Crimson Reign, Issue #1 by Charles Soule (5/5)

 Crimson Reign #1 by Charles Soule is, in a word, mind-blowing. As someone who enjoyed, but still holds onto mixed feelings about Solo: A Star Wars Story, this comic series is amazing to me because I stayed true to loving Qi’ra no matter what my additional feelings were regarding the film. I am always excited to get more Qi’ra content, even if I don’t express it all too often. I’m sad, though, that the date for the second issue has been pushed back. But, that does give me more time to try and convince my partner to start reading Crimson Reign with me, so it is sort of a win-win.

This first issue sets the stage for what is bound to be an amazing story that, as we find out in this issue, details the fall of Crimson Dawn. Star Wars has always had a lot of very cool underworld and crime syndicate elements to it that I just love to talk about because of the complexity that they add to the universe. The more Star Wars content we get that features the characters involved with the criminal underworld of the universe only makes me more and more excited. 2021 is really feeding that with the epic War of the Bounty Hunters, The Book of Boba Fett, and Crimson Reign. Furthermore, I really do enjoy it when the first installment of something starts the plot and does a lot of work to set the stage for the rest of the story to come. I love that this comic series is being told as a story after the fact, because that type of story holds me in a way that in the moment stories sometimes don’t. I have the worst habit for liking to know how something is going to end before I get into doing it, and this feeds that need.

One of my favourite moments in the issue is in, what I have sort of come to call the ‘prologue’ (hey, it comes before the opening credits, so I think the work fits) and Qi’ra is explaining the pyramid that is the Sith because it’s so accurate. In my head I always knew this, it made sense to me, just look at a Sith Holocron, but seeing it laid out like that and explained by a character is different and actually makes me admit that knowledge. I did give a little laugh about how the Sith are a MLM scheme because my humour is broken, but I do think that description is also apt. That, however, is a story for a different time.

Charles Soule is one of my favourite comic book writers, probably one of my favourite writers in general actually, and that comes from the passion and the knowledge that he has of what he is writing. Seeing Qi’ra here, in Crimson Reign feels like a very logical next step to where we saw her in Solo: A Star Wars Story, being the girlboss that she became in the film. There is no imagination stretching for me to see how she got from where she was at in our last time seeing here and seeing where she is now. She is cunning and clever, and she knows what she is doing within the criminal underworld, so naturally she is leading a crime syndicate. Her plotting in this issue alone had me wanting more and more because of how it proved her intellect and leadership capabilities within the syndicate. Crime syndicates follow strength, and Qi’ra is following a very tough act, a literal Sith Lord, and she manages that with ease. Also, Soule is good at writing strong women, which is something that I find male authors can lack at times. It’s one of those things that makes Soule’s writing so much easier for me. It’s about the intellect, even if the woman in question is beautiful, and I really do enjoy that.

The art! Steven Cummings’ art in this issue is astounding. Sometimes the art in a comic can pull you from the story if it doesn’t feel right, but this art was cinematic to me. The capturing of established characters and showing us that yes, these are the same characters we know, and the establishment of new characters that solidifies them in the mind just as they are on the page, is brilliant. I cannot wait to see more of his art in the series because the level of quality is mind-blowing to me.

Baring any further delays, Issue 2 is due out on 2 February. There is still time to catch up if you haven’t yet indulged in this masterpiece, which I highly recommend doing if you love Solo, Qi’ra, or the criminal underworld in Star Wars. I rate it, currently, 5/5 stars.