War of the Bounty Hunters #5 Review
Author: Charles Soule
Artist: Luke Ross
Colorist: Neeraj Menon and Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Publisher: Marvel Entertainment
After all these months... the War of the Bounty Hunters finally comes to an end. And is it an ending that feels conclusive, like the end of a story that lasted all these months that wraps up these characters' stories?... No, not really. But that's a good thing!
See, we learned a while ago that this is just the first chapter of a trilogy focused on Qi'ra and Crimson Dawn in the era in-between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and so suddenly it doesn't have to wrap everything up. And this issue works all the better going in with that knowledge, as it works really well as a conclusion only to Boba Fett's involvement in the story. His journey to re-capture Han Solo and deliver him to Jabba for the agreed bounty finally resolves here, while Qi'ra own machinations only grow in scale.
This is also one of the issues where I most felt the inter-connectivity between the various ongoing series. This issue heavily features Bokku the Hutt from Vader, Valance from Bounty Hunters, and of course Luke from Star Wars. Each of them plays a major role in the story here, and it managed to have some twists and turns that don't feel like just retreads of those other series (though we'll see how the next issues of Bounty Hunters and Darth Vader do). And like with the last issue, there are some surprisingly really emotional moments from a lot of the characters, Boba aside (which I won't go into because of spoilers).
However, I can't exactly avoid spoiling the end of the issue, seeing as it ends with what we see in Return of the Jedi: Boba successfully brings Han to Jabba on Tatooine. This series did succeed in bringing a lot more depth to this event, as we see how the stage is being set for the fall of the Hutt Clans and Jabba the only remaining Hutt crimelord. And on top of that, the stage is further set for Crimson Reign, the next chapter of Qi'ra's trilogy. I recommend reading the issue for the full reveal, but you probably have some idea of what to expect if you've seen the cover reveal for that series.
Overall, this was a phenomenal first jump into cross-franchise crossovers for Star Wars; they've done crossovers before, but this was the first one on the same scale as Marvel's own Earth-616 crossovers. It wasn't perfect all the time, but it still felt extremely connected in the best ways, and none of the four ongoing series were negatively affected. On top of that, it actually feels like you could read just this series and have all the context you need, which isn't always the case for these crossovers. Combine that with the god-tier writing of Soule and the god-tier art from Luke Ross, and you get one of the best Star Wars comics of recent years!
Artist: Luke Ross
Colorist: Neeraj Menon and Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Publisher: Marvel Entertainment
After all these months... the War of the Bounty Hunters finally comes to an end. And is it an ending that feels conclusive, like the end of a story that lasted all these months that wraps up these characters' stories?... No, not really. But that's a good thing!
See, we learned a while ago that this is just the first chapter of a trilogy focused on Qi'ra and Crimson Dawn in the era in-between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and so suddenly it doesn't have to wrap everything up. And this issue works all the better going in with that knowledge, as it works really well as a conclusion only to Boba Fett's involvement in the story. His journey to re-capture Han Solo and deliver him to Jabba for the agreed bounty finally resolves here, while Qi'ra own machinations only grow in scale.
This is also one of the issues where I most felt the inter-connectivity between the various ongoing series. This issue heavily features Bokku the Hutt from Vader, Valance from Bounty Hunters, and of course Luke from Star Wars. Each of them plays a major role in the story here, and it managed to have some twists and turns that don't feel like just retreads of those other series (though we'll see how the next issues of Bounty Hunters and Darth Vader do). And like with the last issue, there are some surprisingly really emotional moments from a lot of the characters, Boba aside (which I won't go into because of spoilers).
However, I can't exactly avoid spoiling the end of the issue, seeing as it ends with what we see in Return of the Jedi: Boba successfully brings Han to Jabba on Tatooine. This series did succeed in bringing a lot more depth to this event, as we see how the stage is being set for the fall of the Hutt Clans and Jabba the only remaining Hutt crimelord. And on top of that, the stage is further set for Crimson Reign, the next chapter of Qi'ra's trilogy. I recommend reading the issue for the full reveal, but you probably have some idea of what to expect if you've seen the cover reveal for that series.
Overall, this was a phenomenal first jump into cross-franchise crossovers for Star Wars; they've done crossovers before, but this was the first one on the same scale as Marvel's own Earth-616 crossovers. It wasn't perfect all the time, but it still felt extremely connected in the best ways, and none of the four ongoing series were negatively affected. On top of that, it actually feels like you could read just this series and have all the context you need, which isn't always the case for these crossovers. Combine that with the god-tier writing of Soule and the god-tier art from Luke Ross, and you get one of the best Star Wars comics of recent years!
A Look Inside
