Princess Leia (Part II)

Click HERE to order the Princess Leia graphic novel on Amazon



This week, the conclusion to Mark Waid’s Princess Leia mini-series...



In space, the Lord Junn meets up with a ship belonging to Nien Nunb who is still in his pre-Rebel smuggling days. He and Evaan are previously acquainted and he was the one who smuggled the Alderaanian enclave off of Sullust after the Empire arrived. As Leia checks out some weapons that Nunb is smuggling, Preserver Jora Astane enters and presents her with Tace, who she says is the spy they’ve been rooting out. Jora is indignant when Leia demands that they remove Tace’s restraints. She pushes Tace to the floor and storms out of the room. Leia takes the time to talk to Tace and believes her when she says she has no idea why Tula’s calls are originating from an Imperial base. Leia wants to draw Tula out (why doesn’t she just forbid Tace from contacting her); but she is reminded by Evaan that she is supposed to meet with representatives from an Alderaanian colony on the planet Espirion. Espirion is a highly militarized world, but open to refugees and wanderers. The colony from Alderaan has been there for generations with little contact with the homeworld. Leia appoints Madame Pareece to represent her in the talks, and sends Jora as her co-emissary. Pareece and Jora arrive on Espirion to meet with the head of the Alderaanians there, Beonel. When Beonel appears, Jora is clearly shocked and appalled to find that he is, in fact, an Espirion-Alderaanian hybrid. Beonel is obviously offended by this and by her assertion that Beonel and his people represent a dilution of Alderaan’s identity. He leaves, declaring that he wants nothing to do with them. Meanwhile, on The Lord Junn, Tace takes a call from her sister Tula with the intention of trying to find out where she is. Of course, she immediately screws it up and Tula’s commander orders stormtroopers to take her into custody. I guess because even though she is an Imperial officer she is also Alderaanian and now that her usefulness is over she has to be purged. Anyway, Tace is crying because they are going to kill her sister and it’s all her fault, so Leia steps up to the comm, and tells the officer that she is willing to make an exchange for Tula. She says that she will surrender herself for Tula’s freedom. Evaan is not happy when she learns of this. She reminds Leia of all the other people that are counting on her; but Leia will not be dissuaded, she says she must show them that she is willing to sacrifice herself “for the least of us”. Leia’s ship arrives at the desert planet of Skaradosh where a Star Destroyer is in orbit. They land on the planet near a waiting Imperial shuttle. The exchange is made. The Imperial Commander, Dreed, gloats that Princess Leia is now back in custody without a prayer of rescue. Back on Espirion, Pareece tries to smooth things over, but Jora just isn’t making it easy. Pareece promises that Leia herself will come to the planet to make things right and show how committed they are to bringing Beonel’s group into the fold. Meanwhile, in orbit above that planet, The Lord Junn’s pilots observe a large number of different ships come out of hyperspace.

As Leia is being taken into the shuttle, another ship comes roaring through the atmosphere. A door on the side opens and Evaan Verlaine starts mowing down the Imperials. Leia gets free of the stormtrooper holding her and, along with Tace, makes it on board the ship. Nien Nunb is at the helm. Leia says he’s the only person who could have smuggled an entire rescue craft past a Star Destroyer (hear that, Han?); but now, the real trick is getting out. Nien is able to get them out by launching a decoy that the Imperial’s mistake for the real ship. They destroy it, thinking they have rid the galaxy of Princess Leia. Smug in their victory, the Star Destroyer sets course for Espirion, knowing another shipload of Alderaanians is in orbit there. Leia and the others arrive first and see the fleet of mismatched ships that recently arrived. Leia learns that these are many thousands of Alderaanian survivors who heard of her mission to unite them. It looks like they showed up just in time to get picked off by the Empire. Leia tells Pareece to contact Espirion and request the aid of their armed fleet. She tells Leia that is not likely to happen because they want nothing to do with the Princess’s group. Jora fesses up to her unseemly breach of protocol, and Leia now regrets sending someone in her place so she could have the adventure of rescuing Tula. Evaan tells her to buck up and think of all she has achieved thus far. Leia proceeds to give an inspirational speech to the gathered ships. There is no time and nowhere to run, but they will not go down without a fight; and if one single drop of Alderaanian blood survives, then Alderaan survives. The Imperials begin the attack, and several of the ships are destroyed, but eventually the fleet from Espirion swoops in and saves the day. It turns out R2 had relayed Leia’s speech to the planet below and inspired them to aid their brothers and sisters. After the battle, Leia prepares to return to the Rebel Alliance. Evaan protests, they need Leia to lead them, she says. Leia tells her they can elect a new leader. “I endorse you”, she says, “but make it a fair contest. Though whatever you do, don’t let Jora win.” Leia returns to Yavin as the Alderaanian remnant head for a new homeworld.



In the early days of Marvel’s Star Wars comic line rebirth, when I heard that Mark Waid would be writing a series about Princess Leia, I was very excited. Being familiar with his work at DC on The Flash, Superman: Birthright, and the awesome Kingdom Come, I expected nothing less than blinding brilliance. In retrospect, I was probably setting myself up for disappointment. Disappointment is certainly what I got, both in terms of the art and story. Now, as I said last week, my attitude toward the art has altered since my first reading, and I actually kind of like it now. However, I still find that the story falls short. What is this story trying to convey, anyway? If I’m right, I think what it’s trying to say is that, even though the planet (and most of the people) of Alderaan were destroyed in an act of callous evil by the Empire, the heart and soul of the planet will live on its people. But, it will do so only if they remain true to the Alderaanian principles of peace, artistic expression, and education. In the case of Jora Astane, we see that having pure Alderaanian blood means little if you’ve forgotten the principles that made Alderaan special. So, the story does convey its message; however its effectiveness in doing so is compromised by poorly developed and often one dimensional supporting characters and incomprehensible plot points. For example, the cloister of musicians on Naboo who never venture from their compound and perform only via holo for fear of polluting their art. Why did they leave Alderaan in the first place? Couldn’t they have just stayed there and transmitted holo performances to nearly anywhere in the galaxy? What about Tace and her sister Tula? Just how long had it been since they’d spoken? I mean, Tula was an officer in the Imperial military; so she must have been in for at least a few years. They’re supposedly crazy close but they either went years without speaking, or Tula never told her what she was doing? Lord Junn’s motivation in betraying Leia is made explicit, but remains unconvincing. Is Leia really that poor a judge of character? And there’s Jora: she’s mean, she’s good, she’s mean again, then meaner, the nice again, maybe, but keep an eye on her. On a positive note, it’s really cool seeing Nien Nunb in this story, getting a picture of him as a smuggler in his days before joining the Rebellion, and maybe seeing how he comes to be a part of the Alliance (although that’s not shown in the story). As I said last week, I like Evaan Verlaine as a character, I think she plays well off of Leia in this story. The problem with her is, they create this new character, give her a relationship with Leia, and basically you never see her again. I mean, yeah, she pops up in one of the Aftermath books, but that’s it; and did I mention it’s in one of the Aftermath books? Of course, that’s not a complaint relating to this story per se, but to how the current expanded universe is handled. Ultimately, this story’s worst sin might just be that it is mediocre and disposable. Not every Star Wars story has to be profound and earth shattering; but a story about Princess Leia dealing with the immediate aftermath of her planet’s destruction should be more than this. Next week, we return to the main Star Wars series.

Action Figure Comic Pack Wish List:

Beon Beonel and Madame Pareece.



Click HERE to order the Princess Leia graphic novel on Amazon

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