Star Wars #19 by Charles Soule (4.5/5)

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Charles Soule’s Star Wars (2020) run is the comic series that I credit with my… somewhat new, and seemingly alarming to some, interest in comic books. That is to say that I always had respect for the form and the style of story, but they always seemed so overwhelming. A friend recommended I start reading this particular series because at the time there were only 13 issues to catch up on and it would be easier on me. It was also the only way that I could get content of a character I knew that I would love, Commander Ellian Zahra.

I still await her return, but I am very close to getting her back, only two issues according to Charles Soule who I keep asking on Twitter about her return. This issue? We got a mention of her, with warmed my heart. On the same page, we also got a mention of another one of my favourite characters in Star Wars, Holdo! That sold this brilliant issue on me right away. I love Star Wars stories that seem small but are so much bigger. Luke visited Ilum in this issue, and it looked, to me anyway, that Starkiller Base was already getting started which sent shivers down my spine. Soule, and all of the other Star Wars writers, do this incredible thing where they take the rich tapestry of the Star Wars universe and add to it in a way that makes it a more solid thing, which is one of the things that I love the most about canon and what Disney has done with the IP itself. I grew up having the Original Trilogy handed to me by my family, and I got to experience the Prequel Trilogy as a child, and getting to have these comic books and stories in my lifetime that fills the gaps between the films that I grew up with has reinvigorated my love of the Universe.

This issue hit hard. Luke and Leia parting is always something so sad to me, because I’m always worried about something bad happening on the level of The Empire Strikes Back, and even though I know that Luke doesn’t lose another hand and that Leia doesn’t get captured by the Empire (I hope?), it’s that worry that I always have whenever Luke and Leia part because of what happens in the films. This isn’t to say that bad things don’t happen when they are together, but it tends to be worse when they’re separated. Luke going to Ilum (as mentioned) and Lothal among other worlds, before finding what he was looking for at Mount Pasvaal, was incredible. The Lothal moment I do have one tiny criticism… there could have been a loth-cat, but not the point here. The ending of his issue, with the Holocron and Master Yoda makes me wonder when the information in the Holocron was recorded. In The Rise of Kylo Ren, Soule had a Holocron with Jedi Master Avar Kriss (from The High Republic, if you haven’t read it), so we know that like the Jedi texts on Ahch-To, the Holocrons persevere through it all.

I cannot wait for the next issue (and not just because that means that I’ll be one issue closer to the return of Ellian Zahra), and it has been delayed to 12 January, which is coming up. If you enjoyed War of the Bounty Hunters or you want to fill the gap between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, I cannot recommend this series enough. Or, if you’re like me and have a weird fascination with Grand Moff Tarkin, this series does go very into the legacy that he left and how he is still impacting the lives of the Rebels even after his passing on the Death Star. As an issue, I give this one 4.5/5 stars, and I cannot wait until the next one.

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