Melissa Villy 
The journey in Star Wars comics continues with volumes 4 and 5…
When we left our intrepid heroes, Doctor Aphra had escaped from the Rebel controlled jail Leia had intended to hold her in. Now we meet them again as Han, Luke, and Leia once again team up with Sana Starros for an adventure across the galaxy.
Last Flight of the Harbinger
Leia and Luke come up with a crazy plan to steal a Star Destroyer to break an Imperial Blockade around a planet funding the Rebellion. Mon Mothma authorizes it for the sole reason that it’s them suggesting it and therefore she knows they’ll pull it off. With Sana’s help they succeed in stealing the ship, but it isn’t long before she realizes that they may not be alone for much longer.
I really liked this volume. It brought everyone together to work as a team and showed Sana integrating well into that team. I loved Han and Leia’s banter as they fought over who was the ship’s captain, and of course it was Sana who picked up on the why. Of course, things don’t go to plan, because if they did, what would the fun in that be?
Yoda’s Secret War
In this volume the action takes a detour to a story from Obi-Wan Kenobi’s journal about one of Yoda’s adventures. In it, Yoda feels the Force calling him to a distant planet he hasn’t heard of. There he discovers two warring societies made up of children who utilize a mysterious stone power. Yoda tries to put a stop to the war and find out what the mysterious power is.
I really disliked this volume. I found the deviation from the main action a let down after the ending of the last volume (in which a character is captured) and the storyline really boring. I had to force myself to finish this one. While I’d love to hear about some of Yoda’s adventures, this one was not interesting enough to me and took away from the main storyline which I really wanted to get back to. While the discovery of living stone giants does work towards expanding Force lore, I think this particular adventure as a whole was unnecessary. If they wanted to put the stone giants in, they could have been incorporated in a much more interesting and attention keeping way.
The only thing that saved this volume for me was the inclusion of the Annual issue. In this one chapter story, while on an intelligence gathering mission Leia is injured and stranded on a planet that has been ravaged by the war. An engineer with a grudge against both sides is keeping Leia locked up until she decides what to do with her. In the end, the woman decided to help Leia escape the Imperials searching for her and get across the lake to her rendevouz with Han and Luke. I really liked the new character introduced and hope we see her again in a future storyline.
Artwork
Artwork for volume four was done by Jorge Molina and volume five was Salvador Larroca. I much preferred Molina’s art and the coloring in that volume. I did not like the look of volume five. The two warring clans were just not pleasant to look at in design or in style. Now that I’ve read a few more volumes, and one right after the other this time, I’m starting to not only be able to tell the artist at a glance but develop a preference. Not that Larroca is a bad artist, it’s just that some his stuff is a bit, well, weird. Molina on the other hand, has a much cleaner style and captures the characters quite well.
The Future of the Force. The future of pop culture writing.
I’m Mina, the Jedi Librarian. I’m a Program Specialist Librarian, lover of all the books, and a lifelong Star Wars fan. I’m also secretly a Jedi.
