Today saw the release of the third issue in Marvel Comics’ Star Wars: The Battle of Jakku – Insurgency Rising miniseries, and below are my brief recap and thoughts on this penultimate installment.
The Battle of Jakku – Insurgency Rising #3 begins with the rebel operatives that were sent out by Princess Leia and Mon Mothma in the previous issue (namely Therisa Alern, Kes Dameron, Rynn Zenat, and Jarek Yeager) having been surrounded by the forces of the Spice Runners of Kijimi– working on behalf of the villainous Moff Adelhard and his Imperial remnant– in the Anoat sector. But Rynn has a last-minute gambit up her sleeve, ramming their freighter into the Spice Runners’ ships. Then writer Alex Segura and artists Leonard Kirk and Jethro Morales cut to the planet Chandrila, provisional home of the New Republic, where Mon and Leia have received some intel from a source called “The Operator” (really Imperial Counselor Gallius Rax from the Star Wars: Aftermath novels) about the commencement of Operation: Cinder. Meanwhile on his star destroyer, Adelhard is briefed about the destruction of the Spice Runners’ fleet, though Reyna Oskure from the Acolytes of the Beyond insists that the rebels who were responsible are still alive.
So the four rebels are captured, and back on Chandrila Leia has a heart-to-heart with her twin brother Luke Skywalker, as he tries to convince her that they will get through this part of their struggle, even though Leia is frustrated that the Empire didn’t come to a complete end with the destruction of the second Death Star. In the brig of Adelhard’s star destroyer, Alern and Zenat are attempting to assure Dameron that they have a plan, when suddenly the door to their cell opens, revealing Imperial officer Kith Alaytia to be assisting the New Republic from the inside. She helps them escape, but they are immediately ambushed by an armored Dark Trooper and a cloaked, unidentified, red-lightsaber-wielding Inquisitor. The rebels are all knocked unconscious in this attack and taken back into custody, but then we cut to what I’m assuming is another part of the star destroyer, where a different cloaked figure wielding a green-bladed lightsaber begins to take out stormtroopers guarding a hallway.
The final cliffhanger of a splash page reveals this to be Luke Skywalker of course, and his brief monologue here echoes the conversation he had with Leia earlier in the issue. So Luke has evidently shown up to save the day, and it’s a pretty exciting setup for next week’s (yes, it won’t be a long wait) conclusion to this four-issue miniseries, which itself is just the first part of a twelve-issue maxi-series. But at the same time this particular issue mostly felt like it was getting all the pieces where they need to be for the upcoming climax. Consequently there just isn’t a whole lot to say about it other than I’m very curious to learn more about what the tease for the next issue calls “a new Inquisitor,” and eagerly anticipating finding out how this miniseries will lead into the next one, which is entitled The Battle of Jakku – Republic Under Siege.
Star Wars: The Battle of Jakku – Insurgency Rising #3 is available now wherever comic books are sold.