With so much Star Wars news coming out of Star Wars Celebration, it seemed appropriate to do a featured review from the Star Wars end of the Marvel spectrum. The newest book is about Han Solo, the dashing, daring smuggler turned Rebel fighter. The new Han Solo mini series covers a story during the time between the assault on the original Death Star in A New Hope to where we find Han in The Empire Strikes Back. In his own book, Han is struggling with who he is. He thought after helping the Rebels he would walk away, go back to his life of smuggling, and catch up on a few debts – at least those that threatened his life. But he finds himself looking at life a little differently and he (and the people he does business with) wonder if that old Solo touch has disappeared.
He ends up getting roped into helping the Rebellion (although truth to tell, he doesn’t resist too much). There is a mole inside the Rebel ranks and they can’t trust anyone on the inside. Who else would be appropriate to help out other than an outsider? Under the cover of running the Dragon Void Run, Han is on a mission to pick up three informants who have vital information for Leia and the other Rebel leaders. The run has three mandatory refueling points and the informants will be waiting at each of those three pick up spots. But will Han do it? Or will his desire to win the race overwhelm his sense of duty to Leia and the Rebellion? And as we see at the end of the first issue – will he even survive?
Marjorie Liu has done an admirable job in capturing this icon of Star Wars lore – not an easy feat in and of itself. She has hit the mark with Solo’s dialogue, both internally and externally. The struggle Han is having with defining who he is comes across as authentic rather than forced and his relationship with Leia seems apropos. Mark Brooks does a beautiful job of capturing Han and Chewie’s look, the look of his ship, and the environment in which we find Han hanging out. The race scenes are done in a way that captures the motion, the excitement, and the speed of the ships. And the story sets up Han’s later racing career as evidenced in the novel Bloodline. Only two issues have come out so far, but I’m looking forward to the remaining three. It will be exciting to see what happens next!
- Have you found out yet about C-3P0’s red arm?
- Learn more about the Darth Vader ongoing series (which is sadly coming to an end)
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