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Hello there! Padawan J here, the resident Star Wars expert from the ODPH! And I’m here to review the latest issue in the mainline Star Wars comic series from the great Charles Soule and Marvel comics!
The trail of Lando Calrissian is now behind the Rebel Alliance and their attention now turns back to their ongoing war with the Galactic Empire. They’re dealing with ongoing issues such as how to plan for future battles, despite all the heavy losses they’ve suffered at Scarif, Yavin IV, Hoth and a host of other battles. They know what the Empire has planned, but they don’t know for sure if they’ll be able to stop them. So with that in mind, let’s jump right into it!
Star Wars issue #48 by Charles Soule (writer), Jethro Morales (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist) & VC’s Clayton Cowles (letterer) is another fantastic issue from Charles Soule and it features one of the most shocking sequences ever seen in Star Wars on either page or screen, and I mean that in the best way possible. It’s a great jumping on point for all Star Wars fans, and I’m VERY interested to see where this story goes because I feel like it has some great potential.
The main focus of this issue is around Princess Leia, who is having trouble balancing her duties as a leader in the rebellion with her own personal battles of still coming to grips with the fact that her home planet of Alderaan is gone. As a reminder this issue takes place in-between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, so it’s been somewhere around 3-4 years since the planet has been destroyed and she just hasn’t had time to process it and come to grips with it. She has a heart to heart conversation with Luke about her feelings in a great sequence that really fleshes out their relationship.
The other half of the issue focuses on Luke, Leia & Evaan Verlaine going on a mission to re-establish contact with the survivors of the Alderaan disaster. Evaan, an Alderaanian herself, is the sole point of contact between Leia and the Rebellion with the survivors. The secrecy is so that they can remain hidden from the Emperor’s wrath, because he is not happy that there are any survivors. Of course the mission does not go as planned, and it will be interesting to see how things unfold from here.
I actually have two favorite parts of this issue, and the first one is the depiction at the start of the issue of Alderaan’s destruction. And when I say Alderaan’s destruction, I’m not talking about the famous scene from space we’ve all seen in the movie. No I’m talking about the actual destruction from the surface of the planet itself! I’ve checked with a few other Star Wars friends of mine, and they all agree with me that this has NEVER been seen before in a comic or on a screen. Yes the scene is admittedly a dream sequence, but the fact that we still get to see it is mind blowing and a can’t miss couple of pages.
The other standout moment is the conversation Leia has with Luke after her dream/nightmare of having to relive Alderaan’s destruction. And the reason I love this sequence is Luke & Leia really didn’t get to have this kind of time together on screen at all in 7 films. They’re both born in Revenge of the Sith, and immediately seperated. In A New Hope they’re too busy escaping the Death Star to really have a conversation, and once they do their focus is on to fighting the Death Star. They have a couple of sentences together in The Empire Strikes Back, but most of the film has them seperated. Return of the Jedi sees the most on screen interaction between the two, but it’s not much past Luke revealing their siblings. And then in The Force Awakens Luke is missing until the last 30 seconds, and then he says hello and then dies in The Last Jedi. So to see them have this kind of heart to heart moment and show them as friends and not just co-workers is great to see.
FINAL POINT: Charles Soule continues to shine in his Star Wars work, and this issue is a fantastic jumping on point for fans looking to get into the mainline comic series. It’s the start of a new story, and one that looks like it’s going to be very interesting. And since it’s Charles Soule, it’s going to be about as can’t miss as you can imagine. This is one that all Star Wars fans are going to want to read.
Score: 10 out of 10
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/!
