It’s all about Jabba the Hutt this week over at Marvel Star Wars with all roads leading towards the Hutt crime lord. Not only does he have his own book out this week in the Age of Rebellion series (see our review), but his presence also acts as a key driver for much of this second installment of Galaxy’s Edge. That is because the central character for this issue is Greedo, that’s right the man that shot first in A New Hope…sorry I mean second (not sorry…we all know Han shot first).

Yes, if you’ve ever wanted to know why Greedo was so anxious to take Han Solo to Jabba the Hutt (over Han’s dead body) then this is the comic for you. Sacks’ story opens though by taking us back to the fall of the Republic, and the execution of Ki-Adi-Mundi (or Old Manic as his pals called him) on Mygeeto during Palpatine’s Order 66. Then the action takes us up to speed at the Black Spire Outpost with the First Order warning Dok-Ondar off any Resistance contacts in his Den of Antiquities. Ondar then spins the First Order Stormtrooper Sergeant and his team a yarn of how Ki-Adi-Mundi’s lightsaber came to be in his possession.

That tale in turn brings us to Greedo, and his failure to acquire a Banking Clan Codebreaker for Jabba in the period immediately preceding A New Hope. Greedo survives his failure through the fortuitous acquisition of Ki-Adi-Mundi’s lightsaber, and Dok-Ondar’s timely presence in Jabba’s palace. His presence within the Palace was fortuitous for him and even more so for Greedo as Ondar offers to purchase what Jabba initially dismisses as an “obsolete Jedi Trinket”, thus allowing Greedo to survive through a mixture of sale of the lightsaber, and another job – this time to bring in Solo and his debt for Jabba. The issue then moves on to close on the fact that this long tale was being told to the First Order Sergeant to distract him from a Sith relic held by Dok-Ondar…a relic that looks like it will be pivotal to the next installment of this series. All these stories are then interspersed with brief little cameo appearances from Remex, Kendoh and Wooro (see issue 1).

The first issue of this series was a tale within a tale. This issue is a tale within a tale, bookended by two other tales which barely get started, all the while being interspersed by brief glimpses of what are supposed to be central new characters within the series. When the main story-line is allowed to run it starts to hook you in, but the disjointed nature of these books is becoming a real distraction. While the title seems to want to be based around the Black Spire Outpost, to date this has played second fiddle to flashback stories in both this issue (Greedo) and last issue (Han and Chewie). Meanwhile the purported central tale has been too piecemeal to get the reader truly invested. The activity on Black Spire Outpost and the characters who are meant to take center stage (i.e. those showcased at the start of the book) have barely featured outside of Dok-Ondar.

While Sliney’s art and Sanhez-Almara’s colors are bright and attractive, narratively this series doesn’t seem to know what it is trying to achieve. If it is flashback style tales that are desirable then last issue did this in a much more controlled way. If original stories told at Galaxy’s Edge are the end goal, then we have barely gotten to know the characters in the two issues to date. If it is selling tickets to a Galaxy’s Edge Disney theme park then I’m not sure this comic format will work unless the stories become a lot more gripping in the remaining installments.