Star Wars #23 Review

Violence Doesn’t Solve Anything, But Racing Does

Writer: Jason Aaron
Art by: Jorge Molina, Matt Milla and Chris Eliopoulos
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: September 28, 2016
Review by: Josh Vermillionaire

After the huge boom Star Wars got from The Force Awakens, it seems to be finally be dying down. Luckily for Marvel, it’s probably going to come roaring back in a couple of months when Rogue One comes out. That movie and the boom that inevitably will come along with it, should help this title even more since it’s going back to the time of the original trilogy. Until then, I’m getting my Star Wars fix from Jason Aaron. He hasn’t disappointed me yet, so let’s hope that keeps on rolling this month.

The issue starts out by showing a little more as to how exactly Han, Luke, Leia and the rest of the team stole the Star Destroyer in the last issue. And right off the bat, Jorge Malina’s art pulls me in. I still have some problems with some of the faces, especially as we get farther in the issue, but all of the action looks pretty great. On top of that, we get to see Han hitting on Leia after he lands on top of her in the explosion, so that’s always fun.

Moving on, we see why exactly the team wanted to steal the Star Destroyer, to save the people of Tureen VII, which has had a blockade placed around it by the Empire. Moving ahead to what’s going on now, Han and Leia are fighting over what they’re going to do going forward. Han wants to stop somewhere safe to make repairs to the ship, but Leia wants to continue on with the mission as quickly as possible.

They’re fighting over who gets to be the captain of the ship, which leads to a race to the bridge to see who gets to be in charge. I know this may seem pretty lame, and it probably is, but it’s also a lot of fun and lightens up the overall scope of the Star Wars universe. Meanwhile, Luke and Captain Starros go out in Tie Fighters to investigate whatever came up on their scanners. We see that it’s their missing admiral and his shuttle, but the admiral is frozen to death strapped to the front of the shuttle.

Captain Starros suspects that this is either a warning or a distraction and alerts the crew on the Star Destroyer to be ready. Leia wins the race to the bridge and gets to stay in command of the ship, must to Han’s disbelief. We learn that Starros was right about the shuttle being a distraction, as a group of Stormtroopers boards the ship, ready to take it back for the Empire.

Not a ton happens in this book, as we’re just kind of moving towards the beginning of Empire Strikes Back, but it was a pretty fun issue. I don’t necessarily love it, but I don’t have any major complaints about it either. It’s another solid issue under Jason Aaron and Jorge Malina.

Bits and Pieces:

If you’ve been enjoying the Star Wars series thus far, I see no reason why you won’t enjoy this one as well. Nothing special in this issue, but it was a fun time and Jorge Malina’s art looks pretty cool.

7.0/10