With 5 years of new canon comic stories behind us, and many uncountable more in front of us, I enlisted the Manor’s Sous Chef Chris to join me in rounding up a Top 10 list of Unforgettable moments from the comics so far. The first part of the Top 10 moments dealt with plenty of Doctor Aphra (surprise!) and Jar Jar Binks (maybe actually a surprise), covering the 10-8 spots, while Part II today dives into spots 7-5, where you’ll find moments dealing with holocrons, wives (maybe not wives), droid agency, and so much more. Head below for Part II of the Manor’s Top 10 Unforgettable Comic Moments in Star Wars Canon and don’t forget to check back on Friday for Part III!
Ryan
7. Breha Connecting Leia to Padmé (Star Wars Adventures Annual 2019):
When IDW began their all-ages Star Wars Adventures on-going, I really appreciated the little tales it was carving out with familiar characters across the Saga and how it always managed to find a good lesson to teach alongside it. IDW’s comics were therefore less concerned with telling epic tales expanding canon, but rather character focused fun that offered insights to the smaller moments of our favorite character’s lives. One of the best examples is a short story included in Adventures’ Annual 2019, as it has Breha Organa telling a very young Leia all about the woman they have a statue of by their home: Padmé Amidala. At such a young age, Leia’s imagination brings key scenes from her mother’s past to life, drawn with a poetic beauty by Margaux Saltel. Through Elsa Charretier and Pierrick Colinet’s writing, Breha paints a picture worthy of the best of Padmé, and together with Breha’s words and Leia’s imagination, the small story answers why Leia tells Luke she does remember their mother, through images and feelings, despite her dying after childbirth. This “answer” isn’t the most important part, rather how it represents Padmé and shows how Leia’s adoptive parents were intent on protecting the woman’s legacy (literally and figuratively), but it’s novel how this story offers an answer which makes sense and doesn’t feel like fan service.
6. Ladies Gain Victory in Rebel Jail (Star Wars #19 {Vol. 1}):
Locked in a prison with a fallen rebel, Eneb Ray, it’s up to Leia, Doctor Aphra, and Sana Starros to save the day. Normally the guys would get involved somehow, or be part of the victory, but Luke and Han only get in the way here, as their return from an extremely extraneous (literally) nerf herding mission makes the ladies’ work more complicated when they’re captured. But that’s not the only problem facing Leia’s attempt to reclaim the jail and keep the criminals in: Sana and Aphra, exes who didn’t part on good terms, in any sense of the word, are fighting amongst themselves. Leia’s leadership prowess is on full display here, as she wrangles together the two bitter exes to help her with her plan, while she coordinates the droids to send an ion pulse to negate Eneb’s deadman switch, thus allowing the women to save the day.
Despite Sana’s introduction and Aphra’s popularity, not many female characters joined or were added to the mainline Star Wars series, nor were there many new characters introduced overall, so to finally have two of the great new additions to canon teaming up with one of the all time greats, was a much needed change of pace. There’s more than just Han, Luke, and Leia in the Rebellion, or those willing to help the cause despite not being a member, and this was a stark reminder of how much we needed to see more of those people helping the good guys claim victory. That it was a group of women teaming up alone to win the day, a rarity in Star Wars storytelling, made this moment even more memorable, but here’s hoping this could one day become the norm, not the outlier, though with characters like Rose sidelined in the films, it might have to fall to comics and novels to pave the way first.
Here was the start, let’s keep it going.
5. Ambiguous Holocron Destruction (Darth Vader – Dark Lord of the Sith #10):
One great consistency between the first two volumes of the Darth Vader series is how neither writer opens a direct glimpse into the Dark Lord’s mind, but offers it in different, but compelling ways. In the first volume, panels depicting flashbacks to fill in the blanks were effective and intriguing, while the second volume featured a peek into Vader’s mindscape, a hellish but beautiful thing, where a constant storm rages, while the fleeting glimpses of what’s good in him are little surviving butterflies. Because of this understandable tactic of indirect glimpses into Vader’s thoughts, we don’t get to learn exactly why Vader lies to Palpatine regarding the list of Force-sensitive children he uncovers from his target, but Vader’s time with the unlikely Jedi character offers some fascinating potential hints.
The Jocasta Nu renaissance brought with it many inspiring and memorable moments, but when she shows how her considerable knowledge is more powerful than any of Vader’s newfound might and anger, it’s the true icing on the character’s expanded portrayal. Nearly escaping Coruscant with a list of Force-sensitive children, something Palpatine has been after for years now, Jocasta is cornered and eventually captured by Vader. Thanks to one of the Jedi Temple’s security guard droids identifying Vader as Anakin, Jocasta might seal her death by telling him she knows, but she uses her last remaining breaths wisely, planting the seeds of doubt in Vader’s blind obedience to his new Master.
When the dust has settled and Jocasta is dead (though her storehouse of knowledge lives on when Luke Skywalker finds it!), Vader tells his master he was unable to bring her in alive, and when pressed by Palpatine if she revealed anything before her death, he crushes the list of children and straight up lies to his Master. Did Vader destroy it because he doesn’t want the Emperor to usurp him with replacements? Or did he destroy it because he didn’t want children to go through what he did, if not worse? We may never know and that’s what makes it so compelling.
Chris
7. Sana Starros’ Introduction (Star Wars #6 {Vol. 1}):
Something that I personally think has been lost with the abundance of information about Han Solo in both canon and Legends is that they start to tear away at some of the mystery, and even the danger, that surrounds Han Solo when Ben Kenobi and Luke Skywalker approach him at the cantina on Tatooine. Now, in canon, he has an entire movie dedicated to explaining his backstory, along with a few mini-series explaining what his life was like in the Empire. But before that, we were served perhaps one of the strongest surprises we could have about Han: he was married before Leia??
That’s right, explains a woman calling herself Sana Solo, the smuggler that we all love is her husband. This throws Leia for a loop, and we get hints that she has been falling for the smuggler even closer to Yavin than we might’ve initially thought. But Sana stakes her claim with the smuggler, saying that he belonged to her. I can’t remember a time that I have been nearly as shocked by a Star Wars comic as I was at that moment! It introduced a bit of that mystery back into Han Solo’s life, reminding us that we don’t really know everything there is to know about our favorite smuggler. Even now, in February of 2020, that story hasn’t been fully depicted!
This moment also served as a way to set Han and Leia back a bit, delaying their eventual relationship talks for the next couple of years. Sure, they flirt in the time period between Yavin and Hoth, but nothing like the possibility of either an ex-wife, or a potentially current, I think?, wife, to set those discussions back!
Of course, we know that the series would later explain this away – just a little bit – as it turns out that their marriage was only a part of a con from a while back. And, unfortunately, the series would not do well by Sana, either side-lining her for too long or by making her the victim to a few too many beatings, but she has been a worthy addition to the canon anyway, like her prominent roles in both the Doctor Aphra series and Last Shot, and I am thankful for her.
6. When K-2 Met Cassian (Rogue One – Cassian & K-2SO Special #1):
One of the ways to tell if you’re reading a good comic or a great comic is to see whether or not the writer, artist, letterers, and creative behind each issue are able to use the comic medium for what it’s worth: great visuals and a chance to get a little bit deeper into our main characters’ heads. The one-shot Cassian and K-2SO was one such example; the issue not only brought out a lot of the visuals of the galaxy (while using coloring expertly to demonstrate a stealth mission, with expressive art, not just for the humanoid characters but K-2 as well, by art team Fernando Blanco and Marcelo Maiolo!), but it also helped us get to know Cassian AND K-2 a bit better, with a script by Duane Swierczynski.
Sure, we got to know a lot about Cassian in Rogue One. We got to know why he fights – but this comic showed us exactly how he fights. Sure, he doesn’t have the Force, but how does one become an accomplished spy in the Alliance? This comic will start to show you how. But it also asks a deeper question: how does one join the Rebellion? Is it by choice? Not for everyone, as K-2 finds out. When he and Cassian are engaged in a tussle, Cassian starts to reprogram the droid to start to fight for the side of the Rebellion. K-2 asks simply: what if I don’t want to? The question hangs over all of the canon, from the C-3PO one-shot to the question of droid rights in Solo to C-3PO’s sacrifice on Kijimi. That comics can ask these deeper, philosophical questions will always be a bonus for the medium.
5. Poe Dameron’s Kaiju Battle! (Poe Dameron #3):
Let me get something out of the way first: yes, I know that this moment is actually more universally unliked than it is well-received. I don’t know why.
On a mission to find Lor San Tekka, organized by Resistance General Leia Organa to find the missing Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, Poe finds himself in a pickle. Well, an egg. He finds himself with a giant egg, protected by a group known as the Crèche. The devotees of this egg are hellbent on protecting the contents, which they believe will spell the end of the galaxy. No big deal. What else would hatch from the eggs except two giant kaijus??
Sure, the series doesn’t really follow up on them. They don’t come back, I don’t remember anybody mentioning them again, but still: they were a fun addition to the galaxy that seems to be weird-adverse lately. The galaxy needs a bit more fun, and this moment was a sorely needed shot in the arm of weirdness.
As Poe says in the panel above, spots 7-5 can be summed up in one word, “Whoa,” and somehow there are still 4 more moments from Chris and I left! Thanks for tuning in for Part II and make sure to return Friday for Part III, bringing the Manor’s Top 10 Unforgettable Comic Moments in Star Wars Canon to an end! UPDATE: Here’s PART III!
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. Chris is the Manor’s Sous Chef. You can follow him on Twitter @ChrisWerms, You can follow the website @MynockManor.
All comic panel images credited to Marvel/IDW/Lucasfilm