Yesterday saw the release of issue #41 in Marvel Comics’ Star Wars: Bounty Hunters series, and below are my brief recap and thoughts on this installment.
Bounty Hunters #41 begins at Kirkeide Station, home of Syphacc’s Bountiful Bounties, where Losha has been working as a bodyguard for the past arc or two. As this issue gets underway, she’s dealing with the presence of the warlord-turned-irritating-ally Vukorah when another unlikely associate pops up– former Imperial officer Jyala Haydenn, who has come to deliver the USB drive– sorry, data drive– containing Belert Valance’s old memories. But before Losha can make use of the drive, she has to figure out where her partner T’onga is. Cut to the “galactic communications hub” of Epikonia, where Valance (currently corrupted by the evil artificial intelligence known as the Scourge) has taken T’onga prisoner, along with fellow bounty hunter Zuckuss and a number of civilians.
The Scourge-possessed Valance does a lot of monologuing here, and T’onga and Zuckuss are briefly able to use that to their advantage, fighting back with all they have. Sadly, it’s not enough, and they’re soon overwhelmed by the Scourge’s growing forces. There’s also a moment where T’onga has the opportunity to take Valance out (as she had promised) via an enormous rifle, but she ultimately can’t bring herself to do it. At the moment when they’re in their most dire straits, a trio of Vukorah’s adorable tooka-cats come trotting into the room carrying thermal detonators. This is such a wonderfully incongruous beat that it takes both the Scourge and the reader by surprise, and the ensuing chaos is just a whole lot of fun to watch. Naturally this issue climaxes with T’onga restoring Valance’s memories, and a nod to the defeat of the Scourge, which we have still yet to read in the upcoming Star Wars: Dark Droids #5.
I did have a blast with this issue, but there’s also a lot of silliness going on at the same time. The fact that Beilert Valance’s cyborg head just has a USB drive in his temple seems awfully convenient, and it will take me a long time (much like our other antiheroes, I expect) to accept Vukorah’s face-turn. Unfortunately, as it turns out, #41 is actually the penultimate issue of Star Wars: Bounty Hunters. I had a feeling the end was coming up sooner or later, with the events of Return of the Jedi looming ahead on the larger timeline, but I find that the reality of it happening is catching me off-guard. I do love the hint at the end here that Valance is going to at least attempt to follow through on the debt he owes to his old war buddy Han Solo, so that should make for a very interesting final outing next month. And I hope that these characters have a place in whatever Lucasfilm Publishing and Marvel have planned for the post-ROTJ landscape.
Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #41 is available now wherever comic books are sold.