Star Wars

As a fan who has never really dug that much further then just the movies, I feel a little bit intimidated trying to review my first comic book in this sprawling super popular franchise. But we've all got to start somewhere, and this certainly struck me as a better place then the one other star wars comic (that shall not be named) that I had read a couple of years ago, so here goes.

Going into this comic I completely missed the fact that I have read other works by this author previously (namely his she-hulk comics). Despite this fact I found myself drawn into this comic rather quickly and despite the fact that I found the action a little dull I really enjoyed the characters (and overall plot arch) of this comic. Once again Soule proves (to me at least) that he really knows how to write strong and interesting characters who happen to not be white and/or male. Although if Lobot is any indication, he can do those quite well too!

Of all the characters that they could have done a comic on, and will no doubt do comics on, I really appreciate the fact that Marvel and/or Star Wars chose Lando. Even if it's only because maybe they see him as ranking somewhere between safe bet for Video and totally not worth anything at all. He obviously has a lot in common with the super popular Hon Solo character, but that's not to say he doesn't have some key differences either. A great mix of familiar and new, Soule brought new depth to the character for me.

Much like She-Hulk I really liked what Soule did with the female characters in this story. Obviously they aren't the main characters, but they aren't your typical female characters either and it was a joy to watch Lando interact with him. They are strong, independent, and just as morally dubious as Lando himself, but Lando just goes with it. He's confident enough in himself to not feel threatened by the fact that the women around him are capable, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if he found it attractive.

As I mentioned before the action felt a little dull to me. And while I'm not really an action focused sort of girl I don't think that was the soul heart of the problem, I definitely think that Maleev's art was a bit to blame. Not to say the style was out and out bad, it's pretty average in my opinion, for Marvel and its style, but the frames really could have carried more of a punch.

Flipping back through the volume words like clunky and static keep coming to mind. There was certainly some variety in page layout, which was nice, but I don't think the action really flowed from scene to scene. Sometimes it worked fine, but a lot of the time it was just stop and go really. I haven't really seen any of his other work though.

That said, I still really like the coloring for this volume. Rich and vibrent, you really felt like the characters were locked in the depths of a dark and (practically) haunted space craft. Very believable and mood evoking at the same time. It brought back some of the drama to the story that the drawing style kind of lost.

A fast light hearted read I would recommend this to people who enjoy classic adventure SciFi comics. I'm definitely feeling myself being drawn deeper into the Star Wars Franchise.