Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Star Wars: Princess Leia #2
Marvel Comics
Waid, Dodson, Dodson & Bellaire
The second issue of Princess Leia is an average issue that sees Leia take on her quest to rescue some Alderaan survivors. The comic has some action and a little bit of deception but doesn't really provide anything too deep for the reader to grip on to. The comic reads kind of like a story that doesn't quite fit in with what you might expect a leader of the Rebels to take on immediately after blowing up the Death Star. This is an okay read but is definitely not essential reading.
The comic book opens with some flashbacks to Leia's childhood on Alderaan. This is an odd scene because Leia is seen engaging in combat training on a "peaceful planet with no weapons." The primary purpose of these scenes is to illustrate how Leia rejects her royalty status and to emphasize the importance of the arts for the doomed planet.
Leia and her fellow Alderaan companion, Evaan, arrive on Naboo looking for a group of singers (performers?) that all originate from Alderaan. This brings up an interesting question because you would think people would emigrate from Alderaan all the time and could be spread everywhere. Why does Leia believe the Empire would hunt down so many stragglers and not concentrate their efforts on the Rebels that just blew up their space station?
Leia gets herself into some trouble with the locals and eventually needs to use her brains and brawn to get out of the mess she finds herself in. The book ends with an unrelated but interesting cliffhanger.
The book's strength is that it has a nice pace and is mostly a self-contained comic. The book also introduces a number of interesting characters on multiple fronts. The comic does manage to shed some personality on Leia, a character that doesn't have much going for her in the films without Han to interact with. The story is fairly decent as well.
The book is weak in a number of areas. As mentioned, the entire nature of this quest and the perceived threat of the Empire searching for one or two people as opposed to the Rebel fleet is a tough one to sell. The comic also doesn't present any particular danger to Leia. Beyond the fact that we know she lives, the threat in this issue really isn't anything she can't handle. The book felt more like a Star Wars Marvel comic from the 1970s where you knew nothing significant was going to happen.
The artwork improves over the previous issue. The visuals abandon the idea of portraying Leia in movie stills and uses its imagination a lot more in this comic book. The book breaths as a result and feels a lot more alive and fluid. The book certainly has an all-ages feel to it and while that is a nice touch for a Star Wars book I'm not sure if that is the intent or not. Overall, the visuals help this story along nicely.
Princess Leia is proving to be a fun read. It's nothing groundbreaking and it's not too memorable but it entertains and that should be all you are looking for in a comic book. This particular issue utilizes the cast very well and sets up some character dynamics for future issues. Nothing special but worth checking out if you are curious or a fan of the genre.
3 out of 5 Geek Goggles
