Star Wars: Captain Phasma collects the four issue mini-series of the same name written by Kelly Thompson with art by Marco Checchetto. The paperback collection was published on 11/28/17 and a hardcover edition followed on 7/17/18. It was marketed as part of the Journey to Star Wars: The Last Jedi event.
Synopsis
Phasma emerges from the trash compactor.
Phasma emerges from the trash compacter (as seen in The Force Awakens) and immediately begins covering her tracks by deleting the log of her lowering the shields on Starkiller base. After doing so, she finds that the files have already been accessed by Lt. Sol Rivas. She pursues Rivas as the base crumbles around them but he eludes her. When Rivas evacuates the base in a TIE fighter, Phasma follows in another TIE piloted by TN-3465. They track him to the planet Luprora, a rocky planet subject to swelling tides, where he was forced to land due to being out of fuel. Finding his ship abandoned, they make their way to an uninhabited dwelling and change clothes. En route to a village, they are attacked by a large sea creature. After Phasma kills the monster the locals appear and take the pair to their leader. They learn how these people came to be on this planet and how their existence is threatened by the rising tides, vicious sea monsters, and the aggressive R’ora, the planet’s indigenous people. Phasma learns that Rivas has been taken by the R’ora. She insists on mounting an assault on them in order to insure that Rivas is dealt with permanently. Using technology long abandoned by the colonists, they incapacitate the Tsw’ells (the sea creatures) and attack the R’ora stronghold. As the colonists fight the R’ora, Phasma locates Sol Rivas and eliminates him. Now abandoning the colonists in what appears to be a hopeless fight against the R’ora and the planet itself, Phasma returns to the TIE and prepares to depart. TN-3465, who overheard Phasma’s incriminating conversation with Rivas, believes that she is going to survive this adventure; however, Phasma knows, or at least suspects, she is privy to this information. She destroys BB-K8, the droid that has accompanied them, and kills TN-3465. Captain Phasma, along with a falsified log implicating Rivas as the one who lowered the base’s shields, returns to the First Order fleet. She is greeted by Gen. Hux, who praises her devotion to the First Order.
Review
The chase is on!
Captain Phasma really flamed out in The Force Awakens. Up until the point where Han, Finn, and Chewie confront her she is an underdeveloped but still potentially very awesome character. They then throw every bit of potential coolness she has into the garbage, literally, so they can make a reference to A New Hope because that’s what we do now. The job of this mini-series was to show what happened to Phasma post-trash and to explain how she was able to remain in a position of authority in The Last Jedi. Now, there were different possibilities for how this could be accomplished. Writer Kelly Thomson could have tried some sort of redemption story (not to be confused with Redemption Song where old pirates would rob Phasma and sell her to the merchant ships minutes after they took her from the bottomless pit) where Phasma has to work her way back into the First Order’s good graces after being found out; or she could have just glossed over the whole problem and shown Phasma getting out of the compacter, escaping the base, and all evidence of her betrayal being destroyed along with it. She didn’t either of those things. She didn’t gloss over the problem and she didn’t try to “rehabilitate” Phasma’s image. Instead, she absolutely doubled down on Captain Phasma being a conniving, deceitful, self-serving tool; and I am really glad she did because it makes for a wonderful and unexpected story.
Phasma in disquise.
Phasma is, first and foremost, a survivor. She lowered those shields in order to survive; and everything she does in this story is in order to survive and stay on top. This story is all about survival, survival of the fittest; and the fittest isn’t just the strongest or the smartest, but the one who is willing to do whatever it takes to survive. Phasma is accompanied on her odyssey by TN-3465, whom she simply refers to as “Pilot” most of the time. Pilot’s inclusion is essential because she serves the role of audience surrogate. By the time she meets her end we have developed sympathy for her; sympathy we don’t really develop for Sol Rivas (at least not until the end) because he is basically just a moving target or completely unseen for most of the story. However, when Phasma’s confrontation with Rivas does come to pass it is brilliantly executed. With Rivas on his knees and the Captain looming over him, gun in hand, as he pleads for his life, I was reminded of a scene from Miller’s Crossing (Coen Bros. deep cut!). The art in this book, as I have come to expect from Marco Checchetto, is absolutely gorgeous. Every panel is done with care and attention to detail. There are several complete or almost complete page illustrations that really are quite breath-taking. The story is very well paced, especially in the first and final chapters. Regarding the first part, I love it when a comic or book depicts events concurrent with a film from a different perspective and this is used to extremely good effect here.
Notes
TN-3465
There are several references to the novel Phasma, which was published just a few days before the first issue of this story. As established in the novel, Parnassos is referenced as Phasma’s home planet.
This story begins in the final moments of The Force Awakens and presumably ends shortly before the beginning of The Last Jedi.
Even though she removes her helmet and changes clothes, we do not see Phasma’s face.
Comic Pack Wish List:
Phasma and TN-3465 in their incognito garb would be most welcome.
Score:
Captain Delores Phasma comes across much better in this series than in either of her film appearances: 4 Skulls.
