Star Wars: Poe Dameron vol. 3 — Legend Lost

Three volumes in and writer Charles Soule is still finding decent, but not spectacular ways to make the pre-”The Force Awakens” adventures of the title character interesting.  He succeeds best in the opening story which has Poe meeting up with an old journalist friend, Suralinda Javos, after she tells him about a big story she stumbled upon.  Things get hairy when the initial round of thugs attacking them gives way to First Order operatives, but the story succeeds in delivering some fast-paced action and even some intrigue as Suralina’s true motivations come out.  The multi-issue stories that follow it are fine. Poe and the rest of Black Squadron have to deal with an out-of-control tanker cruiser and steal back the fuel the First Order stole from it in one, and then they pick up the trail of unwilling traitor Oddy Muva while engaging in some wartime reportage in the other.

As with the previous volumes, you get the feeling that Soule is very limited in what he can do to flesh out this era with all of the big developments being reserved for the films to handle.  The biggest disappointment with this volume is that the writer has decided to effectively neuter Agent Terex as a character.  Easily the best part of the first two volumes, Terex’s gleefully underhanded methods and interesting backstory helped give the stories there some energy.  That’s not the case here as the plot dictates that he be punished for his failures by making him into a far less interesting character here.  It doesn’t help matters that Commander Malus, his replacement as primary antagonist for Poe and Black Squadron, is nothing more than a generically evil First Order officer.

There’s also a change in the art here as Angel Unzueta takes over for Phil Noto.  Unzueta’s work is more clean and straightforward than his predecessor’s, though it lacks Noto’s otherworldly style.  The art in this volume is still very nice to look at even if there’s nothing truly exceptional about it.  Which is a good way of describing the overall quality of “Poe Dameron” so far.