Star Wars: Age of Republic - Jango Fett #1 Review

Writer: Jody Houser

Artist: Luke Ross

Colorist: Java Tartaglia

Publisher: Marvel

Star Wars: Age of Republic - Jango Fett #1 is a phenomenal one-shot that tracks the infamous bounty hunter on a job with his son. This is the best Star Wars one-shot in recent memory. It carefully layers exposition and flashbacks with lore and character and there’s an economy of motion that allows each to harmonize without feeling underdeveloped.

This is the fourth issue in the Age of Republic series in which each one-shot has been marred by a sort of dissonance between the action and the theme. They’ve been shallow themes too: Qui-Gon’s complex questions of his place as a Jedi were answered simply with “balance” and Obi-Wan’s misgivings about training Anakin were relieved because… the comic needed an ending. But perhaps the more annoying trait of previous issues has been that the concerns of Obi-Wan or Qui-Gon are not new. Taken straight from the script of The Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon was already concerned with balance and Obi-Wan’s misgivings about Anakin were worn on his sleeve. These one-shots are some of the first reappearances of these characters in the current canon and they’ve been retreading old ground.

Jango Fett #1 has none of the dissonance of these past issues. More, its themes are so tightly wound through the story that it surpasses the other comics by a far greater benchmark. It gives us a believable and interesting insight into Jango as a mentor, into Boba as a student, and into their relationship as a whole. It gives us something new — and it gives us something very, very good. It’s subtle in a way Star Wars comics rarely are. Would Jango abandon a captured Boba, leaving him to his own devices or is he instead permitting Boba the opportunity to earn his own name? It’s answered fairly firmly by the end, but it’s perhaps the surprising lack of coldness between them that makes the relationship so compelling.

Luke Ross’ artwork is gorgeous. Through the story and flashbacks, we get quite a tour in this issue — from the dim grime of a seedy cantina on Telerath to the rust-washed Moons of Bogden and the lush, azure skyline of Ord Mantell. Each location is carefully characterized and realized and the characters are all lifelike and expressive. Jango always looks truly powerful and heroic, acting with a style that translates from panel to panel and makes the other bounty hunters wither (a fact which they’re the first to point out).

Age of Republic - Jango Fett #1 is my favorite Star Wars comic in the last year. It effectively evokes the title character and his son and it develops them in a brief, subtle one-shot that is totally complete — but leaves you weighing their relationship long after you’ve finished it. It takes a simple man trying to make his way in the universe and it complicates him — providing insights and layers in twenty-odd pages that he never had before.