Written by Kieron Gillen
Art by Angel Unzueta
Colors by Guru-eFX
Letters by VC’s Clayton Cowles
Cover by Gerald Parel
Edited by Mark Paniccia

 

The build up to this story began some issues ago with the betrayal of the Rebel Alliance by Queen Trios of Shu-Torun. Her assistance to the Empire allowed them to launch a surprise attack which nearly extinguished the Rebel flame. As we enter this issue the Rebels have infiltrated Shu-Torun, but not without assistance from the remnants of Saw Gerrera’s Partisans led by Benthic. The unknown factor is how long the rule of “my enemy’s enemy being a friend” can hold in the alliance between the Rebels and the hard line extremist Partisans.

This is a solid issue in terms of advancing the storyline of this arc along. The action rotates through four locations, The Abyssal Rooms where the Shu-Torun leadership is holed up, the Imperial Retreat where Han, Leia and Chewie are operating, the Spike where former farmboy Luke is finding Benthic a bit of a handful, and the Mid Rim Star Destroyer where Commander Kanchar stands aboard the deck, awaiting the most opportune time to strike. The rotation through these locations means that the issue whizzes by but there is also decent progression. We see Queen Trio’s casual betrayal of her ruling classes and the tensions between the lengths that some are willing to go to in order to take the fight to the Empire. Leia and Kanchar act as counterweights to each other guiding Rebel and Imperial responses to events from afar.

The art in this series is now of a consistently high standard and the color work is always very vibrant which makes the book visually appealing. It edges on photo-realistic at times but the early teething problems with the style is long gone. Since about issue 40 of this series I have found the title the best source for a consistent Original Trilogy era Star Wars fix, and the artwork standard is a big part of that. The locations here are suited to the style, and the realistic rendering of the well known characters is matched by the high standard of character design on the new heroes and villains.

All in all this is another good installment in the series. It strikes me that the ongoing, action packed serial style nature of this title is particularly fitting for Star Wars, a saga which is rooted in Saturday morning serials such as Flash Gordon.

Score 7.5/10