Star Wars Annual 2 was written by Kelly Thompson with art by Emilio Laiso. It was included in Star Wars Volume 5: Yoda’s Secret War, though it is mercifully unrelated to the titular story.
Synopsis
Maybe dragging a half dead Rebel leader to your house isn't the best way to stay neutral.
On the planet Skorii-Lei we meet Pash Davane. Pash is a muscular, red haired woman with green eyes who is nicknamed Bash by her co-workers because she once bashed a guy in the head with a rock. Makes sense; kind of like how my nickname is Slick because I once slipped in a puddle of my own urine after a woman bashed me in the head with a rock. Anyway, despite obviously being a fighter, Pash is one who has chosen not to take a side in the great Galactic Civil War. Both sides think they are heroes, but Pash thinks heroes are only good for getting a lot of other people killed. Pash used to be an underwater engineer until the Rebellion destroyed the primary industry on Skorii-Lei, now she toils on the docks moving crates. Near the settlement where she lives and works we see a downed Star Destroyer, evidence of the battle. Her co-workers wonder aloud about the presence of Imperial Stormtroopers in town, but Pash knows exactly why they are snooping around. She knows that they are looking for Princess Leia Organa. She knows because she has a seriously wounded Leia hidden in her room. Returning to her home, where Leia is being monitored by her droid Bruce, Pash finds Leia still unconscious and running a fever. “How many people will die if Leia dies; how many people will live if she dies?” Pash wonders. Of course she has no intention of killing the Rebel, but she knows she has to get her out of there and even mentions that moving her would be a lot easier if she died and they could, uh, make her smaller. Pash reluctantly heads back out to procure some medicine for the Princess’s fever. When she gets back she is shocked to find her droid incapacitated and Leia missing. Actually, Leia is pulling the old hiding in plain sight by clinging to the ceiling with her back to it trick that I can’t possibly imagine has ever worked for real before. So, she literally gets the drop on Pash and is holding her at blaster-point. Leia heard all that stuff Pash said about “disposing” of her. Pash is quick to point out that she meant to do that only if Leia died on her own. Leia fails to appreciate that subtle distinction. She thanks Pash for not killing her and prepares to hit her over the head with a large piece of metal so she won’t follow her when she leaves. (Can’t you just tie her up, you maniac? Her hands are already bound at this point.) Pash is quick to recommend against both the brain damage and the leaving since outside is teeming not only with Stormtroopers but now with bounty hunters. She offers to help Leia escape, and a skeptical Leia wonders why she would be willing to do that. “I already helped you...I brought you here, fixed you up.” she points out. She also mentions that it’s in her best interest to get her out of there because if the Empire finds her in her home, she’s as good as dead. She also suggests that if Leia were so noble she would just turn herself in so the Empire would stop tearing Skorii-Lei apart to find her. Leia explains that she has critical info she has to get back to her people, and many people have already died to secure it. “Shocking," Pash says sarcastically.
Hello...police? Yeah, there's a crazy lady hanging from my ceiling. I guess she thought I wouldn't see her up there for some reason.
So, Leia has a way to get off planet, she just has to get to the other side of the bay in the next six hours. Pash’s idea is to outfit the two of them with her old underwater gear and swim the Princess to safety. Before they are ready to leave, because of course two women changing clothes and getting stuff together for a trip is taking forever (amirite, guys?), a couple of stormtroopers come a-rapping at the chamber door. A couple of stormtroopers in pristine, white armor, I might point out. As stormtroopers do, they barge in, and almost discover Leia in the closet. So, of course, chaos ensues, heads get bashed; you know how these things go down. Pash hides Leia in a cart and they head out, but again arouse suspicion and have to find another place to hide until the heat dies down a little and they can make it to the dock. Leia’s wounds start to get the better of her. Fearing she might not survive her escape attempt, she gives the information to Pash and tells her she must get it to her people if she doesn’t make it. Leia asks Pash why she doesn’t like her. “Alderaan”, Pash replies. “They died because of choices you made. You just go about your life like it doesn’t matter.” Leia admits that she sometimes sees herself as a monster, but says, “I would rather be a monster that believes in something, that would sacrifice everything to make the galaxy better, than be someone gifted who sits on the sidelines...as if it has no consequence to them.” Later, as they are making their escape underwater, they are attacked by bounty hunters. In the fight, Leia is wounded in the process of saving Pash. They emerge from the water within sight of the Millennium Falcon. She and Han get Leia on board as Luke and Chewie fight off the bounty hunters. As Pash watches them fight, she sees them as not just people, but “living, breathing ideas; connected and unending; stronger because they are one.” In the end, Pash, having seen and felt what the Rebellion and hope are really like, decides that the possibility of a painful death is not so bad if it comes hand in hand with hope.
Review
Chewie? You okay back there?
Star Wars Annual 2 is a pretty good self contained story, and basically works as an "outsider-looking-in" on our long-time heroes perspective. Pash is a take no sides everyman who comes to learn that a safe life in the middle is also a life devoid of hope and purpose. She tries to stay disconnected from the great Galactic struggle and finds herself drawn in anyway. She seems to think her instinct is toward self-preservation, and yet continually chooses to endanger herself in order to help Princess Leia, a person she dislikes because of the path of destruction she has seemingly left in her wake. This is a story told from Pash’s point of view, and ultimately it’s about how her perspective changes when she actually encounters a member of the Rebellion. Leia goes from being an abstract “hero/villain” concept who allows the destruction of a whole planet, to someone who actually saves Pash’s life. Emilio Laiso’s art is, for the most part, adequate; but there are some places where it really falters. For example, take a look at Chewie in the image up there. The panel where he’s in the background. Yeah. For that matter, Han and Luke don’t come across very well either. You could say that Leia doesn’t look much like young Carrie Fisher in this story, but at least she is well drawn. I can’t really say the same about the guys. Overall, though, the whole thing’s pretty good and is definitely the best thing about the trade paperback in which it is collected.
