Star Wars vol. 12: Rebels & Rogues

Yes, I did get a lot of “Star Wars” comics in my most recent order of comics.  “Rebels & Rogues” is the last of them, and the best as well. Rather than spend its time telling one story, vol. 13 decides to tell three instead.  As an onslaught of Imperial probe droids scan the galaxy for any sign of the Rebellion, our protagonists engage in a multi-pronged approach to throw them off their path.  Luke and R2 will be diverting them away from a vital refueling station, Han and Leia will try to cook up evidence of a Rebel base on the planet Lanz Carpo, and Chewbacca and C-3PO are going to rig an uninhabited volcanic planet to blow in order to take out some Star Destroyers.

Naturally, there are catches for all of these situations:  Luke encounters a rogue who may know a thing or two about the Force, or may just have eyes on his lightsaber.  Meanwhile, Han and Leia’s contact turns out to be the latter’s ex, while the planet Chewie and Threepio are rigging to blow isn’t quite as uninhabited as they thought.  Things get even twistier for these plots as they go along and that’s just a little of what writer Greg Pak brings to the table here. In addition to smart characterization and dialogue, he also switches between these threads effortlessly and in a way that keeps them interesting without distracting the reader.

Artist Phil Noto is no stranger to “Star Wars” after working on “Chewbacca” and the first year of “Poe Dameron” and he delivers some very appealing work here.  He’s being asked to draw three different locales, all with their own identifying quirks, and they all look pretty solid even when the blasters are firing (which is often).  Really, the only issue I have with this volume is that it’s basically a batch of extended filler. Pak and Noto essentially got stuck in a lame-duck run on “Star Wars” before it relaunches into the post-”Empire Strikes Back” era in January.  What they’ve delivered here is still well above the kind of storytelling I’d expect from a filler arc, and that’s as good a reason as any to give this volume a look.