Star Wars: Han Solo

I’m honestly surprised it has taken this long for us to get a Han Solo miniseries in comics.  Yes, he was a featured player in several comics from the Dark Horse era, but even Marvel held off for over a year after re-acquiring the rights to “Star Wars” before giving Solo his own solo vehicle *rimshot* courtesy of Marjorie Liu and Mark Brooks.  It comes with a great setup:  Han is laying low from the smuggling life and the Rebellion until he’s pulled back in by a request from Princess Leia.  It turns out that a network of Rebel informants needs to be extracted and they need Han to do it.  Why?  Because they’re going to be using the infamous starship race known as the Dragon’s Void as cover for the extraction.  This is a race that Han has dreamed of entering (and winning) ever since he became a pilot.  He doesn’t need to win the race in order to make sure the informants are extracted, but will Han be able to keep his competitive impulses in check in order to make sure everyone makes it out alive?

It’s been awhile since I’ve seen interiors from Brooks and he doesn’t disappoint.  He clearly put a lot of effort into this as each page is crammed with detail that’s worth pouring over.  The “Star Wars” look is captured quite well here (as is young Harrison Ford’s likeness) and I can see why George Lucas wanted all of the original art for this mini.  Liu’s script isn’t bad, but it does falter when trying to find an emotional arc for Han in this race.  Said arc involves the scoundrel getting to know a legendary racer and finding out what it means to be a real pilot.  It’s overly sentimental and I can’t quite buy the idea that the Han coming off of “A New Hope” would be selfless enough to go along with it.  Still, Liu captures Han’s sarcastic voice perfectly along with his resourceful nature.  This isn’t the best possible “Han Solo” miniseries we could’ve wound up with, but it’s also better than most of the other “Star Wars” minis Marvel has put out so far.