The fictional history of the Mon Calamari’s relationship with Rebel Alliance and Resistance forces is far more complicated than one might assume from simply watching the Star Wars movies. If you’re interested in keeping track of that complex record of events, it has been well-documented in Marvel comic books like Star Wars: Darth Vader and the company’s main Star Wars title since the 2012 reboot of Expanded Universe canon.
Now, thanks to the “Journey to The Rise of Skywalker” miniseries Star Wars: Allegiance, we know how General Leia Organa convinced the residents of Mon Cala to lend their ships to the fight against the first Order in the wake of the devastating events of Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
The fourth and final issue of Star Wars: Allegiance opens with the landing pad explosion that closed out #3, though it’s pretty much immediately revealed that Rey managed to regain control of her Force powers in time to shield her friends from the blast. Then Rey and Rose Tico team up to chase down their attacker: a Quarren terrorist working for Chadkol Gee, the advisor to General Nossir Ree who vehemently opposed Mon Cala’s entry into the current war.
Meanwhile, on the Moon of Avedot, Finn and Poe are still pinned down by the Kendoh Gang, preventing them from escaping with the impounded weaponry. Fortunately for them, their droid BB-8 springs into action, distracting Kendoh Voss with a thermal detonator long enough for Poe to take flight in his cargo ship. Finn also thinks fast, piloting a derelict snowspeeder into the crossfire. Needless to say, this plan does not work out perfectly, but the pair and their rolling robot companion manage to make it out of the situation alive and with most of the sought-after munitions. Then the Kendoh Gang reveal they’re headed to perform a familiar-sounding heist on Batuu, setting off the events of the chronologically later Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge comic.
Back on Mon Cala, the First Order has arrived, encircling Admiral Ackbar’s homeworld with star destroyers just as Leia confronts King Ech-Char with the news that Chadkol Gee’s subterfuge. Instead of having the Quarren antagonist arrested for treason, General Organa insists the three species present unite to strengthen the Resistance together. Then Nossir Ree makes a pledge to sacrifice himself to “atone for the sins of [his] soldier,” flying into the nest of star destroyers as a distraction while a fleet of Mon Calamari ship escape the other side of the planet (who knew there was such a simple solution to counteracting a blockade?)
So as foreseen in my review of the first issue, Star Wars: Allegiance ends with the Resistance acquiring the desperately-needed help of the Mon Calamari, building upon the expansion of their forces they accomplished in Star Wars: Resistance Reborn (next week’s new novel is set before this comic). Though that outcome was entirely predictable–outside of a final-panel cliffhanger that will hopefully be resolved in The Rise of Skywalker— I was glad to see that gap in the lore filled in once again, in keeping with the ever-more-intricate tapestry of events and characters that is the broader Star Wars canon.
All four issues of Star Wars: Allegiance are available now wherever comic books are sold, and the collected trade paperback edition will be released on Tuesday, November 19 from Marvel Comics.