Poe Dameron #15 - Review
Written by Charles Soule 
Art by Angel Unzueta, Colorist Arif Prianto
Marvel Comics
Release Date: May 17, 2017
Cover Price: $3.99
Reveiwer: Andrew McAvoy
Well, Black Squadron mourned the loss of L'ulo in the last issue in a moving eulogy led by Poe and General Organa. Now, however, the Resistance faces a challenge of a more practical nature. Leia needs a routine rendezvous in the Mid-Rim to be followed through on: an easy task for Black Squadron I hear you say. Problem is, it's assigned as a solo task for Poe. If you think the Squadron is gonna let that slide though your way off. Let's see how this issue panned out.
Well you'll not be shocked to hear that when the reason for Poe's solo mission turns out to be a bog standard fuel shortage, Black Squadron decide to run their X-wings on fumes and spread Poe's fuel allowance from the Resistance coffers amongst the full squadron. Leaving that mad decision to one side (I'll assume someone at Marvel did the math on space miles per gallon), this is a typical issue of the Poe title.
For me this book has continually split into two types of issues: the good issues when it has the pure energy and spirit of the Star Wars films, and the bad issues when it hurls Poe and the squadron into massive peril and then contrives a way for one or more astromech droids to save their asses. I know that sounds fun in small doses but this is now the fourth or fifth time this has happened in 15 issues. This time they rely on BB-8 and a team of other astromechs. The multi-astromech formula if you will.
As we leave the issue we are left on a 60s Batman style cliffhanger. How will Poe and Black Squadron escape? Tune in next issue to find out (because they will) same Poe-time, same Poe-channel (or whenever Marvel decide to hurl the issue at fans in their erratic Star Wars scheduling).
The main point of note in this issue is that Agent Terex has definitely went "full-on Lobot" after falling foul of Phasma over the last two issues. Walking about with what looks like a Bluetooth earpiece stuck to the side of his head, he looks, and appears, ridiculous and dull. Yes folks, in one fell swoop they've turned one of the Machiavellian highlights of this series into a walking Macbook. It's pure garbage but I don't see a way back for Terex with him now Malarus' laptop computer, so the series has lost a jewel in the crown.
When Marvel does Star Wars well (which having read all their new output I'd estimate is about 75% of the time) we get material such as the Han Solo mini-series - which is what this series should be aiming to emulate - or Shattered Empire where we got to know Poe's parents. When it goes badly though we end up with trash like this issue thrown at us, which was a consistent result from the Darth Vader title and books like Dr Aphra and large parts of the main Star Wars book. After last month's high point in the Poe series- with the moving funeral scenes - the fall in quality seems so much further in this book.
4.0/10
No comments:
Post a Comment