Star Wars (2020) #2 Review

by NumidianPrime on February 02, 2020

Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: Jesús Saiz
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: Marvel

This week saw the release of the second issue of Charles Soule's relaunch of the Star Wars series, set after the events of The Empire Strikes Back. Reeling from Han's kidnapping, the rest of the team must work to both locate him and reunite the fragments of the rebel fleet.

I enjoyed this issue just as much as I enjoyed the first one. Almost every aspect of the series is still perfectly on point. The art from Jesús Saiz still brings a wonderful moodier tone to the atmosphere. The story builds organically and cleverly around the final scenes of Empire Strikes Back, adding new context to the ending and then continuing on. The writing for each of the characters remains on point and engaging.

If Luke was the standout character-wise last issue, this issue probably goes to Lando. Soule previously wrote Lando in his titular miniseries to perfection, and it's great to see him return to the character. Lando gets the spotlight more than the others in this issue, travelling to Tatooine to talk with Jabba the Hutt. It seems like the rest of the arc will more directly continue his character arcs from his miniseries, which is very exciting. The series continues to mainly keep a slow, introspective pace, which works wonders, but we still get our first wrench in the plot at the end which promises interesting developments for Luke as well as Lando.

If C-3PO was the surprise comedic standout of last issue, then Chewbacca is that for this issue. He gets a number of great moments. It's still great seeing Shara and Kes hanging around, though I'm curious how Soule intends to utilize them in the long run since they can't directly interact much with the main cast due to their (or at least Shara's) introductions in Shattered Empire. There's also some very interesting new lore that seems like setup for the big Project Luminous coming later this year. I can't wait to see how that pays off. If I had to criticize one aspect of the issue, I'd say I'm not as invested in the problems with the rebel fleet as I'd hope to be, but I am still enjoying it. 

Overall, it's still an absolutely stellar issue and, so far, series. Something I've said a few times to different people is thanks to this series and Soule's other current series, Star Wars comics have never felt more like an event. The quality to quantity ratio is higher than its ever been before. I'm very much anticipating the next issue of this series, and I'm hoping to see the other upcoming series meet this standard. 

Our Score:

9/10

A Look Inside