Comic review: Star Wars #4

When Dark Horse was publishing Star Wars comics, no one really cared outside of some hardcore Expanded Universe fanatics. Now that Disney is publishing them through Marvel, everyone cares, with the first issue being the first comic in two decades to sell a million copies and staying near the top of the sales chart ever since. The question becomes, now that some of the novelty of having new, definitely canon material has worn off, how well is this series holding up?

The last issue felt a bit like wrap up, despite not officially being the end of a storyline. The rebels are regrouping after attacking a weapons factory, which leads to the story slowing down. Leia is trying to serve as commander, Han and Chewie are repairing the Millenium Falcon, and Luke is dealing with crippling self-doubt. While those looking for a lot of story may be disappointed, the characters need room to breathe after not having much so far in this series.

This is where the story also crosses over with the other comic series - specifically, Vader's dealings with bounty hunters is a reference to events that happened in his series. Having not read those issues recently, I was slightly thrown off, but mostly because I am a completionist and usually remember these things when they come up in a story.

What does pull me in, story wise, are some side stories, flashing over to Tatooine as some Rodians are being interrogated for information about Solo and Kenobi. One is immediately recognizable - no one could mistake Boba Fett for anyone else, and in case you did, he does say his name very prominently, but what I find more interesting is someone we don't really know anything about. Part of it is just me not being a big fan of Fett and not really getting his appeal other than having an interesting design, and the other part is just wanting to see this world opened up as much as possible. For that, bringing in new characters is always a good thing - if they don't work, you can always throw them away, and if they do work, now you have an even bigger world than you did before.

In short, this issue is a little slow, but it makes sense given where they are in the story. It gives the characters a little time to breathe, and will hopefully really pay off when the next issues pick up a little more with the action.