Last week saw the release of the second issue in Marvel Comics’ current Star Wars: Ewoks miniseries, and below are my brief recap and thoughts on this installment.
Ewoks #2 begins in Bright Tree Village on the Forest Moon of Endor, where the “Red Ghost” (first introduced in the 1980s Ewoks cartoon series) watches down on a meeting below. Then we see the infamous droid bounty hunter 4-LOM acting as interpreter for the party of mercenaries hired by the Imperial remnant in the previous issue. 4-LOM lies and tells Chief Chirpa that the group is made up of “pilgrims on course for an ancient holy site,” though Chirpa is understandably hesitant to trust them after the invasion of the moon by the Empire’s forces not too long ago. Also watching from a distance are Meedro and Wicket, though the art here (by the otherwise talented Álvaro López and Laura Braga) doesn’t immediately make it clear where they are in relation to the others. Anyway, negotiations go on for a while, with the “pilgrims” demanding a place to rest and a guide to their final destination, but talks are eventually interrupted by the Red Ghost, also known as Asha Fahn, one of the daughters of Chirpa.
Asha drops down from her perch in the trees to attack Zuckuss, temporarily breaking the bounty hunter’s respirator. This lead’s the scout trooper Khu Fornot to freak out, firing his blaster on the Ewoks. At this point chaos breaks loose, with only the Dowutin mercenary Koll Orvenk taking a measured approach to the confrontation. Wicket and Meedro swing in to join the fray as well, and Chief Chirpa and his other daughter Princess Kneesa have a brief reunion with Asha before their touching moment is interrupted by 4-LOM seeking retribution. But the Ewoks put up a good fight, and tensions mount when Wicket holds the Imperial General Koyatta’s throat at the tip of his spear. The stand-off comes to an end when Koyatta manages to reverse his situation, but Koll steps in at the last second and convinces the general to “move on” via brute force. The imperial party refuses to leave the village empty-handed, however, with 4-LOM now demanding a hostage to take with them instead of a guide.
The group first selects Ahsa, but when Meedro steps up as volunteer to replace her, his actions are deemed “too eager” by Koyatta, who is then shocked to discover that Wicket can indeed speak a bit of broken Basic. That revelation spurs Koyatta to settle on Wicket as the hostage, and the issue ends with a splash-page cliffhanger showing the Imperial officer subduing the Ewok with a stun blast. For it having been entirely made up of a tense encounter between enemies, I thought this chapter of Ewoks was actually a little talky, and I was left wondering why the mercenary group even really needed to stop in Bright Tree Village in the first place. I guess they do need a guide to help them brave the wilds of Endor, but otherwise they seemed okay heading out without getting that night’s rest. Either way, I’m enjoying getting to know the culture of the Ewoks a little better, and the ongoing theme of whether or not to trust outsiders is an intriguing one. Naturally it had to be Wicket chosen to accompany the Imperial group at the end, but I’m certain his friends and family will band together and come to his aid before this miniseries concludes.
Star Wars: Ewoks #2 is available now wherever comic books are sold.