Today saw the release of the 49th (and penultimate) issue in the current volume of Marvel Comics’ flagship Star Wars title, and below are my brief recap and thoughts on this installment.
Star Wars (2020 #49 begins in “deep space,” where Princess Leia Organa has been pulled aboard a pirate starship captained by Commander Ellian Zahra, who shockingly reappeared at the end of the previous issue after having been left for dead back in #24. So we get a flashback to how Zahra escaped her fate (nearly) in the jaws of that fearsome cave-dwelling creature, and she chastises Leia for not finishing the job when she had the chance. We learn that after that incident, Ellian teamed up with this band of pirates who provided her with cyborg appendages in exchange for her military expertise, and now all she wants is to deliver Leia to the Galactic Empire in exchange for the former commander’s reinstatement. But just when it seems like all hope is lost for our beloved Alderaanian princess, the pirate crew realize that another escape pod has been launched by the Rebel Alliance ships before they jumped back into hyperspace– one containing would-be Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker.
So Luke brings himself aboard (via a floating-through-space maneuver not terribly dissimilar to what Leia does much later during Star Wars: The Last Jedi) and wreaks enough havoc aboard the pirate vessel so that the ship becomes incapable of jumping to hyperspace itself, and then a knock-down-drag-out fight between Zahra, Leia, and Luke breaks out in the hold when the other pirates selfishly flee for their own lives. Ellian tells Leia that she killed the remainder of the Alderaan “Survivor Fleet” and then takes off in her own starfighter when the rebels return with a Mon Calamari cruiser. Luke and Leia decide to let Zahra go, but then the commander makes a u-turn, essentially committing suicide by space cop as she hurtles toward our heroes and the cruiser blasts her fighter into smithereens. There are some very nice, introspective moments here as Organa and Skywalker (still unaware that they are in fact twin siblings– they’ll find that out soon) consider that Zahra made her own choices that led her to that tragic point, and then we are back aboard the Rebel Alliance flagship Home One.
Evaan Verlaine visits Leia in her quarters to inform her that Zahra was in fact lying about having wiped out the remainder of the Survivor Fleet– it turned out she destroyed a few ships but the rest ended up getting away. The princess is elated by this news and even has a hologram conversation with her old acquaintance Beon Beonel (last seen in the Star Wars: Princess Leia miniseries from 2015) about what the Alderaanian fleet plans to do next. Beonel says the survivors have decided to reintegrate back into the populace of the galaxy after realizing that they wanted their identities to be more than just survivors. And on the final couple of pages, Leia gets across the lesson she learned from this experience– that she and her friends are more than just members of the Rebel Alliance; they’re family. And that newfound awareness is pointing her in one direction: toward rescuing Han Solo from Jabba’s Palace. We all knew that this arc eventually had to build toward that fateful moment, but it actually came one full issue earlier than I was expecting. That means the entirety of the bonus-sized 50th and final issue, coming up in September, will be about Luke, Leia, Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian, and the droids prepping for their mission to Tatooine. And while I absolutely enjoyed everything leading up to this, I’m especially psyched to see how writer Charles Soule and the talented artists he’s collaborated with tie everything together and transition into the beginning of Return of the Jedi, as this era of Star Wars comic books comes to an end.
Star Wars #49 is available now wherever comic books are sold.