When I talked to Charles Soule last week, he said that he didn’t think everyone was going to be happy with the end of Lando #5 but that he was. That should be, like, a giant neon warning sign when a writer says that. A warning sign that you’re probably going to have a lot of feelings. Lando #5 by Soule and Alex Maleev is out today and boy howdy do I have some thoughts on it that can’t be fully expressed without diving into lots of spoilers. Continue reading
Category Archives: Comics
Review: Star Wars #10
The best way to describe Star Wars #10 is that it’s fun. To be fair, ‘fun’ has been a great way to describe this entire run on this book thus far but there was something about this particular issue that just felt really really fun. Star Wars #10 by Jason Aaron and Stuart Immonen is out today and definitely takes readers for a ride.
It’s hard to say what’s more fun: Leia dealing with both of the Solos or Chewbacca and Threepio on their adventure on Nar Shaddaa. While we still don’t really have tons in terms of answers of who Sana is and whether or not she and Han are actually married, it’s entertaining to watch Leia be 100% done with their crap within mere minutes and be far more focused on getting herself out of there alive and in one piece. Chewie and Threepio, on the other hand, was the team up that I didn’t know that I’ve always wanted. There’s something humorous about pairing the character who talks to much with the one who we can’t understand and prefers to cut right to the chase.
Stuart Immonen is amazing on this book. While I was content with John Cassaday’s work, Immonen is taking things to a whole new level. There’s nothing about his work that I don’t love and I think that the Luke lovers out there will have a particular appreciation for some of his panels. It’s the little things that really take this work to the new level from the facial expressions to his design work on Grakkus the Hutt with the lightsaber necklace and the spider-leg walking… things.
Oh. And those last few pages? While they’re probably just the creative team broadening the galaxy, I’m choosing to interpret them as Aaron trolling everyone.
Star Wars #10 gets a strong Hell Yeah! from me this week for being such a fun read.
Baltimore Comic Con 2015: Interview with Mark Waid
Given what a fan I am of Mark Waid’s Marvel work, briefly chatting with him about his work on the Princess Leia series was one of the highlights of my Baltimore Comic Con this year. I loved the heck out of those five issues and was excited to have the chance to ask him all the questions the book left me with and to talk Star Wars in general. And hey! It’s not every day that you get to interview someone who just won the Harvey for Best Writer the night before.
Bria: The first question we always ask everyone is how did you become a Star Wars fan?
Mark Waid: I’m old enough to say I was there on opening day. I was there… all right, I have a story. This is a horrible, horrible story that makes me look like an idiot. So… it’s not true. I was not there on opening day. My friends and I got together that weekend and there were six or seven of us and we were having the same argument that you always have when you get six or seven people together on a Saturday night in a car with no direction. They go “Okay, we need to see a movie.” Okay, well there’s a couple of movies opening up this weekend. What do we see? Everyone wanted to see this one movie and I fought really hard to see this other movie because I said, “Look, this is going to be amazing. It’s going to be awesome. It’s going to change your life.” So because I fought for it, we went to see… You Light Up My Life. And I never lived it down. The next weekend, we all saw Star Wars and they were all like, “You idiot! What is wrong with you?” Then that was it. Like everyone else, I saw it a dozen times that summer and it was amazing.
Which is your favorite film?
The second one by far. It just… to manage to take all the stuff that made the first one cool and then add some gravitas was really awesome.
Favorite character? (I know that’s a hard one.)
It is a hard one! I really do think it is Leia.
Mine too! So did you pitch Marvel to do Star Wars? From what I hear, everyone and their mother were calling the editors and saying “I really want to write it!” or did they come to you?
They actually came to me and they said, “We want a Princess Leia series. Are you interested?” While I love the character, I didn’t have a story. I didn’t know where we wanted to go with it and I was on the verge of saying, “Look I appreciate this but this is not for me.” And then I started thinking about… if you let me do it the day after A New Hope ends; if you let me do it the day after and you get a chance to really delve into what it’s like for her to have lost everything? Then I’m in and they totally bought that. That’s really where it stood; the idea that in first movie, there’s no time for it to sink in for her. Continue reading
Baltimore Comic Con 2015: Interview with Charles Soule
This weekend at Baltimore Comic Con, I was lucky enough to chat for a few minutes with the awesome Charles Soule. You may know him as the writer who’s also a lawyer who wrote a fantastic run on She-Hulk last year (amongst other things) but Star Wars fans currently know him as the guy who’s writing the rad Lando limited series for Marvel. We sat down and talked all things Star Wars and about his great work with Alex Maleev on the Lando book.
Bria: So the first question we always ask everyone is how did you become a Star Wars fan?
Charles Soule: Oh man, I’ve been a Star Wars fan since I was a little kid. I went to see the movies with my family. I must’ve seen a release of A New Hope at some point because I would’ve been a baby.
The ’96 ones?
No, it would’ve been before that. I don’t know—they kept rereleasing them for the first ten years or so and I must’ve seen it at that point but I remember very distinctly seeing the AT-ATs come out of the fog in Empire Strikes Back and all the Cloud City stuff which was so amazing. I had all the toys and stuff like that. So I was a fan from pretty young and my whole family was pretty into it so it was something that I could share with my brothers and sister and it was great.
Do you have a favorite one of the original films or any of the movies really. I’m not a Prequel hater. Continue reading
Review: Kanan #6
It’s another issue of Kanan but there’s no puppy dog padawan in sight. We’ve jumped forward in time again to rejoin the crew of the Ghost as they land on Kaller—the first time Kanan’s been back in over a decade. Overall, the issue is a fun read and a nice way to tie things back to the rest of the Rebels crew that we all know and love but I often found myself missing the Clone Wars era story about Kanan. There’s still so much that we don’t know about how Caleb really ended up becoming the Kanan that we met in A New Dawn.
One of the really fun things about this book is that Greg Weisman writes it in addition to having been an instrumental voice in creating Rebels. More than a few times, I silently marveled at how I could hear the voice actors reading the lines in my head and then subsequently chuckle at myself since obviously Weisman is going to have a damn good handle on who they all are.
Pepe Larraz takes a well-deserved break this issue and so we have Jacopo Camagni on art this week with colors by David Curiel. He draws a very nice Sabine and the colors of her hair stand out nicely without falling into anime territory thanks to Curiel’s good work. Camagni definitely seems to have fun with facial expressions and why yes, I do believe I caught a hint of puppy!Caleb in a panel or two.
At the end of the day, this was an enjoyable issue and a nice way to tie up Kanan’s history with everything that happened on Kaller. It’s definitely not an issue that you should skip simply because of the time jump. Your enjoyment level depends entirely upon personal taste. That said, I’m definitely looking forward to going back in time to the adventures of young Caleb… especially given the cover for issue #7!
Review: Star Wars #9
Things aren’t looking up for Han, Leia, or Luke this week as they find themselves betrayed and in the Empire’s crosshairs and chasing after a lightsaber respectively. Star Wars is back this week with Issue #9 from Jason Aaron and Stuart Immonen and, well, we’ve still got a lot of questions.
But first, a bit of unsolicited advice for my fellow reviewers. Try reading a comic issue and then getting on an exercise bike and mulling over the issue in your mind because boy doe sit do wonders. How else would I have thought of the idea of just reviewing this issue in hashtags and then determined it was a poor one?
That said, #NotAllHutts would probably be Grakkus the Hutt’s hashtag of choice because, see, he collects Jedi antiques which makes him different from other hutts who only do the whole smuggling drug ring thing. Not all hutts. The Star Wars universe seems to be hell bent on exploring the heck out of how Luke goes from knowing nothing to knowing slightly less than nothing about being a Jedi over the course of three years. It’s not Jason Aaron’s fault in the least as he’s just one of at least four different groups within Star Wars that have decided to tackle this issue but it’s starting to feel a little old for me. Mostly, it just seems like this is the only plot line he’s really been given lately. Leia may be sent on a lot of missions but at least they’ve all resonated for different reasons. And speaking of the other Skywalker twin…
Leia is a delight in this book. It finally hit me (during the aforementioned cycle time) that Aaron has really nailed her attitude during the Death Star rescue mission over the past few issues. He’s seemed to find the perfect mix of take-charge and over-your-crap Leia in this book.
On the art front, Stuart Immonen is perfect. Please let us keep him for forever. (Except for the Kenobi interludes. Give us Simone Bianchi for this.) But Immonen the rest of the time, please and thank you.
Review: Lando #4
Okay, that’s it. From now on, Lando’s real surname will always be Draper in my mind. Lando Calrissian-Draper. Lando #4 by Charles Soule and Alex Maleev is out today and boy oh boy is our favorite charming scoundrel in over his head.
This review contains some spoilers for the issue because it’s impossible to discuss otherwise and if we’re honest, this review is really just a bunch of thoughts about the issue.
Review: Darth Vader #9
Not content with all the new Star Wars material we got on Force Friday? Good because Marvel has plenty more to share. Out today is Shattered Empire #1 (which we’ll be reviewing once it’s collected in November) and Darth Vader #9. Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca return to the adventures of Darth Vader, Doctor Aphra, and the two lovable murderbots.
Vader is still under the thumb of Admiral Tagge after his failure at Yavin 4 and must work with Thanoth instead of devoting himself to his own side project. Thankfully, he has (for now) an ally and useful tool in the form of the one and only Aphra who is running down some leads for him at a very expensive rate…
And then Kieron Gillen dropped the f*$&ing microphone. Thus ends the review. Dear Marvel: Give me issue #10 right now. Please.
(No seriously. That’s all this review is going to say. Go buy Darth Vader #9 either at your local comic store or through a digital shop right now. Trust me.)
Review: Lando #3
Lando #3 by Charles Soule and Alex Maleev definitely left me wanting more when I turned the final page… and I’m not entirely sure that’s a good thing. (Which in itself is about to be a confusing statement because I did enjoy the issue.) Heyyyy did you all see the rad cover with Lando Draper? (Dunnna Dunnnna Dunnn.)
This was clearly not Lando’s best-planned heist. They got the ship, sure, but that was the easy part. Now the twins are fighting two Royal Guards and Lobot’s down for the count and uhhh… what exactly is on the Emperor’s private yacht?
Review: Kanan: The Last Padawan #5
Kanan #5 by Greg Weisman and Pepe Larraz is out today and, well, you know what that means.