Didn’t get enough Star Wars last weekend? Good news: Star Wars #4 by Jason Aaron and John Cassaday is out today! Our heroes were successful (albeit just barely) in their mission to destroy the weapons factory on Cymoon 1 but what now for both the Rebels and the Empire?
I usually discuss the art after the plot but Cassaday drew such a gorgeous panel of Luke in his pilot helmet towards the end of the issue that I have to mention it right away! I actually paused for a minute just to take in every detail. A lot of gorgeous work went into that one panel between Cassaday’s lines and Laura Martin’s colors. There are also some other very nice pages for Luke fans but wow did that other panel just blow me away. John Cassaday will certainly be missed when he leaves the book.
On the story front, this main Star Wars book and the Darth Vader book definitely seem to be intertwined. It would be interesting to see a more detailed timeline of where each issue falls in relation to the others as this is now the second time we the readers have seen Vader dealing with Jabba. As far as plot goes, this is definitely a transitional set-up issue. Aaron is moving his characters into position for the next arc but it all feels very organic and not like a place holder issue where everyone’s treading water.
Speaking of characters! You can attribute it to either great characterization or wonderful coordination by the story group or both but the Leia featured in Aaron’s book is definitely on the same page as the Leia who is in the pages of Mark Waid’s book. In both, she’s very proactive and trying to do more than the Rebellion will let her. It’s great in terms of both continuity and who Leia Organa is as a person.
Oh yeah. And there’s a character return that’ll definitely have some fans fist pumping the air.
(As a side note, please tell me that someone else out there read the last few lines of the opening scroll and immediately heard Katara’s voice from the Avatar opening…)
Star Wars #4 gets another solid recommendation from me but you’re already reading this book, right?
Just discovered this site. Awesome stuff! As for the time line of SW and Vader; I’d assume the visit to Jabba in SW #4 is the very next day from the Vader Issue #1 visit. Jabba states in Vader #1 that he is a day early for his official “Empire Business” which is what they conduct in SW #4.
Thanks for the kind words! And I think you’re right. I’ll admit that I was too lazy to dig up my Vader issues to double check when I was writing this. Regardless, I would still be interested in seeing a timeline of where all of the issues fall one day because that’s the sort of stuff I nerd out over.