Star Wars: Screaming Citadel
Marvel’s first “Star Wars” crossover was a no brainer between the ongoing series of the same name and “Darth Vader.” It certainly had its moments and great art, but it didn’t really accomplish much besides shuffling the cast around between the two titles. This time around “Star Wars” is crossing over with the lower-profile “Doctor Aphra” series and it’s clear that there’s less pressure to deliver a major blockbuster event here. That works in the story’s favor as “Screaming Citadel” delivers a much weirder and more satisfying reading experience.
This story picks up fairly unobtrusively from the end of “Aphra’s” first arc. The good doctor got her hands on a crystal with the personality of a Jedi named Rur but has no way to activate it. She does know a person who might: The Queen of Ktath’atn who has all sorts of arcane and forbidden knowledge at her disposal and holds a ball once a year for people to curry favor with her by showcasing interesting organic life. And what more interesting organic life is there in the galaxy than a Force user? So Aphra cajoles Luke to come along with her to see the Queen with the promise that she’ll hook him up with some knowledge from Rur after the crystal is up and running.
Of course, this is all done on a timetable that leaves Luke with no way to tell his friends where and why he’s going. Fortunately for him, once Sana finds out who he’s gone with and why she, Leia, and Han are off in fast pursuit to Ktath’an. It’s probably worth noting that Ktath’atn translates to “The military expedient construction of loud, shrill exhalations” in Basic. Which Aphra’s murderbot companion Triple Zero colloquially renders as “The Screaming Citadel.” With a name like that, I’m sure we can all agree that our cast won’t have any problems getting in and getting what they want from the Queen.
HA!
“Screaming Citadel” is basically a gothic horror story with a decidedly sci-fi sheen to it. You’ve got your creepy queen in her castle with parasitically-controlled servants at her beck and call as she plots to get her hands on the Force essence of that Tatooine farm boy. Meanwhile, the cast of both books runs around as if they were trapped in a random episode of “Scooby Doo” and much fun is had along the way. Kieron Gillen and Jason Aaron clearly had a lot of fun in finding ways to describe the strangeness of the Queen and her citadel and while the setup definitely feels like it came from the former the latter is clearly on the same wavelength here.
Which is how we get scenes like a fantastically sinister breakfast between Luke, Aphra, and the Queen. Or the gloriously violent explanation as to why Wookies are forbidden from coming into the Citadel. As well as a mental duel between parasite-controlled characters. The writers even manage to sneak in some worthwhile character development along the way. Mostly involving Aphra as she comes to realize that Luke is a genuinely good person far too late to save their relationship. Meanwhile, Leia gets some advice on interacting with her meatbag comrades from Triple Zero and Han’s fear of responsibility tying him down winds up saving him in the end.
The volume also boasts some good, if inconsistent, art across the issues collected here. Marco Checchetto illustrates the one-shot which kicks things off and it looks as fantastic as you’d expect from the guy who illustrated “Obi-Wan and Anakin” and (most of) “Shattered Empire.” Salvador Larroca handles the “Star Wars” issues and turns in predictably solid work even if his Queen isn’t exactly on the same model as the other artists in this volume. Also, the color work from Edgar Delgado distractingly filps between offering simple colors on some scenes and almost-distracting shading on some of the characters. Andrea Broccado’s two issues of “Aphra” are nice enough even though the simple animated style employed by the artist is a little at odds with the more detailed styles of Checchetto and Larroca.
There are occasional lapses of logic in the plot — like when the Queen has de-materialization powers for one page — a final page that made me go “Really?” and by the end of it I still had a nagging suspicion that there weren’t going to be any long-term ramifications for the cast. These issues don’t change the fact that it was a lot of fun to see all of the cast bicker and work together to escape the Queen’s clutches. Gillen and Aaron clearly had a ball working on this and the fun is definitely infectious. If Marvel is determined to have its “Star Wars” titles crossover on an irregular basis then let’s hope they can at least be as weird as this one going forward.