Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge #1 Review

Writer: Ethan Sacks

Artist: Will Sliney

Letterer: Joe Caramagna

Publisher: Marvel

 

Galaxy's Edge #1 brings us into a new story designed to tie into and setup the upcoming theme park expansion of the same name. A crew is seeking Dok-Ondar's help in acquiring an object, because the Ithorian has a reputation for procuring the unprocurable. 

I really loved the opening pages of the comic that take us through Black Spire Outpost on Batuu. Seeing the merchants and the shops and the products makes me really excited for my own visit to Black Spire Outpost in a few months, which I suppose is one of the main purposes of the comic. I can't wait to step into Dok-Ondar's shop and interact with him. He seems like a really interesting character that I'm glad to know more about. The tease of the Red Fury from the First Order is exciting from a story perspective, I can't wait to learn more about them in both the Black Spire novel and in the park itself. Overall the present day parts of the comic are interest and exciting and I can't wait for more.

However, I'm more sad to say that I didn't enjoy the Han Solo flashback story nearly as much. It feels like the same kind of standard, bland Han story that we've gotten a lot in the last year or two. I haven't really cared for it when the Adventures or Tales from Vader's Castle anthologies did that either but at least some of those had some more interesting aspects. To give the story some credit, the sarlaccs did bring something new-ish to the table that was mildly interesting, but it wasn't enough to make the story engaging to me. 

The miniseries actually reminds me a lot of Tales from Vader's Castle with great art in an engaging present day story but a flashback story that has both lesser art (I didn't like how the artist drew familiar characters like Han and Chewie at some points) and inferior story. But now that the obligatory Han story is out of the way, I'm looking forward to the other issues much more. The crew introduced in the issue has some potential and I really want to see more of Black Spire Outpost and Dok-Ondar in comic form. The next flashback stories sound more interesting and original as well, I much prefer getting a story about Greedo to getting another Han story. 

Overall the issue introduces some really interesting threads and ideas that I can't wait to see explored more both here and elsewhere, but suffers because of an unengaging flashback story. I almost wish the series was set entirely in the present. Part of me suspects the flashbacks are here because they aren't ready to dedicate that much time to exploring Black Spire Outpost in this time period yet until after the park opens. That said, I do think the premeses of the next issues are intriguing enough that the series could end great in the end. Looking forward to seeing where this goes even if I didn't love all of the first issue!