Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Star Wars Rebellion #14
Dark Horse Comics
Barlow, Wilson & Glass

Small Victories wraps up with this issue and it continues its mediocre standard that we’ve seen since the beginning. You may recall that Deena was off blowing up a major fuel station while Luke, Leia and a couple of others were held captive in the command center. All this and Rebels are sending some help to pull them out. The story has a pretty nice setup brewing but it fails to capture much of what make Star Wars entertaining. Perhaps because this story is using the classic characters it cant possibly meet the lofty expectations, but it needs to do better regardless.

As usual the issue begins with an excellent rundown of exactly what has happened in the arc to this point. Add in that the first few pages captures more of the overall goings on with the dialogue and you have a perfect recap for anyone new coming in.

Once the issue heats up with explosions, the escape is on. Luke, Leia and their two comrades begin to turn the tables on their captures. In a totally bizarre move, one of Luke’s fellow rebels, tries to immediately have the Imperial Commander switch over to their side. So just so you follow, the Commander has the rebels prisoner, kills some of them, tries to kill others, gets overtaken and then the rebels ask him to join their side? Okay, that is one of the more far fetching things I’ve seen in a while.

Luke and company make it to a shuttle. You’d think flying a shuttle out of an Imperial dockyard would be hard, but it isn’t because four B-Wing ships show up to help them escape. While escaping, Luke stretches out with the force and feels that Deena is still alive so they turn around. Does this sound like Empire Strikes Back to you? Eventually, the bombers help them to all escape.

Later on, Han voices his anger about not being involved in the rescue mission. While, Luke and Deena patch things up.

The issue is okay, but it just has many things that nagged me about it. For one thing, since when can Luke reach out through the force and feel the presence of people prior to even meeting Yoda? Also, how can four prototype B-Wing bombers maneuver through a sea of Tie Fighters and Star Destroyers? Lastly, why are the rebels trying to recruit Imperial Commanders?

One point that I liked about this issue was the space battle. I expected a lot more blowing up of things, but this issue did have some excellent visuals of the dogfights. Also, the art was really good. Sure, Luke and Deena look a little too much a like, but it’s a nitpick point in an otherwise well drawn comic.

As far as the execution goes with this issue I felt it lacked the Star Wars feel to it. There wasn’t a ton of chemistry between Luke and Leia. There was limited witty banter all around. The comic had such a serious feel to it throughout that it seemed like it was trying to add drama too hard. Also, much of the characterizations felt really off. For example, is it commonplace for Luke to be portrayed so heavily as the golden boy of the rebellion? I simply felt like the characters that are generally so familiar felt very much unfamiliar in this story.

This issue has some nice artwork and some interesting space battles that wrap itself around an escape that felt way too easy. This series jumps over to Vector for two issues and hopefully it will regain some of the feel from the original trilogy. This is the comic that should be the flagship of the line because it has the established characters to play with. As a fan, I expect a lot more than what we get here in this comic.

2 out of 5 geek goggles.


Star Wars: Rebellion #14--Small Victories part 4