– Spoiler Review –
The Halloween/spooky season tradition continues! Cavan Scott returns with a wildly stellar group of artists to bring delightful frights to fans of all-ages in Dark Horse’s Tales from the Death Star!
“Nightmares Long Remembered” Art by Soo Lee; Tyler Smith & Jimmy Betancourt Lettering Throughout
As always, there’s a framing story holding this thing together, and Tales from the Death Star’s sets its eyes on the sequel trilogy era by following one of the First Order stormtroopers who left their posts and formed a sort of colony on Endor’s ocean moon, Kef Bir. First seen regarding the Death Star II’s structure in the sea, Fry’s bound and determined to take the water skiff and make the same journey Rey will later take in The Rise of Skywalker, but a mysterious stranger appears and starts warning him off the decision. It’s through Fry’s interactions with the stranger we come to learn more about him and his time with Jannah and the other troopers, including why he’s considering such a risk. His journey is physically large but also internally large as well, as the lesson he comes to learn through not only the stranger’s stories but his actions and later Jannah herself, are one fans of all-ages could take away for their own lives. As for the stranger, I won’t give away their identity, but in retrospect strange phrasing at one point in the collection was the hint I overlooked, while it certainly left me intrigued for more. I was both happy with how long we spent in the framing story, as I didn’t think it was short-changed at all by all the stranger’s stories, but eager to see more of Fry and Jannah’s group, as that’s such fertile ground for a story, especially since the sequel trilogy era remains largely untouched by supporting material.
On art for “Nightmares Long Remembered” is Soo Lee and I quite enjoyed her style, especially for how different it was from the rest of the stories, marking a clear distinction on when we were back in the present, while it still managed to be spooky in its own way at moments. The biggest difference is the color palette, as Lee sticks to drab and dreary, yet still colorful, with baby blue of the sky, darker blue for the roiling ocean, and even greens for the plains Fry moves around before trying to cross to the fallen station. The stranger and their deep, dark black robes/hood give them the appearance most commonly associated with the personification of “death,” and they stick out like a sore thumb in every scene, this blotch of black on an otherwise peaceful, mundane world, as if they don’t physically belong there. It’s not until Fry and the stranger are inside the station, which is the darkest the framing story gets, the stranger sort of melts into the background, obviously there but feels more fitting inside the shell of the destroyed station than in the life around it. Our little glimpses under the hood at first help throw off early guesses on their identity, helping the final reveal land with satisfaction and questions. The final panel is where the colors have more fun, as Jannah’s area of the page is covered in color, or at least that of the drab and dreary of the land around the station’s resting place, while Fry’s shadow gets lost in the shadows of the station, yet he is in the same colored area as Jannah, as if the shadows are him leaving behind his troubles and worries that brought him here behind and him gaining the acceptance he seeks with Jannah and the others by being in her section of the page.
“The Creature from the Trash Compactor” Art by Vincenzo Riccardi
It’s hard to crown any of these stories the most visually stunning, as they all are in their own ways, but I’d give the slightest edge to “The Creature from the Trash Compactor,” as its story, set on the original Death Star, takes us into its dark underbelly and involves a terrifying creature hunt which Vincenzo Riccardi was dead set on making readers’ skin crawl. Readers will know they are in for something special in the opening double page of the Death Star, hanging over Geonosis, still under construction and surrounded by tons of Star Destroyers. Geonosis is a swirling ball of reds, oranges, and yellows, while the space around the Death Star is full of swirling purples, indigoes, and teals, the Death Star swathed in these colors over its familiar grey. This color scheme and the undulating way it covers surfaces, permeates the entire issue, making the dark, secluded halls of the monster’s lair even more frightening and claustrophobic, as the shadows are even deeper compared to the light. When the monster finally shows itself, its massive form, from pincer like legs to multiple eyes and a big wide mouth, amps up the moving, swirling look of the story so far due to what it’s made from. When a dianoga comes to battle it, these creatures becomes nightmares locked in a duel for supremacy, Smith and Betancourt’s sound FX giving the brawl an almost unnatural feel. I really like how, between Riccardi’s work and the lettering team, the twist is hidden rather well and their turn felt like a good surprise compared to their earlier actions. It’s a solid start to the graphic novel, as it’s more about spooky monsters and Riccardi’s art for them which elicit frights than the unexpected yet expected actions of the characters.
“The Wild Squadron” Art by Fico Ossio; Sebastian Cheng and Candice Han on Colors
While this one starts off lightly, as one pilot jokes about a mysterious Wild Squadron with his fellow pilot, trying to liven up their boring lives on the second Death Star, it turns dark rather quickly when the ghouls make their presence known on a routine perimeter check. The story keeps readers guessing if these ghosts will show up, as it’s not clear if the pilot Gatt is just seeing things or not at first, but it’s through Fico Ossio’s art, alongside colors by Sebastian Cheng and Candice Han, we know there’s more going on than meets the eyes. Ossio’s turn in The High Republic Adventures – Quest of the Jedi #1 was a memorable show of his abilities and he delivers again for “The Wild Squadron,” especially with the increasing look of horror and fear on Gatt’s face, the red coloring of her warning TIE cockpit warning lights accentuating the fear and at stark contrast to the light green of the Wild Squadron ships, and later pilots, she is seeing; in fact, when her face turns ghostly white and hued in the same green, we know she’s lost to the Wild Squadron. There are two really stand out moments, the first being when these ghouls appear in her cockpit, surrounding her, as even the Ewok amongst their group is ferocious looking, claws and teeth sharp, snarling as it reaches towards her, while Smith & Betancourt’s eerie word bubbles make them feel both real, present and also otherworldly. Their best effect is the initial attacker of the squadron, who’s word bubbles are surrounded by a darker green color, are double layered and has notches on the edges for a really weird, unearthly effect. The other big standout moment is the double page of when the entirety of Wild Squadron graces the pages, as we have ships from so many different eras, from the High Republic Vectors, Naboo starfighters, to X-wings all together, though they appear as if they’re coming out of another dimension, outside of what hyperspace is, and have no sense of formation or care for closeness, so it’s a chilling, unnatural sight on that alone.
I liked this one as a cautionary tale on how stories hold meaning and that meaning can harm or help those who hear it, and in the tradition of these annual frightfests, it was spooky to see it actually harm those who heard it.
“‘We Shall Double Our Efforts'” Art by Juan Samu
Additional efficiency in an increasingly tougher series of deadlines for finishing the Death Star II breeds desperation, and an officer in the engineering corps stumbles into a unique solution: one of Emperor Palpatine’s trinkets ability to bring people back from the dead, zombie-style! It’s a fun premise and the hubris of his decision, thinking it’ll be worth the risk, of course comes to bite him (see what I did there) in the end. There’s been zombie-droids before, but nothing quite at The Walking Dead level as what we get here, and it makes for a fun, increasingly more harrowing story as his ambitious take hold. Vader showing up leads to what is the graphic novel’s most violent scene, even more so than any previous entry in the horror anthologies to date, though through Juan Samu’s style and it being with zombies, it comes off as nothing more than what you’d see in a Hocus Pocus movie, but maybe for youngest of readers, it could be a little frightening.
Samu contributed to last year’s Tales from the Rancor Pit in its most dazzling entry and he doesn’t disappoint in “We Shall Double Our Efforts,” as he once again brings us the undead, though this time with organics and not droids. The zombies themselves are unnerving looking, with gaunt, slowly greening faces and big, bright yellow eyes, while their ability to rend their jaws wide and attack the living at times only adds to their horrifying look. The officer in question, Jindrax, has a perfectly greasy disposition to him, with a razor-thin moustache and dark pits around his eyes, almost like a racoon’s mask, giving him a thief-like, untrustworthy vibe. As for Vader, he hues closer to the Star Wars Rebels version, a sharper, more angular design which bolsters his menacing profile considerable, and his red eyes lenses only add to said perception, making it look like monster versus monster when he steps up to put down the zombie menace Jindrax has unleashed. The double page of Vader slicing through the zombies, with loud, punchy, and quick SFX from Smith & Betancourt making his efforts feel mighty, purposeful, and swift, is a great page, like a mini–Rogue One hallway scene, with his red blade saturating many of the panels within for a sinister effect. There’s even one point where he’s holding a zombie’s head, where they’re looking at one another, monster to monster, which is both sort of funny and cool little moment, but it also feels like a neat callback to the cover of Darth Vader – Dark Lord of the Sith #22, where he’s holding the head of Lord Momin, staring at one another.
Bonus Thought: In this year’s From a Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi, the story featuring Moff Jerjerrod actually covers how he reacts and deals with his own statement about doubling their efforts, the catalyst for this story.
“The Haunting of Grand Moff Tarkin” Art by Ingo Römling
By the title alone, I was the least excited for this one and yet it became my favorite, as a deep glimpse into Wilhuff Tarkin’s past in a sneaky opening and the growing haunting in the present added a wonderful new dimension to the Grand Moff’s final moments that I’ll never not think about the next time I watch A New Hope. It also says a lot about a person’s choices and if they can live by them, cautioning against wicked acts as they’ll eventually catch up to you, they always do.
Beyond the chilling story, it’s Ingo Römling (Star Wars Rebels TPB) who delivers on the story’s promise, with a perfectly drawn Tarkin, as he looks as sharp and calculating as you’d expect, but as ghosts start piling up and their invasion into his sanity grows, we see him a little unhinged in his private moments, doing his best not to show those around him any sign of weakness. Römling’s use of color throughout is a thing of beauty, as the rain-drenched, barely lit opening carries forward into Tarkin’s stalking of the Death Star’s halls, with deep shadows amongst its passageways give it a menacing, uncomfortable look, so when the hauntings take him briefly back to Eadu and its stormy weather, it’s almost not all that different in style and look, as if he’s never been able to shake the past, no matter how hard he stomps his boots forward. A big double page towards the end is eerie and emotional, as it shows Tarkin’s past finally catching up to him, welcoming him to the same fate he committed them on his journey to power, and is one of the issue’s most impactful pages, leaving my skin crawling but felt righteous to happen in Tarkin’s final moments. The final insert panel of Tarkin, showing how the hauntings have finally affected him, is just enough for fans to see, as it keeps the unflappable man’s image mainly intact, yet allows us to see him at his lowest at the same time, as fear overtakes him when reality sets in.
Bonus Thoughts: I didn’t catch this (Ayezdur on Twitter did), but in the double splash I mentioned above, not only will fans recognize many visitors, but there’s a reference to Age of Rebellion – Grand Moff Tarkin #1 (and no, it’s not him shirtless again)!
Here’s one other thing:
- Scott did an interview with the official site about the project and its inspirations, go check it out!
Tales from the Death Star is an overall stronger showing than its most recent predecessor, as the setting of the Death Stars’ already ghost-filled presences provides an eerie vibe Cavan Scott and the many art teams relish in, giving us scares, frights, and even messages to live by at the same time.
+ Stories with meaning, yet they don’t jump out and grab you about it…
+ …yet the art does in some truly spooky, frightening, and downright unique, stunning contributions
+ Setting came with a great sense of place and frights
– A little more time in the present felt warranted
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.