Tag Archives: Marvel Comics

Review: Star Wars #11

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The latest issue of Star Wars by Jason Aaron and Stuart Immonen is out this week or, as I prefer to call it, “The One Where Everyone Gets Beat Up.” Or: “The One Where Everyone Gets Beat Up Except For Leia Who Continues To Be The Queen And Have No Time For Everyone’s Bull$#!).”

Aside from our heroes having a really rough 20 pages, the other big theme of this book seems to have been Questions and Answers. We do finally get the answer to the question we’ve been asking about Sana Solo for months now which is about what many of us suspected. (Side note: can the Sana+Han=Finn people cut it out now?) In its place, we have new questions such as… wait can droids feel pain now without having special programing? Just who is this Gamemaster fellow? How does one go about acquiring Jedi bones? And most importantly… is Dengar actually Roose Bolton?!?

Stuart Immonen’s work continues to be impressive as hell. Not only does he draw a great Luke Skywalker but his Chewbacca is also pretty awesome. And heck, I’d love to see him draw a book that’s just about Han and Leia doing their bickering/working together thing. His work on the action scenes in this book, especially those with Luke, particularly good. You can feel the movement within the panels. Static has no place in combat!

All of this makes Star Wars #11 a fun and fast paced read that manages to do, well, just about everything.  Aaron’s ability to keep readers on the edge of their seats is nothing less than impressive.  I’d like to have Issue #12 now, please and thank you.

Review: Chewbacca #2

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It’s release day for Chewbacca #2 by Gerry Duggan and Phil Noto. What adventures does everyone’s favorite wookiee get up to this week?

Zarro escaped from the mines but had to leave her father and the rest of her people behind as slaves to a gangster named Jaum. Luckily, she ran into Chewbacca who’s not terribly fond of slavers himself. She convinces him to help her but unfortunately, as most plans do, things don’t go quite as planned…

Phil Noto is absolutely the star of this book. His artwork is already fantastic to start with along with being universally loved by the Star Wars fandom. So much of the storytelling in this book is done through the art, especially through the facial expressions on Chewbacca and Zarro.  Often times, they make speech bubbles unnecessary. I’d also like to add that it’s nice to see a relatively young teenage girl be portrayed as such in a comic and not be overly sexualized.

One of the coolest things about this issue is how we get a little tease into Chewie’s history. It’s not much and we probably could have guessed it but it’s always neat to see. It feels like, in Star Wars past, we’ve always thought about Chewbacca’s past in terms of when he was freed by Han (if that’s even the case anymore) so it’s nice to see someone think further before that.

As I said before, Chewbacca is entertaining and I definitely enjoy the artwork but this still isn’t my favorite of the Star Wars books. Given how quickly things have progressed, I’m intrigued to see how this story is going to go for another three issues. That said, this does seem like it’s going to be a story that reads very well in trade form so if you’re still questioning whether to pick it up, perhaps wait for the trade in a couple of months.

Review: Darth Vader #11

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Right so let me explain to you a thing: Kieron Gillen is clearly in league with Chuck Wendig to give me multiple heart attacks in the space of mere minutes while reading their work. Darth Vader #11 by Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca is out today and is definitely a high stakes and stressful ride.

With each passing issue, Darth Vader shows itself to be more and more of a character study; taking it up a notch from a book that could’ve just been Vader killing things for 22 pages every month. Gillen highlights Vader’s strengths and his weaknesses without hitting readers over the head with it. This current arc has been reinforcing that while Vader is smart, he’s not the smartest person in the room and it’s only a matter of time before that has consequences… consequences that he may or may not have to personally pay the price for.

On the other side of things, Dr. Aphra continues to be a fantastic addition to the Star Wars universe and Triple Zero and BeeTee are delightful despite being homicidal. There’s just something about them being in a book as a contrast to Vader that works incredibly well. It would be interesting to have seen more of Aphra from before she started working with Vader and see if this is how she’s always worked and been. I suspect the answer is yes but still. She’s smart and she can adapt to a situation fast. It’s a good combination but I can’t shake the feeling that it will also contribute to her eventual downfall

There’s nothing new to say on the artist front because clearly Larroca is still rocking it. He did, however, draw the BEST Dr. Aphra facial expression ever a little less than halfway through the issue. If that face doesn’t show up as at least one person’s Twitter icon within a week, I’ll be shocked.

Darth Vader #11 gets another Hell Yeah! on my new sliding scale of enthusiasm.

Review: Chewbacca #1

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Right on the heels of the Lando finale, Marvel launches its next limited series in the Star Wars book.  Chewbacca #1 by Gerry Duggan and Phil Noto launches today, giving readers one of their first looks at a Chewie adventure without his sidekick Han Solo.

First, it definitely should be said that Duggan choosing to leave Chewbacca’s dialogue untranslated to readers was a bold choice.  Selling readers on a book where you can’t actually understand what the main character is saying is tough.  To help counter this, Duggan introduces a young girl named Zarro who can fend for herself but needs Chewie’s help to save her father from the mines.  It’ll be interesting to see how the pair end up working together in future issues.

The lettering work of Joe Caramagna (who has lettered most of the other Star Wars books) definitely should be called out here for what a lovely job he’s done.  You can definitely tell that he had fun with finding ways to communicate Chewbacca’s wookiee roars.

Because of how the story’s told, Phil Noto’s art definitely has to do a lot of the heavy lifting.  If for no other reason, the book’s worth picking up for his art which is, as always, gorgeous.  He’s able to do a heck of a lot with Chewie’s body language and facial expressions.

All of that said, Chewbacca #1 is far from being my favorite Star Wars comic.  It just didn’t grab me like so many of the others have thus far.  But then again, not every comic is going to be everyone’s preferred cup of tea and I strongly suspect that plenty of other people (especially the big Chewie fans) will get a real kick out of this book. Was it enjoyable? Yep. Life changing? Nah. Should you pick it up? Sure, why not? Marvel’s done a darn good job with their Star Wars stories so far including pulling more than a few surprises out of the bag.  It’s certainly worth reading this one to see where they go.

Review: Darth Vader #10

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Following up on last issue’s mic drop, Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca show no signs of slowing down or lessening the quality of this great book with the release of Darth Vader #10 today.

Darth Vader #10 is the issue that really lets Dr. Aphra shine. Readers have certainly gotten to know her for the last six or so issues but this is the one where it really made sense to me why she is the way she is. Or, in other words, why she continues to work for Vader. We’ve known that her character was grounded in the idea of a darker version of Indiana Jones but never has it been more evident than here. Not only do we get some of her backstory but we get a little more clarity into how she views the galaxy. Her conversation with Than is absolutely fascinating. My only question is how Commodex Than knows everything that he knows. (It’ll make more sense when you read the issue.)

Larroca clearly had a ton of fun with getting to design a Naboo house and it makes me wish we could see more of the planet more often. My only artistic complaint is that there’s one really weird panel with Aphra’s butt that just looks… odd and unnecessary? Oh. And I’m pretty sure that taking selfies is canon in Star Wars now unless I interpreted a panel completely wrong. So that’s cool. (Not a complaint, just a comment!)

The issue isn’t all Aphra though. Inspector Thanoth is going to be a problem and that in turn is going to be a problem for him. Just wait… I can feel it.

Gillen and Larroca continue to knock it out of the park and #10 gets a very strong recommendation from me this week.

Review: Lando #5

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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 →

Review: Star Wars #10

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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 Charles Soule

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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

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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!