Star Wars #5
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: John Cassaday
I’ve been truly impressed with Marvel’s Star Wars line. Almost every title has been truly great with the exception of the just good Princess Leia book. Out of all of them, I’ve been enjoying this main Star Wars title the most but it stumbled after the end of its inaugural arc. Issue #4, was slightly incoherent and too slow considering how fast and tight the first arc was. It was a bit of a jarring transition and a short falter for this book. But Jason Aaron sped this series up once again with issue #5 that raises this book back to the quality of the first arc.
Issue #4 suffered from lacking cohesion to its multiple plotlines and misplaced focus. Darth Vader was the most prominent character in the issue and considering how much better Gillen writes the character, all his scenes were underwhelming and dull. Thankfully, there is NO Vader in issue #5 and it benefitted greatly from that. Aaron has only had a problem finding Vader’s voice in this series and the book feels much better with another villain. Namely, the character everyone wanted more of in the original trilogy, Boba Fett. This is a great choice because there is never too much Boba Fett, and Aaron portrays the character really well. Vader is a good villain but Aaron really is doing a better job working Fett into the story.
However, even this great character work isn’t able to surpass Aaron’s handle of the Han/Leia dynamic. Aaron writes them with the perfect balance of aggravation and interest. Han is the loveable arrogant smuggler that he’s always been as Aaron perfectly uses classic lines of his to irritate Leia, who remains as strong and interesting as she was in the original trilogy. Out of all the plot-lines in this book, there’s remains the most interesting due to Aaron incredibly great grip on the characters.
Aaron has broken up this story into a few plot-lines but unlike the previous issue, it doesn’t feel like too much here. Whereas Vader and the new bounty hunter were overcrowding this book, issue #5 benefits from it greatly. I got a sense that Aaron’s story structure is heavily borrowing from Empire Strikes Back. We started with an extremely action-packed beginning, only to separate the characters into groups (namely Han and Leia together and Luke continuing his Jedi training). This story format is working fantastically because as Aaron is already starting to weave his stories into one cohesive hole like Empire Strikes Back did so expertly.
The only issue this formatting is one quick page that felt completely out of context with the rest of this issue. The comic is predominantly split between 3 different elements of Aaron’s larger story and then we’re given one page of a completely other story that was introduced in the last issue. Even if this sequence is setting up something in the next issue, it felt extremely clunky without having much context. It’s one small misstep in a largely awesome issue that held it back just a little bit.
John Cassaday’s departure from this book was sort of inevitable. The artist unfortunately has trouble maintaining monthly schedules and this is already his penultimate issue. Cassaday’s cinematic storytelling really is perfect for a Star Wars comic. His action is beautiful, his character are expressive and his panelling is beyond brilliant. Everything about this comic’s visual scream Star Wars to me and it really won’t be the same without Cassaday. He has done a great service to the world by drawing this comic and I will miss him dearly come issue #7.
Star Wars #5 corrects the issues with its predecessor right away by giving a tighter and more original story. Aaron’s comic feels so much like Star Wars from tone to pacing to character voices this comic is doing an incredible job of emulating the original trilogy. With great visuals and awesome writing, Star Wars remains the best of its line with issue #5.
Artist: John Cassaday
I’ve been truly impressed with Marvel’s Star Wars line. Almost every title has been truly great with the exception of the just good Princess Leia book. Out of all of them, I’ve been enjoying this main Star Wars title the most but it stumbled after the end of its inaugural arc. Issue #4, was slightly incoherent and too slow considering how fast and tight the first arc was. It was a bit of a jarring transition and a short falter for this book. But Jason Aaron sped this series up once again with issue #5 that raises this book back to the quality of the first arc.
Issue #4 suffered from lacking cohesion to its multiple plotlines and misplaced focus. Darth Vader was the most prominent character in the issue and considering how much better Gillen writes the character, all his scenes were underwhelming and dull. Thankfully, there is NO Vader in issue #5 and it benefitted greatly from that. Aaron has only had a problem finding Vader’s voice in this series and the book feels much better with another villain. Namely, the character everyone wanted more of in the original trilogy, Boba Fett. This is a great choice because there is never too much Boba Fett, and Aaron portrays the character really well. Vader is a good villain but Aaron really is doing a better job working Fett into the story.
However, even this great character work isn’t able to surpass Aaron’s handle of the Han/Leia dynamic. Aaron writes them with the perfect balance of aggravation and interest. Han is the loveable arrogant smuggler that he’s always been as Aaron perfectly uses classic lines of his to irritate Leia, who remains as strong and interesting as she was in the original trilogy. Out of all the plot-lines in this book, there’s remains the most interesting due to Aaron incredibly great grip on the characters.
Aaron has broken up this story into a few plot-lines but unlike the previous issue, it doesn’t feel like too much here. Whereas Vader and the new bounty hunter were overcrowding this book, issue #5 benefits from it greatly. I got a sense that Aaron’s story structure is heavily borrowing from Empire Strikes Back. We started with an extremely action-packed beginning, only to separate the characters into groups (namely Han and Leia together and Luke continuing his Jedi training). This story format is working fantastically because as Aaron is already starting to weave his stories into one cohesive hole like Empire Strikes Back did so expertly.
The only issue this formatting is one quick page that felt completely out of context with the rest of this issue. The comic is predominantly split between 3 different elements of Aaron’s larger story and then we’re given one page of a completely other story that was introduced in the last issue. Even if this sequence is setting up something in the next issue, it felt extremely clunky without having much context. It’s one small misstep in a largely awesome issue that held it back just a little bit.
John Cassaday’s departure from this book was sort of inevitable. The artist unfortunately has trouble maintaining monthly schedules and this is already his penultimate issue. Cassaday’s cinematic storytelling really is perfect for a Star Wars comic. His action is beautiful, his character are expressive and his panelling is beyond brilliant. Everything about this comic’s visual scream Star Wars to me and it really won’t be the same without Cassaday. He has done a great service to the world by drawing this comic and I will miss him dearly come issue #7.
Star Wars #5 corrects the issues with its predecessor right away by giving a tighter and more original story. Aaron’s comic feels so much like Star Wars from tone to pacing to character voices this comic is doing an incredible job of emulating the original trilogy. With great visuals and awesome writing, Star Wars remains the best of its line with issue #5.
A Look Inside
