Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters #2

Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters #2

Marvel Comics 2021

Written by Charles Soule

Illustrated by Luke Ross

Coloured by Neeraj Menon

Lettered by VC’s Travis Lanham

THE BIGGEST COMIC EVENT OF THE STAR WARS GALAXY CONTINUES!

Notorious bounty hunter BOBA FETT has tracked his missing prize — heroic smuggler HAN SOLO, frozen in carbonite — to the remote, frozen world of JEKARA. But representatives from many of the galaxy’s most powerful factions have gathered, and they all want the same thing — Solo. Things go from bad to worse, as Boba Fett realizes that he himself has become almost as valuable to the galaxy’s hunters as Han Solo, and he must turn to the least trustworthy person in the galaxy for help...DOCTOR APHRA…

Oh I like this issue. Now I’m not a die-hard Star Wars fan and I know the basics and I haven’t read any of the Doctor Aphra books so a lot of this is new material to me. I’m excited by what we see and how the Crimson Dawn’s plan to sell Han off to the highest bidder is going to go is something that will be epic. I am so impressed with what Charles is doing with this story and how he’s managed to tie into it the entire Star Wars Universe in a way that feels natural and right not just putting characters in for the sake of using them.

I love the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfolds as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act ad react tot he situations and circumstances they encounter is flawlessly rendered. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story we never want it to end.

I like the way that this is being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. Boba’s determination is utterly delightful and his interactions with Aphra really give him some great personality. How we see the layers explored and how they add dimension, depth and complexity is beautifully done. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved perfectly.

The interiors here are fantastic! I love the fact that the non-humanoid creatures look so much better than the humanoids, it’s a little bit ironic dontcha think?, except Boba whose armour is phenomenally rendered. The linework is incredible and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail work we see is exceptional stuff. That we see backgrounds utilised as well as we do is impressive in how they flesh out the moments. They also work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show an extremely talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is exceptionally rendered as well. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is beautifully done.

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There’s a fresh excitement in this story that I’ve not felt in the Star Wars world often enough, The High Republic being the only other one of late, so this is a very welcome addition to the Star Wars mythology. What I really like about this one is that while the tie-ins are welcome they aren’t necessary to enjoy this limited series so you can just read this and fully understand what’s going on. It is how tie-ins should work in my opinion, add to the story but not be necessary to it. With some magnificent writing and characterisation wrapped up in dynamic interiors this war is just getting good!