– Spoiler Review –
Surrounded by the Scourge and deep in its territory, will Lando and crew be able to finally save Lando, or will their efforts be to late? By keeping the focus on its main thread of Lando and Lobot, Star Wars #41 (Vol. 2) is a satisfying ending to its portion of the Dark Droids storyline.
Before we go any further, reading this issue, and this review, means there are spoilers to Dark Droids #5, out 12/27, and how the bigger events come to an end. I’ll do my best to avoid revealing the specifics of what Star Wars #41 (Vol. 2) does spoil, as it’s really only one page with two panels that contain a glimpse of the main miniseries’ events, but I will say the outcome isn’t terribly surprising anyways, especially since likely anyone reading this has seen the films and novels set after this, from Return of the Jedi and beyond.
Towards the end of last month’s Dark Droids storyline, the Doctor Aphra (Vol. 2) series revealed the Scourge finally unlocked a way to take over full organics, not just cyborgs anymore, and this information has been hanging over what comes next in the events of each series in December. As Lando, Leia, Luke, and Chewie hold off the hordes of Scourged droids on Epikonia, the Scourge reveals it’s made the jump to organics, pulling back its troops and sending in a giant swarm of little disc vector droids, a horrific and terrifying sight thanks to Madibek Musabekov, Rachelle Rosenberg, and Clayton Cowles’ work. The overwhelming amount of vectors get past each heroes’ attempt to avoid them, slowly taking over one by one, ending with Luke himself, giving the Scourge the goal it’s sought this entire time: access to the Force. It’s a scary moment, and a somewhat surprising turn of events, that comes crashing to a close thanks to the events in Dark Droids #5 (which again, I’m not going to mention the specifics), returning not only the newly converted back to normal, but all the droids and cyborgs around them as well. Having not seen what brings about the ending of the Scourge beyond the page here, it sort of feels anticlimactic, but it’s hard to judge without the full picture. For now though, how things sort of just end and we get back to focusing on Lando and Lobot, while understandable and this issue and arc’s strength, it sort of feels like “well, the droids were crazy let’s move on” energy and makes me worried the main miniseries will do much the same, unavoidably making my biggest concern about this crossover’s storyline come true. We’ll see when that issue releases, but for now, let’s focus on how, from basically issue #1, writer Charles Soule’s journey for Lando in this timeframe is the real shining star no matter what happens with the droids.
Lando doesn’t bother lingering on what just happened to them or how it all ended, heading deeper into Epikonia to find Lobot, and they come across the hundreds of organics the Scourge was experimenting on before they locate Lando’s friend. Luke and Leia want to stay and help these people but he wants to fix Lobot immediately, so Chewie is kind enough to help him lug Lobot back to the Falcon, where he had the Talky hidden in one of the ship’s increasing amount of secret compartments! Last issue, I focused on the art team’s work with Lando’s misleading conversation to get Leia on board with rescuing Lobot and their work is what really makes Soule’s script sing in these next few pages. Lando tells Chewie he understands if the Wookiee is upset by what he’s about to see, the Talky, but hopes their past is enough to give him a pass until Lobot is saved. Chewie’s pretty good about it, actually, but initially it’s the Talky who causes the biggest issue for Lando, as he tries to negotiate, with hardline tactics, to get the droid to save Lobot despite no assurances he won’t just scrap it the moment Lobot’s healthy again. The conversation’s not going far, but it gets a fresh injection when Leia and Luke arrive. All of Lando’s scheming and dealing throughout the series, despite his growing fondness for the Rebellion and its people, has no chance of escaping notice now, especially when the Talky only agrees to help Lobot if Lando confesses everything to those who have grown to trust him. Lobot reaches out to his friend, trying to stop him, but Lando won’t let Lobot die just to save his own skin, so he confesses it all.
It’s such a great moment for the character, as while he was still trying to avoid revealing his duplicity, I don’t think the Lando at the beginning of this series would’ve been comfortable enough, and trusted these other people, to tell the full, honest truth about what happened. He’d have likely tried another angle, another story, which he almost does at the beginning of the confession, but instead he lays it all out, how he got in with Jabba’s debts, how he paid them back with Talky, and his reliance on their newly gained trust in him to allow him to undo it all without them knowing. Musabekov’s work with Lando’s face is what sells us on these truths and how much being so honest hurts him, his face staring anywhere but at Leia, Luke, and Chewie, his eyes darting away too, with the pained expressions making his dialogue read heavy and slow, each word deliberate. He’s met with silence after the confession, none of them knowing what to do about what they just heard, and he doesn’t care, demanding the Talky fix Lobot. The Talky does so, and we don’t see what happens to the droid afterwards, but Lobot’s able to communicate with Lando again through his wrist comm, not fully free from the cybernetics on his head, but able to be himself to some degree. He asks Lando why he threw it all away for him and Lando reveals he finally needed to choose between old Lando and the new one, which is only fitting and fulfilling for how Lobot sacrificed it all for Lando years ago (in Soule’s Lando miniseries). Lando being honest, ready to face the consequences, is the new Lando we all know by Endor and beyond, and it’s been an awesome journey to see him come this far and pick the new him, which the 40 issues before this make such a decision feel earned and natural, not because it’s just what we know from the films.
The issue ends with a promise of two things for the future, and while we’ll discuss the more immediate one in a moment, I wanted to touch on the set up for what’s next: Lando’s treason trial! That’s right, after Lando reveals he’s choosing the new him, exactly what Lobot gave himself up for in the first place, Leia comes in and announces his arrest for treason, which he reluctantly understands must happen. It’s very fitting Soule, an attorney himself for many years, gets to sneak in a trial room drama before his run on this series ends! I’m excited to see what this will all entail, but if it’s anything like how it felt earned Lando got to this point, how way the Rebellion ends up trusting him by Endor despite his actions here likely will get the same treatment. But before we get to Lando’s trial, Luke will journey back to healing kyber crystals, as last seen in issue #35 when he gets his green kyber for his lightsaber, and end up dealing with the ancient Sith he met when trying last time! I’m eager for both storylines!
It’s not just in conversations the art team makes memorable moments, as I quite enjoyed the frightening reveal of the thousands of Scrouge disc-droid vectors descending on Luke, Leia, Lando, and Chewie’s location. At the end of double page spread, right as the Scourge announces through its droids it can not take over organics, the next panel sees the group unsure of what’s happening but taking a break, only for the next panel to have Chewbacca breaking through the one before it, himself largely surrounded by white, where one can see Cowles’ sound FX for what seems like a distant, yet scratching noise and Chewie’s very muted and confused look/dialogue bubble. The next page set my skin crawling, as the exaggerated point-of-view puts us in front of a hoard of disc vectors, with plenty more climbing down from surrounding buildings, with Rosenberg’s sickly orange/yellow for the sky behind them adding an eerie glow to the proceedings. The page where Luke becomes Scourge, where he’s kneeling in one panel, screaming in the voice of the Scourge, in victory, followed by the spooky image of the many-limbed main Scourge body, is such a great way to show how damning this moment could be for the galaxy. Rosenberg’s colors, a pinkish purple background for Luke and a more fuchsia look for the Scourge’s panel, denoting it’s still the original but how it’s now exploding out of Luke. It’s a smaller thing in the issue, but the moment the Scourge is over in the spoilery page, our return to our heroes sees the sky behind them turn to a series of purples and blues swirled together, like dusk or the night settling, a calmer, less hellish looking sky to assure us readers it really is well and truly over.
Here are a few other things:
- In early January, I’ll be releasing my annual year-in-review for all the Star Wars’ comics, and will Soule manage to have the Legendary Line of the Year again, three years in a row?! Make sure to check what line makes the cut, alongside the year’s Top 5 moments, and more, when it drops!
- With both Doctor Aphra (Vol. 2) and Bounty Hunters ending in January, what does that mean for those that remain, Darth Vader (Vol. 3) and this series? Hopefully we’ll learn sooner rather than later!
Star Wars #41 (Vol. 2) maintains its tight focus on Lando’s efforts to save his friend Lobot, paying off years of issues (and a previous comic) in a satisfying way in the process.
+ Lando’s choice feels earned
+ Spooky beginning and intriguing set up for what’s to come
+ Even the subtle little change to the sky by the art team helps us adjust the real focus of the story
– Discarding the creepy droids fallout
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: #37 | #38 | #39 | #40