Free Comic Book Day 2013: Star Wars/Captain Midnight

Free Comic Book Day 2013

Star Wars – The Assassination of Darth Vader

Writer: Brian Wood
Artist: Ryan Odagawa
Colorist: Gabe Eltaeb
Letterer: Michael Heisler
Cover Artist: Doug Wheatley

Taking place shortly before the events of A New Hope, “The Assassination of Darth Vader” kicks off on the Devastator. Interestingly enough, the comic gives readers a rare glimpse inside Vader’s head as the narration is from his viewpoint. Neatly awaiting the arrival of Boba Fett, Vader a small legion of Stormtroopers stand at attention. But Vader smells a trap.

An overeager Imperial officer by the name of Captain Torn tries to eliminate Vader. Of course he fails. Brian Wood takes the plot in a fun direction though as Vader spacewalks across a Star Destroyer to deliver his vengeance. Plus there’s a line about Boba Fett being hired to find the Rebel Fleet which is an interesting tie-in to the ongoing Star Wars series and Fett’s mysterious presence there.

Overall the art is pretty good. Vader, Fett and the Stormtroopers have some stylistic appearances, but they don’t look too bad. There is also some nice space shots of the TIE fighters and the art does a good job of conveying the action. The coloring helps a lot with Gabe Eltaeb’s trademark flair for lighting. On top of it all, the cover art is kinda cool.

I’d give this issue a four out of five metal bikinis and rank it as one of the better Free Comic Book Day offerings I’ve seen. Definitely a nice way to snare new readers for Star Wars comics.

Reviewed By: Skuldren for Roqoo Depot.

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Captain Midnight – Clues

Writer: Joshua Williamson
Artist: Pere Perez (pages 1 and 8) and Roger Robinson (pages 2-7)
Colorist: Ego
Letterer: Nate Piekos of Blambot

Jumping into this one out of the blue, “Clues” starts with a raid on the Secret Squadron Hall of Fame. I have to admit, that’s a pretty corny name. There’s nothing secret about something if it’s labeled on the side of a building for anyone to see a presumably enter. Regardless, the are wasn’t too bad and the Ghost Pilot looked shear awesome. I also give the writer kudos for the dialog in the flashback. It has a fun, old comic feel to it as people literally talked differently. It gave it a genuine sense of being in a different era.

With the flashback, the story takes on an old 40’s feel of Americans versus Nazis. But outside the flashback, the story presents Captain Midnight as a security threat with two individuals after him. It doesn’t reveal much about what the series would really be like, though. Is it going to be a nostalgic comic mining the feel of the stories? And what does Captain Midnight actually bring to the table? All we see him do is punch a guy. Does he have super powers?

In the end, the issue raises a lot of questions without a lot of answers. As a possibly consumer, I have no idea if this is a series I would invest in or not. With that in mind, I’d give this story a three out of five metal bikinis. It was kind of neat, but I don’t know where it’s heading.

Reviewed By: Skuldren for Roqoo Depot.