Bounty Hunters #13 Review

by Krownest on June 09, 2021

Author: Ethan Sacks
Artist: Paolo Villenelli
Colorist: Arif Prianto
Letterer: Travis Lanham

WAR OF THE BOUNTY HUNTERS CONTINUES! Bounty Hunters #12 and War of the Bounty Hunters #1 in the past weeks set up the biggest crossover Star Wars comics have ever done, and now it continues. This issue continues to be a really solid chapter of both the wider crossover's story, as well as the smaller-scale story of Valance himself. In Bounty Hunters #12, Dengar gave 4-LOM and Zuckuss Boba's last known location on Nar Shaddaa to get them off his and Valance's backs, and in War of the Bounty Hunters #1 we saw how that went... with both of them being left for dead by Boba. Now, we see Valance and Dengar finally catch up, well after Boba's already gone.

Dengar and Valance start looking for where Boba could've gone, being completely unaware of the invivation to Jekara sent by Qi'ra and Crimson Dawn. Their path of destruction (caused mainly by Valance's lack of patience) leads them directly into the path of Chewbacca and C3-PO! Here's another way that the series is crossing over with War of the Bounty Hunters; in the most recent issue of Star Wars, we saw Chewie and C3-PO accompanying Luke to Nar Shaddaa to find Boba, and now their paths have collided! 

But here's where my favorite part of the issue happens. Last issue, we learned exactly why Valance and Han's relationship went so far downhill: a job went wrong, and Han mistakenly thought that Valance was trying to assassinate him. Now, Valance and Chewbacca are both trying to rescue their friend, but Chewie thinks that Valance just wants to hurt Han. Instead of it just being a by-the-numbers fight to move things along, it's a really interesting character moment. Yes, the two of them fight, but then they stop fighting and have a wholesome moment where Valance apologizes, saying that he only wants to help Han.

While all this is going on though, the issue cuts back to the series' subplot, focusing on T'onga, her wife Losha, and their pet Nexu. God I love them. They've been preparing to avenge the death of T'onga's brother T'ongor, who was killed by Boba Fett (hey, there's another way all the paths have been converging into this crossover!) and visit the headquarters of the Mourner's Wail Syndicate... only to find most of the members killed by Crimson Dawn, who ambushes them. 

There is more that happens in the rest of the issue, but I don't want to spoil everything, since it has it's own plot twist at the end that promises to make next issue even better. I'll leave this review off by saying that this definitely feels like an essential chapter of War of the Bounty Hunters just as much as it is a part of its' own story, which is exactly what I wanted; we can only hope the other tie-in issues are the same way. Sacks continues to tell a really intriguing story that only gets better as it progresses, and Paolo Villanelli's art continues to be some of my favorite art in Star Wars comics ever. Check this one out!

Our Score:

9/10

A Look Inside