First things first: shout out to Phil Noto for yet another drop dead gorgeous cover. It’s a damn shame that Noto/Marvel doesn’t sell prints of these.
Much like the issues before it, Rogue One #4 does a great job of telling the film’s story without doing so verbatim. The key lines that everyone’s remembers are there but it’s not like you’re reading an illustrated version of the script. Also like the issues before it, this one has two lovely little added scenes that weren’t in the film. One features a conversation between K-2SO and Bodhi where he tells the droid that they’re the same because they were both Imperial but then Cassian and Galen reprogrammed them to help the Rebellion. The second is a brief one for Mon Mothma and Jyn. Mon Mothma, by the way, is a character who seems to routinely benefit from these adaptations. She’s becoming more and more of a fleshed out character beyond the woman we first saw before the Battle of Endor. On the downside, poor Chirrut and Baze do get the short end of the stick in this particular issue.
On the art front, Rachelle Rosenberg’s more muted coloring for the flashback panels on the first few pages is particularly effective and helps the memories really pop. There’s also a particularly lovely backlit shot of Jyn and Cassian towards the end of the issue that really stands out. The artist change ups over the book have felt a little strange at times but Rosenberg’s colors have been a nice consistency.
Rogue One #4 continues to be a great adaptation that will likely read even better in trade form.
Rogue One #4: Writer/Jody Houser, Artist/Emilio Laiso, Colorist/Rachelle Rosenberg, Letterer/Clayton Cowles, Editor/Heather Antos, Supervising Editor/Jordan D. White.
