba!
Here is one other thing:
- Beyond the main miniseries of Dark Droids, and the crossover taking over Bounty Hunters, Darth Vader (Vol. 3), and Doctor Aphra (Vol. 2), there’s a 4-issue tie-in miniseries called Dark Droids: D-Squad, which will follow Artoo putting together a crew to save his best friend. Until more The High Republic comics start up in October, Marvel’s output is all-in on Dark Droids for the most part, besides The Mandalorian and Obi-Wan Kenobi adaptations, as their RotJ 40 Anniversary one-shots wrapped up on the same day this issue released.
Star Wars #37 (Vol. 2) promises an emotional, personal tale amongst the larger tapestry that is the Dark Droids crossover and I’m not sure I’m ready for it!
+ Dragging up Lando/Lobot drama
+Musabekov and team’s work honors what came before and captures Lando’s emotions
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.
STAR WARS (Vol. 2)
The Destiny Path: #1-6 — Operation Starlight: #7-11 — War of the Bounty Hunters: #12-18 — Crimson Reign: #19-24 — Special Issue: #25 — The Path to Victory: #26-30 — Quests of the Force: #31 | #32 | #33 | #34 | #35 | #36 — Dark Droids: