Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge #4 Review

Writer: Ethan Sacks

Artist: Will Sliney

Letterer: Joe Caramagna

Publisher: Marvel

Galaxy's Edge #4 is the penultimate installment in the miniseries, each issue of which depicts a tale set on Batuu involving Dok-Ondar, the First Order, and a team of smugglers in a framing story with a different flashback in each issue that shows the origin of an item in Dok's collection. 

I didn't expect to enjoy this series as much as I have. The first issue was easily my least favorite of the bunch, it wasn't the worst but it didn't feel particularly original, it just felt like another typical Han and Chewie comic. I expected the rest of the series to be along the same lines and that I would only enjoy the framing story, but the second issue was a big jump up for me and the series has been great since. Each subsequent story has mixed cool elements of Star Wars that I wouldn't have expected to ever see mixed. I've gotten to see Greedo steal Ki-Adi-Mundi's lightsaber, Hondo and Chirrut fight each other, and now Aphra go on an archaeology mission to Moraband. 

Aphra hasn't gotten much spotlight at all outside of the original Darth Vader run and her own series, so it's cool to get to see her appear somewhere else and interact with other characters even if it's still set in the same time as her series. Triple Zero and BT are also always welcome additions to any story. Star Wars or not. Seeing Moraband was a massive surprise for me because I wasn't expecting it whatsoever, and I loved seeing some new lore about the Sith mixed in with some older stuff like the Sith Hounds. Looking back it seems like a great story idea for Aphra to do archaeological work on Moraband, I'm kind of surprised it never occurred to me. 

Will Sliney's art was great, I wasn't completely on board in the first issue but he's become one of my favorite artists currently working on Star Wars books. It isn't always perfect but in general I really enjoy his art style. 

It's kind of ironic that my initial expectation has been reversed: I think I'm actually enjoying the flashback stories more than the framing story now. The present day story has gotten a bit harder to follow for me as it's gone on and I'm really enjoying seeing the history behind Dok's collection and it'll add a lot to my enjoyment of his shop when I visit it in about a month. I could probably take an extended run of this series that goes through even more things in there, I'm sad that this is the last story we'll get. That said, the framing story isn't bad by any means. Something is also added to it now that we know the Journey to The Rise of Skywalker miniseries Allegiance will partially act as a prequel to it. Can't wait to see this story come to a conclusion next month!