Han Solo #4 Review

Chewie Needs A Lady Friend

Written by: Marjorie Liu

Art by: Mark Brooks, Sonia Oback and Matt Milla

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: October 12, 2016
Review by: Josh Vermillion

If I walked into a comic book shop looking for a comic about Han Solo, it’d be pretty confusing to pick up Marvel’s recently launched Solo series and find out it has nothing to do with Han, Chewie, or any of the Star Wars gang. Personally, I think Marvel maybe should’ve waited to release that title so as to not confuse people. This book has been really good thus far, and I wouldn’t want anyone to be looking for it and mistakenly get something else. But I digress from my disgruntlement about Marvel not thinking things through. Let’s just jump in and see how this HAN Solo book plays out, shall we?

I’ll give Marjorie Liu credit, she doesn’t make timelines ambiguous from issue to issue. This one once again picks up where the last issue left off, with Chewie being confronted by an old foe. It jumps right in to say why this mysterious white tiger, and rebel spy, has a bone to pick with our furry friend Chewbacca. In the middle of the conversation, Madam Loo Re Anno and a couple other pilots step in to see what’s going on.

After kicking the others off the Millennium Falcon, Han walks with Re Anno and learns about the history of the Dragon Void. She also tells him that the mysterious orb of light that’s been following him around is his “witness” and it senses the stars in his blood. It all sounds like nonsense to me, but I guess it works on Han because he apologizes and has a good talk with her.

Getting back to the issue at hand, Chewie and the white tiger, who’s name is Dorae, have made up and are sitting around being peaceful with each other. I hope they get together. I can sense the sexual tension between them and I want Chewbacca to have himself a girlfriend.  It’s time to finish the race, but Dorae tells Han to wait on the planet for the final informant. You can tell Han is hesitant in trusting her, but he decides to do as she says.

The final passengers show up with Stormtroopers hot on their heels. Han takes off to continue the race just in the nick of time, but he’s going to have his hands full. Not only does he have the Dragon Void to worry about, but he has Stormtroopers chasing him down and he still has to figure out which of the informants is the traitor. Han thinks about backing out of the race, but decides to stick it out after a speech from Re Anno. The issue ends with the third informant, Aran, lying dead in the hallway.

For only being a 5-issue miniseries, this is now the second issue in a row without a lot of stuff happening. I get the idea that Marjorie Liu had a bigger story in mind, but she’s trying to cram it all into 5 issues and has to leave out a lot and unfortunately we’re left with a lot of telling and not a lot of showing. I have absolutely nothing to base this theory on, other than the fact that I love her Monstress series and was expecting a little more from her here.

And it’s unfortunate that there isn’t more showing of what’s going on because once again I though Mark Brooks killed it on art. His characters continue to look better and better each issue, and his action scenes have always looked great. I just wish he were given more chance to tell the story through his art, kind of like the last page.

Bits and Pieces:

This is definitely a setup issue for what should be an awesome finish. I still want to see what happens to Han in this race and find out who the traitor is, but it would’ve been nice to get a little bit more progression with this one. Luckily, the art is still great.

6.0/10