Today saw the release of the 50th and final issue of Marvel’s current flagship Star Wars comic book, which is set between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Below are my brief recap and thoughts on this climactic installment.
Last month’s Star Wars (2020) #49 ended with a tease that our heroes, namely Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia Organa, Chewbacca, and Lando Calrissian– not to mention their trusty droids R2-D2 and C-3PO– were ready to go rescue their friend and ally Han Solo from the clutches of the vile gangster Jabba the Hutt. Well, the follow-up issue (and the “Grand Finale” of this run) takes a sharp left turn from that point, but I can’t say I’m terribly upset about that. While writer Charles Soule could have spent #50 setting up the rebel incursion into Jabba’s Palace, I think we can all envision pretty much exactly how that story would go. So instead, Soule brings us about 15-20 or so years into the future and has now-Jedi-Master Luke Skywalker tell a story to young Ben Solo, years before he would transform into Kylo Ren. And this story involves not the rescue of Ben’s father Han– though it does take place during the period when Solo was still frozen in carbonite– but a discovery with the potential to bring an end to the Galactic Civil War.
In the flashback, Luke returns to the Mid-Rim living planet of Gazian (first seen in Star Wars [2020] #20) where he encounters a memory-record of Azlin Rell, the former Jedi who has been playing a significant role in Star Wars: The High Republic Phases II and III. Rell tells Skywalker about a weapon he once attempted to use to rid the galaxy of the Nameless creatures that once threatened the Jedi Order, and so Luke enlists Leia, Chewie, and the others to go retrieve it from a frozen-over world called Niraya. Unfortunately the artifact is buried so deep in the ice that it takes Artoo hacking into a mining droid plus a battle against a local Imperial garrison to access it. Anyway, once they get ahold of this weapon, Threepio manages to work out that it can be used to kill anyone in the galaxy, but only by using their genetic material. This leads to an assassination plot against Emperor Palpatine and a trip to Naboo, where Lando must impersonate an Imperial officer and deal with a… rather unique collaborator.
Long story short, the remainder of this issue deals with the moral (not to mention technical) quandaries of utilizing such a device in order to eliminate one’s enemies. And we get to see how each member of the party deals with such a situation, from Leia wanting to pursue a more diplomatic approach to Chewbacca desiring simple retribution for what Palpatine has done to the Wookiee people. There’s some really great dialogue here, which has always been Soule’s strongest suit, and the writer is still almost uncannily skilled at capturing the voices of each of these characters. Plus I really appreciated the few scattered moments of near-meta commentary on this sizable 50-issue run: there’s a beat where Ben wonders how so many events happened over the course of a mere single year. I also really loved the ultimate lesson that Luke imparts to his apprentice, though based on what happens afterward I don’t know if it sticks with young Solo (see Soule’s excellent Star Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren miniseries for more). Regardless, I found this to be a refreshingly outside-the-box approach to the final issue of this era of Star Wars comics, and I’m totally okay with just revisiting Return of the Jedi to see how Han gets busted out of Jabba’s Palace. There are more exciting things to come in The Battle of Jakku comics, which start up next month, but considering those will be written by Alex Segura, what I’d love to know is where Charles Soule will end up next in A Galaxy Far, Far Away. He’s too good at this to retire from Star Wars comics just yet.
Star Wars #50 is available now wherever comic books are sold.