Star Wars is easily one of the biggest franchises out there and I finally got around to watching the six live action films pretty recently. (Naturally I saw the animated one years ago) It was a pleasant surprise to see the main cast back in action and Dark (Darth may be his name, but I grew up calling him Dark Vader and the name stuck) Vader is impressive as you would expect from the original trilogy. This series is off to a solid start and I always like to see expansions from the main story.

There are several plots happening at the same time in this collection. Princess Leia is told that the rebels have been infiltrated by a spy and the heroes continue to be ambushed by the Federation. In response to this, Leia handpicks a small team of comrades that she can trust so that they can work securely in their task to find a new planet for the Rebels base. Unfortunately, her team isn’t the greatest and Luke definitely isn’t helping matters. The Rebels may be at the end of their rope!

Meanwhile, Han Solo and Chewy were trying to make a deal for the Rebels, but it turns out that the seller was a traitor! Han takes him out, but the two of them are badly outnumbered. Will they really be able to get through this in one piece or are they doomed!? Meanwhile, we also get to see Dark Vader be reassigned and his replacement may turn out to be a big threat!

Luke Skywalker does not look very good in this comic. He allows Prithi to distract him far too much and he abandons protocol. I’m all for abandoning protocol if needed, but he just did it so that he could disintegrate as a character. By association, I also do not like Prithi in this comic. Did she join to fight or flirt? Both of them were definitely irresponsible and it would have been nice if Leia had kicked them off the team. The trend of disliking Luke Skywalker whenever he appears continues…

Princess Leia is much better as she actually gets to fight and she never jeopardizes the mission. She is definitely a little on the shady side since she’s willing to do whatever it takes in order to secure the win against the Republic. She does manage to defeat an alien during a one on one battle, which was pretty cool. Unfortunately, her security protocols were not tight enough and the traitor continues to gain ground. She’s going to be out of the picture for a while and we’ll see how that affects volume 2!

Dark Vader is easily the best character in the comic. This is how he was meant to be portrayed! I would have liked for him to take out the Emperor, but the author can’t go that far since it would completely destroy the continuity. Aside from that inconvenience, Dark Vader definitely makes his presence known. Not only does he take out the opponent who tried to defy him, but he also gets an epic minicomic at the end that shows why he’s so great. Dark Vader is a villain that others to aspire to be like.

I give Han Solo credit for the fact that he’s always ready with a pun or a wisecrack. While I will never be able to seriously believe that someone will still be cracking jokes in the face of certain death; it’s still fun to see. Solo may forever regret that he couldn’t grab the wine, but at least he escaped. It’s easy to root for Han in this collection. Chewy obviously gets some great lines, but we’ll never know what they were. Chewy panics a lot more than Han Solo and he seems inexperienced in comparison, but he’s still a nice ally to have around. His appearances just aren’t the same without his trademark roar.

Colonel Bircher is one of the new villains for this collection and it seems like he will be a recurring villain in the series. I definitely don’t mind since he’s a pretty good opponent for the heroes. He may not wield The Force, but he is a master tactician. If his men had only listened to him, they may have made it through this situation in one piece. Bircher is a serious army veteran and he’s the type of character that you can root for in a fight. His armor is also pretty cool looking.

Wedge gets a lot of hype since he may be the best pilot that the Rebels have. Since I do not recognize the name, I’m definitely suspicious of his motives. If anyone’s the traitor…it would make sense that its him. He’s about as shady as a person can get, but that’s just because of the plot. Otherwise, he’s actually a pretty likable character. If he manages to stay as a hero, then he’s definitely up there with the high tier Star Wars characters. He can’t use the Force…but you can’t win them all.

The art is pretty good for the comic. I wouldn’t say that it’s amazing, but most of the character designs are spot on and the lightsabers still look really cool. Things may get a little dicey when the characters are in their spacesuits and I think that the artist may need to work on that. That’s my only gripe with the art and the rest is definitely solid enough to help make the collection fun.

Overall, this series is off to a great start. It’s pretty modern and volume two isn’t even out yet so this series may last until the film comes out. I can’t wait to see Bircher take down Luke Skywalker and I want to see if I’m right about Wedge being the traitor. None of the plots have ended yet and if they go the Transformers route, we’ll have even more subplots in the next volume. I recommend this to all Star Wars fans and even if you’ve never heard of the franchise (……it could happen) you would still enjoy this comic. It’s a fun space adventure and I’m hoping that Guardians of the Galaxy will use this style for the film.

Overall 7/10