Force Matters: It’s Darth Vader Vs. Chewbacca (Sort Of) In ‘Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge — Echoes of the Empire’ #2

Star Wars catch-up continues with a pair of miniseries’ second issues, both of which feel a bit like they’re meant to pad out their stories to hit the requisite number of chapters!

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge — Echoes of the Empire #2

By Ethan Sacks, Jethro Morales, Roi Mercado, Rachelle Rosenberg & Clayton Cowles.

Darth Vader intensifies his search for the Force relic.

• Stacks references serving on Mimban, which would be the Clone Wars era battle (as opposed to the one Han Solo fought in at the beginning of Solo: A Star Wars Story), detailed in 2019’s Age of Republic Special #1, also written by Sacks.
• Notably, Vader’s 501st Legion was involved in that battle as well, so it’s a battle Vader himself was personally involved in (as Anakin), not that Stacks would know that.
• The DJ droid inside Oga’s cantina resembles Crow from Mystery Science Theater 3000 (a similar looking droid also appeared in a Star Wars Tales story written by Peter David).
• Presumably, this is DJ R-3X (or Rex, or RX-24), the repurposed pilot droid from the original version of Star Tours and played by the late Paul Ruebens, both in the ride and in the real life Oga’s Cantina.
• This is the first appearance of Raal Menta, the crime lord on Batuu. He is a Siniteen, a species characterized by their large brain (they’re capable of calculating hyperspace jumps without a navcomputer). Siniteens (which is an anagram for “Einstein”) first appeared in Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope (there’s one in the cantina), but didn’t get an official name until Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
• When Leia says that a nice man named Ben helped her when she was lost as a child, she is referencing the events of the Obi-Wan Kenobi streaming series.
• The four arm alien Chewbacca fights is a Besalisk, same species as Space Diner owner/operator Dexster Jettster in Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones.
• Chewbacca fighting Vader seems like it should be bigger deal (it does get a full page spread, at least), though given how easily Vader defeats him, maybe not.

This is a fairly repetitious issue, doing a lot of recapping of the setup from the previous issue. But it is always fun to see Vader cross paths with the “Star Warriors” in this era (particularly because it never happened in the original series). Good use of Luke, too, in just a couple panels, sensing Vader.

Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures — Pathfinders #2

By George Mann, Caio Filipe, Michael Atiyeh, Tyler Smith & Bobby Bradford

The Pathfinder team gets stranded in hyperspace anomaly which threatens all their lives.

• Caio Filipe takes over art duties from Partha Pratim (though Pratim is set to do the next issue, so they appear to be in some sort of timeshare); they’ve previously worked on other High Republic Adventures comics.
• Vix Fonnick first appeared in The High Republic Adventures: Quest of the Jedi, a comic released as part of Phase II of High Republic. Her name was originally going to be Bix Fonnick, but it was changed to avoid confusion with the Andor character by that name. She appeared on the cover of issue #1, but not in the story itself.
• She appears to be working at a Jedi/Republic communications relay station, the idea being that in this time, communication across the galaxy requires messages to be bounced from location to location.
• Jedi Rooper Nitani debuted in The High Republic: Quest for the Hidden City, a junior novel written by Mann. This is her first comic book appearance.
• I don’t recognize the Space Kaiju that attacks the Jedi while in the hyperspace anomaly, though it’s reminiscent of the creature inside the Maw in Solo (which makes this week 2 for 2 in terms of Solo mentions…).

Either this series is going to be more like an anthology, with each issue focusing on a finite adventure even as the investigation into Master Cale’s death continues, or else this issue is just superfluous padding. Either, I enjoy a good Space Kaiju in Star Wars, though the art gets a little rough in places.