Star Wars #75 Review
Writer: Greg Pak
Artist: Phil Noto
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: Marvel
This week brings an end to the seventy-five issue Star Wars series, which has seen three different writers and far more artists. All of the paths have converged on the planet K-43. The team must survive Darth Vader and escape from the planet before it explodes.
I'm sad to say the grand finale didn't quite stick the landing for me. The Luke/Vader conflict felt underwhelming and overdone. The series has brought the two of them together in ways that felt more compelling before. The big reveal about the planet K-43 similarly didn't do much for me. There is a place in Star Wars for weirdness and sillyness but this stretched my suspension of disbelief a bit much. Casually ending at Hoth felt pretty unearned too, considering we didn't even know they were at that base yet until now. The character who I enjoyed the most in this arc was, oddly enough, 3PO. The rock monsters weren't always my favorite but he got some good character moments with them.
My biggest problem with this arc has stayed the same from the start: it hasn't felt necessary. Looking back now that it's complete, I feel the same about it. This arc didn't really do much to further the story or characters. The highlights of the arc for me were when Luke was learning teachings of the Guardians of the Whills through Warba because it did feel like it had meaning for him. Other than that, I can't think of many moments that really stick out to me. There are many valid complaints to be made about Gillen's occasional slow pace when he worked on the series, but every arc carried forward momentum from the one before it and felt like the characters and story were progressing. This arc feels like schedule filler to carry us into the start of Soule's run on the rebooted line.
This feels like an arc better suited for the middle of a run rather than the ending. Maybe I would enjoy it more if it wasn't the finale and Soule's run was picking up with #76 rather than being a nominally new series. I do think I'll look back more kindly on it when it can be read in a vacuum and just appreciated for the great art and passable story. I also wouldn't mind seeing Warba again in Soule's run or some other story in the future.
I think Pak has a lot of potential as a writer and I am excited to see his work on the next Darth Vader run, even if I am tired of Vader comics. Not all of my problems but probably a number of my bigger ones with this arc probably come more from circumstances outside of his control. We're seeing our first previews of Soule's Star Wars run now and it's looking really good. I'm going to miss Han but I expect a lot from that series. Can't wait to read the first issue in a few weeks!
Artist: Phil Noto
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: Marvel
This week brings an end to the seventy-five issue Star Wars series, which has seen three different writers and far more artists. All of the paths have converged on the planet K-43. The team must survive Darth Vader and escape from the planet before it explodes.
I'm sad to say the grand finale didn't quite stick the landing for me. The Luke/Vader conflict felt underwhelming and overdone. The series has brought the two of them together in ways that felt more compelling before. The big reveal about the planet K-43 similarly didn't do much for me. There is a place in Star Wars for weirdness and sillyness but this stretched my suspension of disbelief a bit much. Casually ending at Hoth felt pretty unearned too, considering we didn't even know they were at that base yet until now. The character who I enjoyed the most in this arc was, oddly enough, 3PO. The rock monsters weren't always my favorite but he got some good character moments with them.
My biggest problem with this arc has stayed the same from the start: it hasn't felt necessary. Looking back now that it's complete, I feel the same about it. This arc didn't really do much to further the story or characters. The highlights of the arc for me were when Luke was learning teachings of the Guardians of the Whills through Warba because it did feel like it had meaning for him. Other than that, I can't think of many moments that really stick out to me. There are many valid complaints to be made about Gillen's occasional slow pace when he worked on the series, but every arc carried forward momentum from the one before it and felt like the characters and story were progressing. This arc feels like schedule filler to carry us into the start of Soule's run on the rebooted line.
This feels like an arc better suited for the middle of a run rather than the ending. Maybe I would enjoy it more if it wasn't the finale and Soule's run was picking up with #76 rather than being a nominally new series. I do think I'll look back more kindly on it when it can be read in a vacuum and just appreciated for the great art and passable story. I also wouldn't mind seeing Warba again in Soule's run or some other story in the future.
I think Pak has a lot of potential as a writer and I am excited to see his work on the next Darth Vader run, even if I am tired of Vader comics. Not all of my problems but probably a number of my bigger ones with this arc probably come more from circumstances outside of his control. We're seeing our first previews of Soule's Star Wars run now and it's looking really good. I'm going to miss Han but I expect a lot from that series. Can't wait to read the first issue in a few weeks!
A Look Inside
