Red Zone #1: I honestly don't have too much to say about this issue since it's pretty self-explanatory.
A (handsome as fuck) special ops captain named Simon Crow approaches Professor Randall Crane in his office and tells him that his old lover, prima ballerina assoluta Elena Sidorov, demanded his presence as a condition of her defection. Crane accompanies Crow and his team to Russia and discovers Elena also wants her daughter (allegedly not Randall's) Nika to come with her.
Via Crane's earpiece, Crow agrees, but the enemy arrives. Elena leaps across the table and opens fire on the soldiers, making it clear she wasn't just a ballerina. The enemy takes out Crow and his team as Randall escapes with Nika to an old warehouse, making it clear that he isn't just a professor.
The story is great, but Deodata's art, as always, is the main draw. I've always wished comics told more stories like this one.
Star Wars #32: Holy shit, the issue is more fucking like it! After so many issue of exposition, Soule finally returns to the type of issue where you can hear the characters speaking in the actors' voices in your head.
First things first, it's hard with characters this iconic to make other characters interesting enough that you focus on them, but the banter between the two guards watching Chewie and Lobot is reminiscent of Adam Pally's and Jason Sudeikis' in "The Mandalorian." After discussing the mechanics of Shyriiwook, the pair agree to take Chewie (and Lobot) to Lando since he speaks Shyriiwook. Hilariously, the minute Chewie walks into Lando's cell, he's distracted by the fact that he knows Lando and Amilyn did stuff; according to Lando, "Wookiees always pick up the vibes."
Lando brings Chewie to Blythe to explain his epiphany from last issue about the mural depicting a Nihil path engine, but Blythe dismisses it since he figures, after all these centuries, someone else would've already put two and two together. Blythe warns Lando that hope is dangerous in No-Space. Lando responds that he doesn't believe in hope but does believe in luck. Arguing Chewie arriving in No-Space is the latter not the former, Lando informs Blythe that the team has a path engine back at the Great Hall. Feeling the first bloom of hope, Blythe agrees to lend them a ship. He refuses to risk his own people, though, so he's only going to send the team. He's going to hold Leia at the Colony, though, so the team doesn't escape No-Space once they get the engine.
We then begin the comedy segment of the show. When the team discovers the condition of the ship - a bucket of bolts where Blythe once let "voidroaches" mate - they're hilarious outraged. Later, Blythe and Leia have a similarly hilarious conversation as she updates him on the galaxy's recent events over the last 35 years. When he asks if the people fight back against the Emperor, Leia quips, "Some." Heh.
At the Hall, Luke leaps from the ship to distract the killdroids, prompting Lando to quip, "Just don't know about that kid sometimes." Before Amilyn and Lando leap into the fray, they have a nice moment. Eventually Chewie makes a break for it and grabs the path engine. As the fight continues, Luke gets increasingly more cocky. If he was concerned about his connection with the Force before, he isn't now. However, before the team leaves, he decides to nab the sacred Jedi text, opening the door to a killdroid grabbing his hand and crushing his lightsaber. Uh-oh!
Again, this issue is the first fun one we've had for a while, with Soule taking the time to show everyone's personality clearly. He also puts them in a barely operational ship, which is basically the only way we know this crowd. It's great stuff.
Star Wars: Han Solo and Chewbacca #10: It was pretty clear from the start of this endeavor that the urn was a McGuffin. As such, the plot isn't really impacted when Greedo turns over the urn to Jabba at the issue's start.
Instead, the real drama happens in the flashback to 36 hours earlier as the various players attempt to escape each other. Han does battle with Tyra aboard the Falcon as Akko opens fire on them, leaving Phaedra to pilot the ship (which she doesn't know how to do). Meanwhile, Chewie and Marshall Vancto battle while Khel, Ooris, and T'onga all open fire on them.
Aboard the Falcon, Han lies and tells Tyra that the urn contained nothing, which Tyra wisely doesn't believe. Chewie breaks free from his fight with Vancto in time to see Khel land a hit on the Falcon. Meanwhile, Vancto gets hold of T'onga and threatens to kill her if Khel and Ooris don't surrender. But Chewie gets the drop on them all and makes a deal to turn over Khel to Vancto if Vancto gets Chewie to the Falcon. Aboard the Falcon, Han eventually knocks out Tyra and takes the controls in time to crash land it safely-ish.
On the ground, Han goes after an escaping Tyra, who taunts him that he's soft given how quickly he jumped at the possibility that Tyra was his dad. As Tyra tells Han that he's too trusting, Han shoots him and he falls from the log where they're standing into the river. Han recalls that Tyra isn't the first father figure who thought that he was soft. (It's a nice callback to "Solo: A Star Wars Adventure.") Han returns to find Akko holding Phaedra at gun point, but Chewie arrives with Vancto and company.
Vancto departs to collect the bounty on Khel for her role in the Galator III heist (which I don't remember, but apparently happened in issue #1), and Han leaves Akko, Ooris, and T'onga stranded like they did to him in issue #7. Later, he buries the neural core where Jabba won't find it and offers to take Phaedra with him to rob Augustus Graves' accounts on Scipio.
The issue ends in the present, as Greedo tells a not-surprisingly still alive Tyra that Jabba bought their story but seemed to expect something else in the urn than the charred ronto ashes they put in it. (Instead of 1,000,000 credits, Bib Fortuna earlier suggested he pay Greedo 80,000 credits, which is something for charred ronto ashes, I guess.)
The biggest reveal is the end page's assertion that Ajax Sigma, like Optimus Prime, will return. Since I'm reading this issue several months (ahem, a year) late, I'm going to assume the "Star Wars: Dark Droids" event involves him, which makes me more excited about it than I was.
I'm sad to see this series end, since it was clever and fun. But, it's obvious we have unsettled business here, as Guggenheim never revealed how Tyra knew what he knew about Han's father. Is he Han's father? I'm pretty sure we'll never know, but Han'll go through some heartache nevertheless.
Star Wars: Hidden Empire #4: Just like "Star Wars" #32, this issue is an unexpected surprise, as Soule supercharges a story that seemed to have no point into one that seems to explain everything that we know about this galaxy far, far away.
The issue begins creepily. Vader tells Palpatine that he felt a "great intensity of the Dark Side" in the Fermata Cage, seemingly confirming Qi'ra's assertion that the Cage contains an ancient Sith Lord. Palpatine challenges Vader to a duel and reminds Vader that, per the Rule of Two, only two of them can survive if this Sith Lord emerges. Palpatine expresses admiration for Qi'ra's trap, hilariously quipping, "She will be missed." It's like a Sith "Bless your heart."
Meanwhile, Sava the Archivist is frantically flying to a "hidden, ancient place" that I believe (but can't confirm) we've seen before. Sava tells Qi'ra that the place is filled with "both the Dark Side and abundant life" to feed the Cage, which her experiments indicate needs such fuel. Sava tells Qi'ra she's willing to sacrifice her life for the cause, but she'd die before she could fully charge and activate the Cage.
As such, Qi'ra sets in motion her final plan. Deathstick refuses to join the effort, as she isn't a foot solider, though Qi'ra convinces a skeptical Ren to join with the Knights after she observes that taking out the Sith is the only way they won't spend the rest of their lives on the run after attacking Vader's fortess. She tells Cadeliah she likely won't see her again, instructing her to play a message from a disc she hands her in five days if she hasn't heard from her. She then contacts a third entity, though we don't find out who it is in this issue.
At the Amaxine Station (the place for which Sava was searching), Sava turns on the Cage. Meanwhile, Qi'ra delivers a rousing speech to the Dawn's troops before they head to the Station. It's in this moment that Soule finally sells everything that he and the other authors have done with Qi'ra, as you realize that we're seeing a separate rebellion against the Empire here. You have to wonder if Leia didn't make a catastrophic mistake not trying harder to bring Qi'ra into the Rebellion's fold when you see the resolve (and resources) she brings to the table here.
At the Station, Sava is panicked when the Executor arrives. Palpatine taunts Vader by telling him that he can feel his desire to fight the Sith Lord allegedly inside the Cage, in part because he feels the same way. Instead, he isn't an idiot and orders the Executor's crew to open fire on the Station. Suddenly, the Dawn arrives! These scenes are impressive, as you see just how many people and ships Qi'ra is throwing against the Sith. You also get to see the commitment of the foot soldiers Deathstick so dismissed earlier in the issue as they prepare for the coming fight. The issue ends with Palpatine and Vader arriving at the Station, so a fight they shall have!
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