Star Wars #18 (November 3): From start to finish, this issue is amazing. Soule takes Leia - and us - on an emotional journey from the depths of despair to the heights of hope. His vehicle for this journey is Qi'ra, as complicated of a character as we see in comics. It's a fitting end to an outstanding event.
Soule makes it clear from the start that Leia and company don't just think that Han Solo is lost to them: they think that he's dead. It isn't an unreasonable assumption, given that they saw his carbonite-encased body fall from the Executor toward Jekara's surface. But, it significantly ups the emotional ante of the issue's first few pages, as Leia - a paragon of inspiration - confesses to Chewie that she might just think that hope is for suckers. She tells him something that we've previously heard her confess in different ways to other people, that she's been on auto-pilot ever since they lost Han. She admits to Chewie that she found hope again when she touched Han on board the Exectuor, but it's clear that losing him again has broken her. It's heavy stuff.
It isn't made easier when Qi'ra contacts the team and reveals that she had the Falcon's hyperdrive disabled while it was on board the Vermillion. At her request, she boards the Falcon. We're then treated to one of the tenser conversations that I've ever read in comics after she asks to talk with Leia "just us girls." Qi'ra starts their "chat" by offering Leia a drink from a bottle that she brought on board with her; in one of the issue's best scenes, Leia takes the blaster that that she has pointed at Qi'ra and destroys the bottle.
Qi'ra swears that she meant to help Han, which Leia has trouble believing given that Qi'ra was, you know, auctioning him to the highest bidder. Qi'ra informs Leia that she was the one to arrange for Holdo to get word of Han's location. She then confirms that her fight with Vader on board the Vermillion as well as Bokku the Hutt's attack on the Executor were stalling tactics meant to give Leia time to save Han. (It's a nice way of shifting the blame on Leia for failing to do so.) Leia points out the obvious, that Qi'ra could've just given her Han. But, Qi'ra notes that she wouldn't have gotten anything from that. She contrasts the fact that she (Qi'ra) manipulates people to get what she wants as opposed to Leia, who inspires people. Qi'ra observes that Leia's an Alderaanian princess and she's a Corellian scumrat; she wonders if they were just born to these destinies. Qi'ra tells Leia that she knows that Han is better with Leia; his path would've been darker with Qi'ra.
Qi'ra then recounts a story of Han intervening in a fight on Corellia when they were younger, saving a smaller boy from a beating that he (Han) took instead. Later that night, Qi'ra asks Han why he helped the boy. Han acknowledges that no one on Corellia does anything for someone else unless it helps them to do so and muses that it's the same way "at the top of the fanciest tower on the fanciest planet in the galaxy." But, for a few minutes, for the boy he saved, it wasn't that way; the boy could believe that life could be different. Beyond the wonderful sentiment - one totally fitting the brave Han that we all see beyond his gruff exterior - it's one of the prettiest panels I've ever seen: young Han and Qi'ra contemplating the stars from some industrial roof. Han tells her, "You gotta start somewhere."
Surprisingly, this story doesn't particularly move Leia: she knows that Han is a good man, even if he hides it. As she's ready to bring Qi'ra before an Alliance tribunal, Qi'ra drops the boom and tells Leia that Han is alive and Jabba the Hutt has him. As excited as Leia is - and Chewie, who overheard the conversation - she and Qi'ra agree that he's probably safest with Jabba as the Alliance needs Leia more right now. It isn't just a good point. It's on that hadn't really dawned on me and perfectly explains why Leia and company didn't immediately run to rescue him.
Leia lets Qi'ra leave because, as she (Qi'ra) notes, Crimson Dawn doesn't really have any love for the Empire, and she can help the Alliance where it suits her. As she departs, Leia asks Qi'ra if any word of her story about Han was true, to which Qi'ra responds, after a beat, "Be seeing you, Leia." It's one of the greatest last panels I've read, so full of portent for the future and questions about the past all at once.
Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #17 (November 3): This issue is also amazing, and I find myself still thrilled that Marvel is putting their best talents on the Star Wars series. In a way, it's the inverse of "Star Wars" #18. That issue started in despair and ended in hope; this one goes in the opposite direction.
We begin where we last left Valance, his heart failing after Boba Fett shot him to take Han for himself. Valance has to take on the Stormtrooper platoon sent to the detention center given, as one of the Stormtroopers notes, the high number of trespassers it registered. But, unbeknownst to Valance, T'onga has pledged to save him after Bossk revealed that he had been on Jekara and Zuckuss subsequently senses him in orbit. T'onga flies her ship close enough to the Executor to broadcast on an old frequency that they had used, telling Valance to hightail it to the hanger.
On Jekara, Qi'ra makes an offer to Vukorah, opening a box that contains an item that appears to resolve the fact that she isn't of the right bloodline to take over the Unbroken Clan.
Back in space, Valance encounters a scared cadet who confesses that he doesn't know what he's supposed to do after his commander died. In one of this issue's many zags, Valance seems ready to take the cadet with him when one of the Imperial lieutenants orders a midshipman to vac the compartment despite the cadet's presence. Valance tries to save the kid, but he flies into space, confirming what Valance had told him, that the Empire doesn't care about any of them. Before Valance destroys the camera that brought them to the bridge's attention, the midshipman identifies him and tells the lieutenant that the file is classified above his rank, prompting the lieutenant to advise Vader of it.
Valance discovers the cargo bay is too crowded with Jumptroopers for T'onga to land, so he swipes one of the Jumptrooper's backpacks and flies towards her. Hilariously, Valance is a little nervous when it's Zuckuss who heads to the top of the ship to secure him, but T'onga reassures him when she tells Valance that she's paying him. Zuckuss grabs Valance, but, in another zag, Valance is suddenly pulled to the Executor. Losha tells T'onga they have to leave him before the Tie Fighters destroy them. To my horror, we discover that Vader is the one who pulled back Valance. Valance awakens looking like his old self with Vader standing over him, telling him that he fixed him because he serves him now.
First, I want to complement Villanelli here. As I've noted before, Valance is a hard character to get right, as he either appears too monstrous or too human. Villanelli gets the mix exactly right throughout the issue, which is why it's all the more stunning when we seem a handsome Valance fully restored at the issue's end. Second, this development - particularly after what happened with the cadet- is probably the worst possible outcome for Valance. He isn't just impressed into Imperial service again, but he's impressed into Vader's service. After all, as Doctor Aphra can attest, Vader doesn't just let people who work for him go. It's just such an awful ending for Valance, who at various times in this series has come so close to finding a family or a friend only to have it taken brutally from him.
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