Catching Up With “Star Wars”

Thanks to how I buy comics, when I buy comics, and the supply of where I buy comics from (more Cheap Graphic Novels than Amazon these days) I’ve wound up with a small backlog of “Star Wars” comics to write about.  Given the generally good quality of the line from Marvel so far, there are worse problems to have than dealing with this kind of backlog.  Especially since one of them is the first volume of the Kieron Gillen-written “Doctor Aphra” solo title and another is one of the better volumes in Jason Aaron’s “Star Wars” run.  As for the third… well… Charles Soule continues to do the best he can with what he’s given in “Poe Dameron.”  Further thoughts on all of them, starting from the best on down, are after the break.

What’s a proper reward for having survived working for (and even double-crossing a little) Darth Vader in his first ongoing series?  How about your own ongoing series, which is what we have now with Doctor Aphra vol. 1:  Aphra as we see what everyone’s favorite morally dubious sci-fi archaeologist gets up to when she’s not indentured to a Dark Lord of the Sith.  It usually involves recovering priceless artifacts, sometimes with the occasional loss of life in the process, to be redeemed for credits through official channels via her status as a Doctor of Archaeology.  At least, that’s how things usually work until her dad shows up after having spread the word about how she really got her doctorate (as seen in the clever first-issue backup story) in order to obligate her into working with him on his life’s work.  That would be finding out what happened to a splinter group of Jedi known as the Order Aspectu.

What follows is an entertaining lark as Aphra, her father, ruthless Wookie merc Black Krrsantan, and torture droids Triple Zero and BT track down what happened to the Order and run afoul of the Empire in the process.  Even if the parts involved are very familiar — Aphra is the “Star Wars” version of Indiana Jones and her wookie and droid companions are the bizarro evil versions of Chewbacca, C-3P0, and R2-D2 — Gillen has a lot of fun with them doing things that established and more morally upstanding “Star Wars” characters couldn’t normally get away with.  It also helps that the artist for the series, Kev Walker, turns in some fantastically animated work that absolutely enhances the humor and adventure here.  Chances are you probably already know if this series is for you if you liked what Gillen did with the title character during his run on “Darth Vader.”  Be advised that this first volume absolutely delivers on the promise Aphra showed in that title.

Though the ongoing “Star Wars” title was clearly meant to be the flagship of Marvel’s line, it’s always had kind of a second banana status in my book.  Mainly due to the fact that Gillen was always killing it with each volume of “Darth Vader” and Aaron’s work on the main title was usually more uneven.  The good news here is that Star Wars vol. 5:  Yoda’s Secret War winds up being one of the better titles of his run even though he sidelines the main cast and subplots for most of it.

After demonstrating his badass credentials by taking on a group of raiders to rescue a force-sensitive alien youth, Yoda heads off into the unknown reaches of space to pursue a disturbance in the Force.  Arriving at an uncharted planet he encounters a group of children wielding stone weapons.  These weapons are, somehow, very strong in the Force.  Yoda doesn’t understand this, but his pursuit of understanding leads him to another more warlike group of children who charge him with finding the source of the power, the Heart of the Mountain.

While Yoda’s strength with the Force was never in doubt, the main story in this volume does a great job of illustrating his resourcefulness as well.  The Jedi Master is confronted with a power that he doesn’t understand and is almost powerless against.  Seeing him slowly uncover the answers to these issues makes for a satisfying narrative arc and a great demonstration as to why he’s so respected.  The story only fumbles towards the end when Luke shows up on the planet in the present day to take care of some unfinished business.  You can see what Aaron was going for here, but the decision made by the other character Luke encounters feels too quick after all he’s endured to have any real weight to it.

Salvador Larroca provides the art for this volume and it’s just as slick and polished as you’d expect after seeing his work on “Darth Vader.”  Also pleasing to the eye is Emilio Laiso’s work on the other story in this volume, the second “Annual” written by Kelly Thompson.  In it, we meet Pash Davane, a tough female mechanic who is looking to get through the Imperial/Rebel conflict without taking a side.  This becomes much harder for her to do after she winds up rescuing an injured Princess Leia and assisting with her efforts to get off-planet.  It’s a decent little action story but ultimately not much more than that.

The bad news regarding Poe Dameron vol. 2:  The Gathering Storm is that it’s still stuck mining inconsequential plot points from “The Force Awakens” for its main narrative.  This time out, the search for Lor San Tekka takes a backseat after one of C-3P0’s droid contacts finds out where Supreme Commander Snoke of the First Order is hiding.  If you think that Poe’s actions to track this informant down won’t amount to much because of the impact it would have on the new movies then you’d be right.  As with the previous volume, Soule is smart enough to realize this and focuses the story on things he can control such as Poe and C-3P0’s trip to the lawless planet of Kaddak, the mystery of who the traitor in Black Squadron is, and just what Agent Terex is up to after his defeat in the previous volume.

Terex continues to be the best part of the series and not just because he’s the one who’s most clearly enjoying himself here.  He becomes the most fleshed-out character in the title after we learn about his post-Imperial backstory and how he went on to become the Lord-General of Kaddak.  What we get here in regards to Terex’s history makes it sound like diving into it’d be a lot more appealing than the main story here.  Which is also another problem that the “Poe Dameron” series has.  I realize that replicating Oscar Isaac’s charisma on the page is probably an impossible order, but he’s just not the most interesting character in his own series.