It’s more than a little ironic that I missed last week’s new issue of Marvel’s Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser – Halcyon Legacy comic-book miniseries because I was at Walt Disney World, preparing to board the actual Halcyon itself. But now that I’m back in slightly-less-hot-and-a-lot-less-humid Southern California, I swung by my local comic shop to pick up the issue.
Where Halcyon Legacy #1 used its flashback structure to return us to the High Republic era (the earliest days of the title ship’s storied history), #2 pushes things forward a bit to the point in time just before the prequel trilogy, when deadly Palliduvan bounty hunter Aurra Sing (first spotted in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace) boarded the ship for a much-needed vacation.
But first, this issue of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser – Halcyon Legacy continues the “present day” story (set prior to the Halcyon’s 275th anniversary– AKA the point when Walt Disney World guests board the ship for their journeys), during which the young Tholothian named Cimina and her grandfather Shorr Komrrin are alarmed to find– thanks to being forewarned by the guest-assistant droid D3-O9– that they’re headed into a dangerous solar storm. This, it turns out, is Captain Riyola Keevan’s method of evading the pirate Crimson Jack’s attempt to commandeer the ship. Then D3 (who I got to spend some time speaking with myself while aboard the Halcyon) tries her best to calm the innocent passengers’ jangled nerves by relating a story about a different time the ship survived a solar storm. In flashbacks, we see how Aurra Sing was once hired by a traveler for protection until he can pay off his debt to the Hutts, who are simultaneously in negotiations to purchase the Halcyon itself.
This fellow cruisegoer, named Colram Vestig, then suffers the kidnapping of his son by Weequay mercenaries, and Sing is forced to travel down to the jungle planet of Numidian Prime (where Han Solo famously won the Millennium Falcon from Lando Calrissian in a game of Sabacc) to rescue the captured boy. There, she encounters a vicious horned beast called a Predavorexx before facing off with the Weequay themselves– a showdown from which she emerges victorious thanks to the assistance of shapeshifting Clawdite bounty hunter Zam Wesell. I think writer Ethan Sacks is doing a decent job of relating the Halcyon’s history in short bursts so far, but I sometimes find his dialogue to be overly simplistic… and the staging of the art by Will Sliney is often a bit clunky (sometimes I can’t tell what exactly is supposed to be happening, especially during action sequences). Still, considering this comic is undoubtedly targeted toward families who are considering booking a trip aboard the Galactic Starcruiser, I think it serves its purpose. So far I like getting to spend more time with D3-O9, Captain Keevan, and Cruiser Director Lenka Mok– all of whom I now feel like I know personally– and I’ve also enjoyed seeing more familiar Star Wars characters board the ship. Next month it looks like we’ll witness Padmé Amidala and Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker stepping foot aboard the Halcyon, so that should be fairly exciting.
Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser – Halcyon Legacy #2 is available now wherever comic books are sold.