Basically Disney’s approach to Star Wars.
Star Wars Free Comic Book Day 2024
Marvel Comics (2024)
COVER ART: Phil Noto
ASSISTANT EDITOR: Mikey J. Basso
ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Danny Khazem
EDITOR: Mark Paniccia
“Return To Echo Base”
WRITER: Charles Soule
ARTIST: Ibraim Roberson
COLORIST: Rachelle Rosenberg
LETTERER: Clayton Cowles
“The Curse”
WRITER: Greg Pak
ARTIST: Ramon Rosanas
COLORING: Guru-eFX
LETTERER: Joe Caramagna
In the first story, taking place between The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi, so no Han and Lando is piloting the Millenium Falcon, Leia learns of a small team of Rebels that was accidentally left behind on Hoth and needing rescue. Luke, Lando, and Chewie join her with the Falcon, but find a group of Imperials still manning the base, including a disgraced general. Our heroes manage to rescue the three stragglers while an ice storm takes cares of the pursuing Imperials.
It’s an okay story. Not particularly good but not particularly bad. I’m not sure why Luke couldn’t just deflect a laser blast into the probe droid with his lightsaber instead of showing off by “dancing” through the laser blasts, or why the Imperial back-up thought the call was unauthorized just before Chewie blows the console up. Ultimately it’s just a lot of “remember Hoth”, right down to Luke leading the band into the ice cave the Wampa held him in to escape the ice storm. Again, not bad but not really that great. It’s kind of…there. At least in this story the rescued aren’t revealed to be spies or something, which I’m okay with.
The second story ties in to events in Darth Vader’s solo comic, but thankfully only the beginning and ending require you to know anything about those events, and there are helpful captions to tell you what issue the details can be found in. Remember those days? Anyway, Vader needs a way to find his son, and is having hallucinations tied to some attack in issue #45 of Vader’s comic, while this story leads into #46. He also puts down some Imperials who know he’s trying to betray the Emperor because his hatred of Palpatine is what makes him stronger in the Dark Side or something. Meanwhile, Padme’s old handmaiden, Sabe, is trying to find Luke herself, and Vader’s former Imperial commander has tracked down a Jedi Master named Warba Calip, or maybe she’s a con artist? Either way she give Sabe a test. Go to the Cantena, open a box. That’s it. However, she stops to help free a slave return to his hive, which he needs to survive, leaving the box behind. In most stories this was the real test but here it’s just a coincidence. The box was the test, she failed, but Warba succeeds, handing some disk inside to her master, Vader.
While the first story is memberberries, this one is the other issue with modern Star Wars, subversion. In the past that could have worked but as people still try to defend The Last Jedi by praising it’s over and misuse that makes it harder to enjoy when done right. Admittedly this comic used it better than that movie, but so much of this story requires knowing prior events. It tries to give you what you need to know for this story, and mostly succeeds, but they clearly want you to track down the issues that take place immediately before and after this one. That’s not a deal breaker, I’m just saying what it is, and what it is didn’t connect with me, except for the middle part. Sabe putting someone else above her needs, in this case rescuing a person tricked into slavery and needing to return to his hive and family to survive (possibly some mental or biological need of his people) is what makes this story readable, and borders on enjoyable.
Overall, two fair stories, which at least can stand mostly on their own, is nice for a Free Comic Book Day comic. I just wish the two stories were more enjoyable than we got.
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