Force Matters: Not Fighting Wins The Day And ‘Star Wars’ #7 Is The Better For It

Simpsons squids, junkyard bosses and Jedi doing Jedi stuff in Star Wars comics from the week of 11/12/26!

Star Wars #7

By Alex Segura & Pete Woods

Luke, Han and Valance arrive on Fenril in the midst of the Nagai uprising, and help win the day — but the threat of Reyna Oskure remains.

• Pete Woods fills in for Phil Noto; Woods is a good artist and his work here is nice, but it is something of a jarring style shift — much smoother, rounder lines — compared to Noto (which, admittedly, will stick out more when reading this story in full in a collected edition than it does here).
• Jesrit, the Nagai rebel leader, first appeared and met Luke in issue #2.
• Calder Behrens is the chief spymaster of the New Republic; he first appeared in Segura’s Battle of Jakku — Insurgency Rising #2.
• Segura recently announced on social media that the upcoming tenth issue of this series would be its last, and that he could bring the Nagai/Fenril Sector story to a close. This further suggests a major revamp — or at least a serious rejiggering — is in store for the line early next year. (Ed. Note: Right before the premiere of Star Wars: The Mandalorian & Grogu at that.)

While Fenril seeing the light and casting off Reyna Oskure comes about a bit abruptly (arguably six issues of build up are brushed aside after a few pages of dialogue), I do appreciate the way it comes about via reasoned discussion vs. a protracted military conflict, especially given the role Luke plays in winning them over. Defeating his enemy with words and without lightsabering them into submission is a very “ideal Jedi” kind of solution.

Star Wars: Han Solo – Hunt for the Falcon #3

By Rodney Barnes & Ramon Rosanas

Han and Chewbacca hunt for the Falcon brings them to Jakku and Unkar Plutt.

• I’m always down for inter-trilogy scenes involving Han, Leia and a pre-Kylo Ren Ben, even if these lack the fun “Kylo Ren is all emo while flashbacks show him having a great life” tension of Legacy of Vader and even though I’m not a huge fan of “naggy wife Leia.” Wanting Ben to finish his studies and not go drag racing with Han isn’t NOT in character, but it feels like a lazy presentation of the character to go full fun-killer nag.
• Leia’s photo of Han and Chewbacca is from the Hoth base, but doesn’t appear to be a direct recreation of an Empire Strikes Back scene.
• Unkar Plutt never really struck as the kind of powerful crime lord Ducain is treating him as here; maybe that’s supposed to be commentary on Ducain’s relative provincialism, but the issue seems to be playing it straight. At the very least, it seems like if Unkar Plutt was that big a crime lord, he’d have someone else doling out portions to the scavengers in The Force Awakens.
• Unkar Plutt has a pair of battle droids that are either some kind of new model, or slightly off-model versions of BX commando droids.

The best material continues to be the domestic tension — both in the flashbacks and in the present, between Han and Chewbacca as much as Han and Leia. Everything else is pretty much just a recitation of the sequence of Falcon ownership from The Force Awakens. Which also begs the question of why Han had to be told it by Rey in the movie.

Star Wars: Hyperspace Stories – Tides of Terror #3

By George Mann & Luis Morocho

Kit Fisto & Nahdar Vebb expose the saboteurs inside the Axil station.

• Between the yellow-ish eyes and the overbite, the squid monster attacking the station looks like a Simpsons character.

• Following on from the redshirted engineers in the previous issues, this issue they hatch a plan to save the station in which they say they’ll “reverse the polarity,” which feels like another Star Trek reference.
• The saboteurs are all wearing mouth-covering balaclavas, like Cobra troops, but without any other face or head coverings, which doesn’t seem like it should really conceal their identities.

Does a nice job of building to a climax for next issue and ending on a cliffhanger while still giving the Jedi some wins and advancing the plot, making it read less like a typical penultimate setup issue.

Tales from the Bookshelf

Also out this week is Adam Christopher‘s Master of Evil, a Darth Vader-centric book set shortly after Revenge of the Sith. I haven’t read it yet, but from what I’ve gathered from some reviews, it’s less a story told from Vader’s perspective as it is a story told from the perspective of some key individuals around Vader — though it does feature a sequence of him creating his red-bladed lightsaber.

Cover of the Week

Pour one out for The Battle of Endor, celebrating its 40th anniversary with, amongst other things, this great Struzan-esque variant cover to Star Wars #7 from EM Gist. The movie is oft (and rightly, for the most part) maligned, but back in the day, we took what we could get when it came to new Star Wars content, and it does feature the first appearance of Blurggs, which would later play a not-insignificant role in the first season of The Mandalorian.