Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge collects the 5 issue mini-series written by Ethan Sacks with art by Will Sliney and was released on October 22, 2019.
Synopsis
Kendoh, Remex, and Wooro, three ne’er do well scoundrels (you know the type) are looking to make a big score on Batuu. To find what they are looking for, their first stop is Dok-Ondar’s Den of Antiquities; but the First Order is there too. Will either group survive Dok’s mildly interesting but seemingly pointless stories?
Review
Look, on some level, we all realize that this is about money. You know it, I know it, and the American people know it. I mean, to some extent, it has to be. If they didn’t make money, they couldn’t keep making the products. You can’t sell the product without advertising the product; but sometimes things can veer so far into an area of self-promotion that that there seems to be little point to the exercise otherwise. Is that the case with this Galaxy’s Edge comic? Maybe. It kind of feels like it sometimes; but it’s not without its redeeming qualities. The thing I can’t quite figure out, is what is supposed to be promoting what? Do they think that people who weren’t otherwise going to the park were going to read this comic and then change their mind; or did they think someone who doesn’t read comics would go to the park and then feel the need to read this book? Both scenarios seem unlikely. I don’t know. The real question is, how is the product?
Eh, it’s all right. It’s not terrible, but it’s inadequacies, which do seem to come to the fore when you see just how hard it pushes it’s theme park parent to the detriment of coherent story, can be glaring. The main part of the story, labeled “now”, takes place some time after TFA/TLJ. Kendoh, who is from Serreno, and her crew have acquired half of an ancient Sith sword and are looking to get the other half from Dok-Ondar. Apparently when the two halves are joined the bearer will have great power. Now, am I crazy, or was that not the original storyline to Masters of the Universe? Anyway, first Dok tells Kendoh and them about how he once hired Han Solo to get him the baby Sarlaac he has on display; then the First Order troops come a callin’ and he tells them how he came into possession of Ki-Adi-Mundi’s lightsaber after Greedo stole it from someone on Mygeeto. Of course, Kendoh already knows Dok has the other part of the sword and plans to steal it, but first she meets Hondo in Oga’s Cantina so she can arrange for him to help her get it off the planet. He tells her about the time he and Dok stole a statue from the Kyber Temple on Jedha. We then learn that Dok first came into possession of this sword (called the Sword of Kashyun) when he hired Dr. Aphra to retrieve it from an ancient Sith temple.
So, the sword turns out to be the macguffin of the story, but you don’t even really learn anything about it until you’re almost ⅗ of the way through. Kendoh wants the sword because she can get a lot of money for it, Dok wants it because it was mentioned in some notes from his late parents (he also stole the statue because he had seen one like it in a box of stuff belonging to his parents that he received after their murder). So, by the end of the story does Dok find anything else out about his parents? No. Aside from the fact that his parents were murdered and apparently studied the Jedi and Sith, are we given any reason to care about them? No. When the sword is put together at the end does anything cool happen? No. It’s because of stuff like this that the “now” part of the story feels like little more than a commercial for the theme park.
As for the flashback stories, they’re not bad, in fact they are probably the best thing about the series, but the fact that three of the four of them relate to the framing story only tangentially is frustrating. They’re enjoyable: the Han and Chewie story is okay except for the way Han and Chewie are drawn, the Greedo story is neat because you actually get to see Greedo do something besides get shot, the Hondo story has Hondo and Chirrut Imwe, and the Aphra story gives us a great look into an ancient Sith temple on Moraband; any or all of them could have probably been expanded into a one-shot special and worked on their own or together or as an anthology series. In fact, I might have liked this series better if it had just been a 5 issue anthology series about random people walking into Dok-Ondar’s and hearing the stories behind certain objects that struck their fancy. As it stands, this book has some appeal. I thought the art, aside from the above mentioned complaint, was pretty good. In the end though, the whole thing is just spectacle, an enjoyable and sometimes clever spectacle, but nothing more.
Notes
Apparently Dok-Ondar was mentioned (but not seen) in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Who knew?
The Han and Greedo flashback stories take place just before A New Hope. The Hondo story is just after the advent of the Empire; and the Aphra story must take place sometime after she left Vader’s service but before she was forced to set Triple Zero and BT free.
Comic Pack Wish List:
I think Dok-Ondar would make an awesome figure; and do you realize that there has been a grand total of one time Hondo has been released in the 3.75” line? One. I checked Ebay and the cheapest listing for that one is around $30 for a loose cartoony style figure. Come on, Hasbro.
Score:
If you don’t like the ST era, you should probably avoid this; if you do, and you want to see a visually interesting but uneven story, it is likely worth your time; but not a priority. 2 Skulls.
