Today saw the release of issue #44 in the current volume of Marvel Comics’ flagship ongoing Star Wars title, and below are my brief recap and thoughts on this installment.
Star Wars #44 begins where a previous story arc had left off: with Lando Calrissian being held in the custody of the Rebel Alliance for treason, among other crimes. Princess Leia Organa and Mon Mothma (via hologram) meet covertly with Admiral Ackbar and General Crix Madine aboard the Mon Calamari vessel Home One to discuss Lando’s fate, with the latter two simply wanting to unceremoniously throw him out an airlock. But Mon and Leia naturally take a more diplomatic approach, proposing that Calrissian be put on trial for his misdeeds. Then Lobot– who Lando was acting to save when he sold valuable Rebellion information to Jabba the Hutt– has a heart-to-heart with his friend, ultimately suggesting that Calrissian hire an advocate to represent him in the secret court. Enter Salli Georgio, a smooth-talking lawyer who we first met in last December’s Star Wars: Revelations one-shot. By the way, I find it somewhat curious that artist Madibek Musabekov is drawing Lando here as sort of a mashup between the faces of Billy Dee Willians and Donald Glover, and I wonder if that has something to do with the latter’s renewed interest in reprising his role as the young Calrissian in an upcoming film.
Meanwhile on the “pretty fancy” (in Lando’s words) world of Uveron, where Mon Mothma has traveled on a fundraising mission for the Alliance, an unnamed group of assailants glide into action using winged suits, though we won’t discover their target until later in the comic (it’s fairly easy to guess who they’re after). Back on Home One, Salli Georgio arrives after being transported by Chewbacca and is welcomed by Leia and Luke Skywalker. Declining to meet with her client, Georgio instead opts to refresh in her room, and the trial begins the next day. She makes several attempts to delay the proceedings, but Madine shuts them down and the prosecutor Captain Darrien Muskray (newly introduced here) begins his rather convincing arguments. His chief witness is the Talky droid that Lando stole from rebel storage and dumped into Jabba’s possession along with his indispensable Trawak code data.
Just when it’s getting difficult to believe that the three judges (Mothma, Madine, and Ackbar) would find Calrissian anything but guilty, the group of winged assailants from earlier break into the office from where Mon is transmitting her holo-signal and kidnap her by injecting something into her neck. And after having tried a number of strategies to derail the proceedings– including accusing Luke of using a Jedi Mind Trick on Lando– Salli accepts Mothma’s unforeseen abduction as a suitable distraction. I thought this was a great issue (as tends to be the case with anything Star Wars written by Charles Soule), made even better by the fact that it mostly focuses on character interrelating to each other rather than mindless action. In fact, my only minor nitpick is to ask why Darth Vader is featured so heavily on the “A” cover along with Jabba, Han Solo frozen in carbonite, and a tiny Lando cowering in the corner.
I find it hard to believe that “The Trial of Lando Calrissian” isn’t interesting enough to make Calrissian the central image advertising the book’s content. My only thought is that maybe it’s supposed to represent Lando remembering things that he’s done wrong previously in his life, but the incident with him turning Han over to the Empire isn’t really the sticking point here. I don’t know; I just don’t get it. Otherwise this is all really interesting, and I can’t help but wonder how Soule is going to get Lando from what is probably the lowest point in his life to becoming a General for the Rebel Alliance by the beginning of Return of the Jedi, which should be creeping up rather soon in the timeline. Sally Georgio is a quirky, fun character who makes for an intriguing foil to… well, just about everyone. And it’s pretty eye-opening to see just how seriously Ackbar and Crix Madine take Lando’s betrayal of the Rebellion. My guess on where things are going involves Lando somehow helping to rescue Mon Mothma in order to get back into the heroes’ good graces. But what does that have to do with the Battle of Taanab? I’m hoping we find out soon!
Star Wars #44 is available now wherever comic books are sold.