Star Wars: Hyperspace Stories #2 – All Roads Lead To Kessel

Hello there! Padawan J here, the resident Star Wars expert from the ODPH! And this week I’m going to be reviewing the 2nd issue of Star Wars: Hyperspace Stories from Michael Moreci & Dark Horse Comics!

A little bit of mystery, a pinch of intrigue & a dash of Tom Hanks in Captain Phillips make for a very compelling issue with everyones favorite band of misfits from The Bad Batch. Let’s jump into it!

Star Wars: Hyperspace Stories #2 by Michael Moreci (Writer), Reese Hannigan (Pencils), Elisabetta D’Amico (Ink), Michael Atiyeh (Color Art), Comicraft’s Tyler Smith & Jimmy Betancourt (Letters), Valeria Favoccia (Cover Art) is a solid follow up issue to the first one, that ratchets up the intrigue and introduces the big bad of this mini-series.

The Story

The story is a fairly straightforward one this issue, as we see our heroes make their way (treacherously) to the notorious planet of Kessel! What follows is a story that feels like it’s straight out of an episode of the animated series on Disney+!

I loved seeing the Pyke Syndicate in the issue, because we really don’t see enough of them in Star Wars stories. You always hear about the underworld in Star Wars (both in Legends & current cannon) but it never really gets it’s time to shine. Here’s to hoping elements from the television show George Lucas was working on all those years ago get used some day.

My favorite part of this story was a combination of seeing the bounty hunter Embo & their companion Marrok (who made their first appearance in season 2, episode 17) of The Clone Wars. And outside of Boba & Cade Bane, Embo is one of the cooler bounty hunters in Star Wars. My other favorite was the “mysterious” figure that gets into a fight in the issue. Although there’s a little bit of a giveaway who it is, and man I’m excited to see them again! So I can’t wait to see where this goes.

The Art

Reese Hannigan, Elisabetta D’Amico & Michael Atiyeh did a phenomenal job with the artwork in this issue. It does a spectacular job bringing the characters from a 3d animated show to a 2d format in comics. Everything feels action packed and has you on the edge of your seat from one panel to the next. And the fight scenes especially are top notch. I have to say their some of the best ones I’ve seen lately in Star Wars comics across the board.

Overall Grade: 9/10

FINAL POINT: This issue is one that Star Wars fans are not going to want to miss! If you’re a fan of The Bad Batch or Star Wars in general, you’re going to absolutely love the story told in this. It’s got a Dave Filoni feel to the story without Dave being involved in it. That coupled with the incredible work done by the art team blend this together for an issue that is so much fun to read and should absolutely be in your pull list!

Thanks for checking out my review on Nerd Initiative. For more of my content, check out ODPHpodcast.com, follow me on Twitter, and check out more of my reviews here on Nerd Initiative: https://nerdinitiative.com/author/padawanj/!

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