The Marvel Comics adaptation of the smash-hit live-action Disney+ Star Wars series The Mandalorian continued last week with the release of issue #2 of season two.
Star Wars: The Mandalorian (2023) #2 is another straight-up adaptation of an episode of the Jon Favreau-created Disney+ show, this time the one entitled “The Passenger.” If that title doesn’t ring any bells for you, perhaps the name “Frog Lady” conjures up a more vivid memory. Yes, this was the episode where Din Djarin must give that poor creature a ride from Tatooine to a nearby star system without going into hyperspace, for fear of eliminating the viability of the eggs she carries with her in a jar. Those delicious, delicious eggs. I faintly remember a bit of controversy over young Grogu (though we didn’t know his name yet at this point, so from now on in this review I’ll simply call him “The Child”) gulping down egg after egg from Frog Lady’s last hope of continuing her bloodline. To me it always played like a harmless bit of comedy, but I don’t think artist Steven Cummings (filling in for regular penciler Georges Jeanty) successfully gets across just how funny those moments were in the episode. Otherwise I’d say this is a fairly successful translation from screen to page, with some cool action moments in the art and writer Rodney Barnes… pretty much replicating what was done and said on TV.
There is one other minor oddity in this issue that I want to make note of: when Trapper Wolf, the character played by The Mandalorian executive producer Dave Filoni, shows up during the scene where the New Republic pilots are trying to get Mando to send them a “ping,” Cummings almost seems to have deliberately made the character not look anything like Filoni. This jumped out at me while reading, mostly because Dave’s occasional cameos as Trapper Wolf are so hard to miss on the series, but also because Carson Teva actor Paul Sun-Hyung Lee is actually pretty recognizable in Cummings’ drawings throughout. That makes me wonder if Filoni specifically requested that Marvel not use his likeness in the comic, or if there’s some other reason why that choice was made– or maybe I’m just reading into things and Cummings didn’t realize the significance of the face he was rendering, ultimately deciding not to bother with capturing a specific likeness. Either way, this comic remains a faithful adaptation of The Mandalorian as you’ve already experienced it, so your mileage may vary on whether or not the new artwork is enough to get you to purchase this recycled story. Obviously the comic sold well enough in its first go-round for Marvel and Lucasfilm to greenlight it for a second-season adaptation, so somebody out there is buying and reading it. And for what it’s worth, I’m still mostly enjoying revisiting the episodes in this format as well.
Star Wars: The Mandalorian #2 is available now wherever comic books are sold.