Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #1: As the editor says in his letter at the end of the issue, intragalactic bounty hunters are at the top of the list of awesomeness that Star Wars gave us. Sacks takes that premise and runs with it here, and I'm stoked to see where we go.
"Then:" Valance is part of a crew, which also includes Boba Fett and Bosk, that his mentor Nakano Lash leads. Someone named Khamus, scion of the Mourner's Wail syndicate -- the "deadliest crime syndicate in the sector" according to Boba Fett, so that's saying something -- has hired them to invade a citadel on Corellia so she can assassinate a member of the Unbroken Clan, which would apparently break some sort of truce. Lash and the other bounty hunter on the squad, T'ongor, enter the citdel with Khamus. But, Lash is appalled that Khamus wants to kill the target (presumably a child) and kills her instead. T'ongor radios Boba Fett and Valance to flee. Valance struggles to act as he can't believe Lash would betray him in this way.
"Now:" Valance's droid informs him that a bounty has been put on Lash who has apparently emerged from hiding. T'onga - T'ongor's sister - leaves behind her girlfriend when she learns of the bounty, seeking revenge for her brother's death. (I assume he died when Nash turned tables, but we'll see.) At a cantina on Burnin Konn, Bossk is bitching about the fact that Boba Fett managed to get Solo when Black Krrsantan and Dr. Aphra appear. Before Aphra can leave, Bossk tries to kill "BK." Aphra trades him Lash's location instead since she needs BK for a mission. Most importantly, Boba Fett is transporting Han to Jabba when he gets wind of the bounty on Lash, revealing why he hasn't appeared before Jabba on Tatooine yet in the main title.
In other words, holy crap, these guys are going to go through a lot of lasers when they inevitably crash into each other.
Star Wars: Darth Vader #2: This issue is pretty straightforward. Vader quickly realizes that "Padmé" is Sabé, one of the Queen's Shadows. She confirms that she and her team were the ones who broke into Padmé's apartments in Coruscant in an attempt to find out Padmé's fate. Vader tells Sabé that he's searching for the people who "stole her away" before she died, and Sabé agrees to help him. She reveals that they were unable to decode the security footage so hid it on Naboo, where they now head. Pak's definitely building to something here, which is exciting to watch.
Star Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren #4: Jesus unprintable Christ, as Ebling Mis from "Foundation and Empire" would say. I wasn't expecting much from this mini-series. I was mostly just enjoying that Soule was giving us a solid look into Ben's past and doing better at it than most movie tie-ins. But, this issue explodes with energy about halfway through it.
We begin on the "Minemoon of Mimban," where the Knights are interrogating a group of miners who they're holding hostage. They're seeking the Mindsplitter, a stone that the miners discovered years ago and see as priceless relic. The Knights plan on selling it. Ben uses a version of the Jedi mind-trick that Snoke taught him to read one of the miner's minds, informing Ren that the stone is in a sealed chamber three levels below them. Ren orders the Knights to kill the hostages anyway, to Ben's horror. The Knights arrive at the Mindsplitter's location, and Ben balks when Ren orders him to join the Knights in killing the remaining miners. Just as Ren's saying that he doubts Ben's resolve, Tai and Voe arrive. Voe goes to save the miners while Tai hopes to use his connection to Ben - which he used to find him - to save him.
During their duel, Tai begs Ben to return to the light, noting every path has two directions despite Ben's insistence that he's too far along said path. Ben whines -- not incorrectly, though -- that Luke and Snoke only see him as a legacy, not as a person. But, Tai argues that he could still make a difference: if he spent his life helping people, it would only matter that those people were helped, legacy or no legacy. Before Ben can choose what to do, Ren uses the Force to snap Tai's neck. He then attacks Ben, noting he's been fighting his descent into the shadow every step of the way.
As they battle, Ren says his power comes in being nothing special, so he can be whatever he wants. Ben retorts that other people think that he's special, but he doesn't so he can also do whatever he wants. Ben then tells Ren that he realizes what Ren was essentially begging him to do earlier and kills him as his good death. Showing he's chosen his path now, Ben then kills Voe after asking her, rhetorically, why she would want to live since she can't be a Jedi (assuming Luke is dead and thus can't train her). The Knigths then bow to Ren. We later see him turning his kyber crystal red and crafting his iconic lightsaber.
All in all, this issue really makes this mini-series a must-read for Star Wars fans. It felt right to me that Ben could only fully summon his anger at Ren, someone else who had expectations of him that he couldn't meet. It also makes sense that he could also accept killing Voe given how furious he was at her for dismissing him as a murderer, seeing him as something other than a person like all the people who only saw him as Han and Leia's son. The fact that he couldn't kill Tai is a callback to "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," as it's this struggle with killing someone he loves that leads to the iconic moment with his father on Starkiller Base. It's rare that someone so seamless creates a prequel story that fits in the story that we know is coming, but Soule really delivers here.
