Force Matters: The Bad Batch Meet Their Match in ‘The Bad Batch: Rogue Agents’ #1
by Austin Gorton
Wrapping up the year in Star Wars comics with the releases from 12/31/25, and just like the turning of the calendar, one series ends as another begins.
Boba Fett: Black, White & Red #4
By Alyssa Wong & Sara Pichelli
Boba Fett is drawn into a conflict on Eriadu, homeworld of the powerful Tarkin family.
- While Eriadu and the Tarkin family’s dominance there is long-established (dating all the way back to the late 80s roleplaying game sourcebooks, but officially canonized in the 2014 novel Tarkin), Synda Tarkin, niece of Grand Moff Tarkin, who dies in this issue, is a new character.
- Raslin Grace, Boba Fett’s adversary in this issue, however, first appeared in a story in 2023’s Revelation one-shot and again in Doctor Aphra #40 (both by Wong).
- This is the final issue of the series (which was always intended to be a four issue mini).
- With Logan: Black White & Red launching this week, I have to say I appreciate that this series chose to tell one story per issue instead of three. Helps the color gimmick feel less gimmicky as the stories have more room to go deeper and stand on their own.
Not a bad story, but probably my least favorite of the four. The Tarkin angle has potential, but it doesn’t really go anywhere, and the rest of the plot is pretty straightforward.
The Bad Batch: Rogue Agents #1
By Michael Moreci & Reese Hannigan
The Bad Batch cross paths with a rogue squad of Clone Troopers.
- The Tessellate System appears to be a new location.
- It’s tough to pin down exactly when this story takes place, but the Bad Batch are still clone troopers in service of the Republic (and pre-Omega) so its Clone Wars era, at least. And they don’t seem suspicious of the rogue troopers wearing first generation clone armor (the helmets with the fins), so it’s presumably closer to the start of the war than the end.
- I like that each member of the rogue squad is roughly analogous to one of the Bad Batch (in the same way the Bad Batch is roughly analogous to one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles).
I generally prefer the post-Order 66, fighting the Empire Bad Batch to the original Republic soldiers version, but the idea of matching them up against a different group of rogue clone troops has potential.
Cover of the Week
The classically-constructed variant from Riley Rossmo gets the honor.