Written by Robbie Thompson
Art by Stefano Landini
Colors by Neeraj Menon
Lettering by Joe Caramagna

The first issue of this mini series opened with the cyborg Beilert Valance assembling his crew of Bounty Hunters for the ultimate deadly mission…their target? Vader. If last issue took as its focus the assembling of Valance’s crew, this issue tells the tale of their first real challenge as a team. Will they work well together? Will they spontaneously combust in a hail of blaster fire? Let’s find out.

Spoilers ahead

We get a nice little opening sequence showing a young Valance with his father, a father optimistic for his son in the nascent age of Empire. Miners by trade, one gets the sense that Valance’s father was misguided in his advice to his son that rather than being born a slave in the mines, that under this new Imperial regime, Beilert Valance would be born free. Things didn’t quite work out as well as his dad expected, but then again freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.

The tale here is one of a grumbling crew managed by Valance with not a little ruthlessness, suggesting that that miner’s grit was a family trait regardless of Beilert’s distinct career path. He leads his gang into what transpires to be a tense affair with an arms dealer from his
past, Fetya (who is the same species of alien as Obi-Wan’s old pal Dex
from Attack of the Clones). Things go from bad to worse in that negotiation, but Valance is playing the long game on this one, hoping to tempt his true target to follow some carefully laid out breadcrumbs.

Final thoughts

Art-wise there is a more cohesive feel to this issue with the art duties handled by only Stefano Landini this issue (last issue saw a large cast of artists deployed). Both the art style and the unique color work from Neeraj Menon make this book stand out from the usual Marvel Star Wars mini-series aesthetic. Meanwhile the story is starting to kick into gear, although we have gotten very little Vader in the two issues to date. That promises to turn around next issue, and in the meantime there is enough here to keep us entertained.