If you came out of The Last Jedi hoping to learn more about Paige or Rose Tico, Cobalt Squadron by Elizabeth Wein, is likely the book you’ll gravitate towards. While on a mission, Paige and Rose’s ship is boarded by a smaller one crewed by two people with a desperate mission. Their planet is ruled by and treated poorly by the First Order and they fear that their people might die if the New Republic doesn’t find a way to aide them. Knowing there’s little the Senate will do, General Organa tasks Cobalt Squadron with seeing while they can do… all while, elsewhere in the galaxy, Starkiller Base is rapidly approaching completion. Continue reading
Category Archives: Reviews
Review: Storms of Crait
Without a doubt, Crait was one of the most visually striking things within The Last Jedi. Fields of salt covering red crystals? Yep, I’m on board. When the movie revealed that The Last Jedi was an old Rebel Alliance base, I was excited for this comic to learn more about it. After reading it… Still intrigued even if it wasn’t exactly what I expected.
Learning not to cling to expectations is something that The Last Jedi taught us but that I’m still struggling to truly learn. I expected to see the Rebel Alliance hang around Crait for a while and I also expected to see Amilyn Holdo pop up. Neither of those things happened but that didn’t stop this from being a fun ride.
It’s still sorta Christmas so I’m going to bullet point this thing:
- WEDGE FREAKING ANTILLES. There hasn’t been enough of Wedge in the new canon and it’s awesome getting to see Acker and Blacker bring him a little more to the forefront.
- Leia and Luke don’t forget their families/upbringings. Leia’s very aware of what she learned from Bail and if you think you can make the farmboy forget the moisture farm just by taking him off planet…
- Scar Squadron: Not actually all that great
- Leia’s Outfit: Actually pretty great
- 100% here for Mayhew drawing the men of the Rebellion with ripped shirts and jackets.
Is Storms of Crait the most ground-breaking Star Wars story ever? Nah. Is it an effective one-shot that gives you a fun The Last Jedi tie in while also being easily accessible for new comic readers? Absolutely.
Star Wars: Storms of Crait: Ben Acker & Ben Blacker/Writers, Mike Mayhew/Artist, Clayton Cowles/Letterer, Jordan D. White/Editor, Heather Antos/Assistant Editor
Review: Poe Dameron #22
Poe Dameron #22 is masterful.
When I first started reading it, I figured that perhaps this issue would hit me a little harder after seeing The Last Jedi. After all, much of who Poe Dameron was in the latest film made so much more sense when you had this comic run in the back of your brain. While that level of realization was there, that wasn’t the start of the show. No, that would be Charles Soule’s writing.
It seems fitting that an issue released so close to the anniversary of Carrie Fisher’s passing features Leia narrating a plan as a framing device. Of course she has a plan to get Lor San Tekka out: this is Leia Organa we’re talking about here. Her plan is a heist because a woman picks up a thing or two thanks to being married to a notorious smuggler and being part of a rebellion since she was a teenager. And yeah, it’s a good plan.
Aside from the masterful weaving, the other great part about this issue is that it gives everyone a minute to shine. Yes, it’s definitely Leia’s show but it won’t succeed without them. Admittedly, I’d like to slap Snap for his continuing self-pity over being dumped by Karé but I’m hardly alone there. (Seriously buddy, this is not how you get a girl back.) The OTP that I’m truly invested in is Jess getting a droid who sticks around. Even Poe gets a particularly good role in this plan.
I won’t spoil any of the twists and turns for you but needless to say, Poe Dameron #22 is a comic issue that you need to read.
Poe Dameron #22: Charles Soule/Writer, Angel Unzueta/Artist, Arif Prianto/Colorist, Joe Caramagna/Letterer, Jordan White/Editor, Heather Antos/Assistant Editor
Review: Doctor Aphra #15
I can’t say I was expecting to yelp “Aphra!” while reading this issue and yet I did.
Thankfully, I seem to be getting my wish regarding more Tolvan as she makes Imperial bureaucracy work for her and finds her way into more trouble than she probably wanted. That’s just a side effect of being intrigued by the one and only Chelli Lona Aphra. I could write an entire essay about how Tolvan literally dreams about Aphra rescuing her but I’ll spare you. (But Tolvan, honey, you have to know that this won’t end well.)
Unfortunately, Aphra has way bigger problems to deal with and by bigger, I mean more metallic and homicidal. Triple Zero is blackmailing her into working for his mob and if she doesn’t, he’ll let Vader know that she’s still alive. It’s a crazy script flip on the Aphra and the Murder Droids dynamic that we grew so used to during Darth Vader and the early part of this series. Admittedly, I wasn’t sure what to think when Gillen and Spurrier put the idea before us but it’s growing more and more on me as a way to keep the book fresh and not just a continuous series of wacky shenanigans. (Not that I would have been terribly opposed to that.)
I’m liking Emilio Laiso’s art more and more especially since we got so many different aliens and characters in this arc. If we don’t get to see more of the droideka, I’m going to be very disappointed.
Doctor Aphra seems intent on bringing Tolvan and Aphra back together and I can’t wait to see how that happens in future issues!
Doctor Aphra #15: Kieron Gillen and Si Spurrier/Writers, Emilio Laiso/Artist, Rachelle Rosenberg/Colors, Joe Caramagna/Letterer, Heather Antos/Assistant Editor, Jordan D. White/Editor
Review: Star Wars #40
I’ve decided that all I want from Kieron Gillen’s Star Wars is more Skywalker twin interactions.
Queen Trios and the Empire continue their efforts to drill all of the kyber out of Jedha and the rebels continue to have somewhat strained relations with what’s left of the Partisans. However, things are slightly less than harmonious between even some of our heroes…
Spoilers after the cut. Continue reading
Review: Canto Bight
Canto Bight… where everyone goes with their shiny dreams of making their fortune and perhaps finding a little excitement along the way… and where so few actually find what they’re hoping for. Canto Bight offers four novellas by three new-to-Star Wars authors and one fan favorite, which explore the lives of those within the city from various walks of life, bringing a little depth to the backdrop we’ve seen in the behind the scenes videos of The Last Jedi.
Each story offers a different angle although all four have little connections to each other and take place on the same night. Saladin Ahmed tells the story of a naïve salesman who’s won a trip to the fabled city and who also gets himself into a spot of trouble that make the trip the opposite of a dream vacation. Mira Grant’s novella is about a sommelier whose quest for a unique bottle of wine becomes difficult when another buyer forces her way into the mix. Rae Carson’s tale is one of a father who gets unwillingly pulled into the politics of the city when it’s the only way he can save his daughter. John Jackson Miller anchors the compilation with the story of a down-on-his-luck gambler who has to come up with an absurd amount of money in one evening thanks to three brothers whose luck just doesn’t make sense. Continue reading
Review: Darth Vader (2017) #9
Jocasta Nu is officially a bad ass.
Perhaps she’s not a match for the Grand Inquisitor in a lightsaber duel but she knows how to hold her own. While the Jedi Order seems fine with letting their Knights have their own areas of specialty, they definitely make sure that everyone knows how to fight. In this case, that’s a very good thing. This particular story arc in the Darth Vader comic is doing wonders not just for Jocasta Nu’s characterization but also the Grand Inquisitor’s. He doesn’t seem to be entirely at ease with taking orders from Vader yet… especially when they’re contrary to what he wants to do.
But Jocasta… Listen, this arc should be required reading for anyone who wants to reduce her down to a snarky sentence about her scene in Attack of the Clones. Jocasta didn’t have to return to the Jedi Temple and neither did she have to dedicate herself to trying to ensure the knowledge of the Order endures. It’s incredibly brave of her to return. At the same time, the arc shows her weakness: she can’t stand to see the books and knowledge that she cares so deeply about read and mistreated by someone with no right to them.
Camuncoli’s art continues to be delightful. I will admit to giggling a fair bit at the first page in which Vader stands in the back of a speeder while two others drive it with his cape billowing in the wind. Could he possibly be any more dramatic? (The answer is likely yes: this is the man who was once Anakin Skywalker, after all.)
Are you reading this book yet? You should be.
Darth Vader #9: Charles Soule/Writer, Giuseppe Camuncoli/Pencils, Daniele Orlandini/Inks, David Curiel/Colorist, Joe Caramagna/Letterer, Heather Antos/Assistant Editor, Jordan D. White/Editor
Review: Rebel Files by Daniel Wallace
I’m a sucker for in-universe ‘non-fiction’ books. There’s just something fun about reading historic documents from the Galaxy Far, Far Away. Pair that up with the formation of the Rebellion and its early history and you’ve got a combination that might as well have been plucked out of my brain and put into book form.
Review: Barbary Station
When someone pitches a book to you as “lesbian pirates in space,” it’s hard not to be interested especially when you’re talking to someone who writes for Tosche Station. (We have a type here and we’re not sorry.) That’s how Barbary Station by R.E. Stearns was pitched to me: lesbian space pirates along with a side of Firefly. Who wouldn’t be intrigued? If only the book itself had caught me as fast as the premise.
Stearns’ debut novel, Barbary Station, is about two engineers who decide that their best way forward in life is to hijack a spaceship and join a pirate crew. One problem: they don’t know that the pirate crew is stuck on a space station that’s controlled completely by a rogue AI and won’t let anyone leave. That makes it a little tricky for a pirate group to successfully lead a life of crime and profit and it especially makes it hard when the Pirate Captain won’t accept you into as a part of their crew until after you beat the AI thereby freeing them from the station. What could possibly go wrong? (A lot. A lot of things are going to go wrong.) Continue reading
Review: Poe Dameron #21
Congratulations to Charles Soule and Angel Unzueta for creating a comic page that made me audibly gasp really, really loudly.
It’s a relatively quiet issue for Black Squadron. They’re present, of course, and Poe, Snap, and Jess all have some nice moments but the real focus this month is on Leia Organa and Lor San Tekka. Poor Lor is imprisoned thanks to breaking and entering in search of knowledge and while Leia might be looking to find adequate storage and protection for her birth mother’s gowns, she definitely has an alternative agenda going on. Come on, it’s General Organa. She’s leading the Resistance. You don’t really think she’s just there to store dresses, do you?
This is actually something that I really like about this book. While Poe’s obviously the focus, Soule isn’t afraid to pull back and let other characters take and/or share the spotlight at times. It worked really well in the arc where the guys and girls split up and it works rather well in this issue too. Also, it certainly doesn’t hurt that this arc has thus far been a stellar example of how to incorporate Prequel elements in the Sequel era. After all, it’s one big galaxy.
Assorted Thoughts:
- Jess’s trouble with droids has shifted from being a funny joke to a genuine thing that makes me want to hug her
- I just don’t care about Snap/Karé and their troubles
- That lake gown. THAT LAKE GOWN
- Phil Noto’s cover is drop dead gorgeous
Poe Dameron #21 keeps doing a lot of things right and I can’t wait to see where this arc goes.
Poe Dameron #21: Charles Soule/Writer, Angel Unzueta/Artist, Arif Prianto/Colorist, Joe Caramagna/Letterer, Jordan White/Editor, Heather Antos/Assistant Editor