Star Wars: Ewoks

After helping the Rebellion defeat the Empire, the Ewoks were prepared to go back to their rural forest life taking care of each other and fending off threats to their village.  Then the Empire came back.  The ambitious General Koyatta has a plan to secure a secret weapons cache on the moon, and his future along with it.  However, he’s not just about to pick a fight with the faction that took down his predecessors.  Koyatta is about to face off against every wild and vicious creature on the forest moon.  Good thing the Empire knows a thing or two about taking down insubordinate aliens.

When I read the solicitations for this series, and its collection, I had the impression that it was going to lean into the Ewoks’ status as a furry metaphor for the Viet Cong.  What writer Steve Orlando has given us is something a lot closer to their Saturday Morning incarnation.  (I’d include the TV movies here too, but I remember those having a slightly harder edge than what we get here.)  There may be a bit more violence in these issues, but it still boils down to a lot of pointless fighting against the monster(s) of the moment with no real memorable characters or twists to the proceedings.  It does have decent art from Alvaro Lopez and Laura Braga, which makes me hope that they’ll get another “Star Wars” assignment in the future that’s worthy of their talents.