Poe Dameron #21

Poe Dameron #21

Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: Angel Unzueta
Colorist: Arif Prianto
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Cover Artist: Phil Noto

Poe Dameron #21 has some fun on Cato Neimoidia as the Neimoidians vie for clients with their hi-tech vaults. We learn a bit about Neimoidian justice, as was the high risk stakes in their business dealings. On top of that, Lor San Tekka goes to trial for breaking into their vaults, and Leia finally gets a mission. It’s a pretty fun issue.

Things being with Lor San Tekka and his captivity in Baron Maccon’s prison. Maccon explains how the justice system works on Cata Neimoidia, namely, each house takes care of itself and hands out whether justice they see fit. After a quick trial, he finds Lor San Tekka guilty. To be honest, Lor San Tekka did a terrible job of defending himself, but it did explain a lot about him and his motivations. Of most interest, Lor San Tekka isn’t just interested in the Jedi, but the Sith as well. He thinks the key is to learning about both the light and the dark in hopes of brokering a peace between them. This could have implications for The Last Jedi. Regardless, it doesn’t help him any with his trial.

Elsewhere, Poe and Snap do some flying, and Jessika Pava finally finds a droid that will fly with her. Both side stories provide some quick breaks that carry on some previous storythreads, but the real fun is when things get to Leia. As part of the whole scheme to break Lor San Tekka free, she slyly goes to an opposing baron’s vault to store some of Padme’s dresses. Now on one hand, it’s kind of cool that Leia has Padme’s dresses. This whole storythread gives Leia some nice dialog moments, and more importantly, it gives her something to do. No longer just a general back at base, Leia is on the front lines on a mission. In this case, manipulating some Neimoidians in order to commit a jailbreak. There’s some action as Maccon outright attacks his fellow baron just to show how unsafe his competitor’s vault is. In turn, this all falls into Leia’s plan.

The artwork overall is pretty gorgeous in this issue. There’s a lot of lighting effects in the Neimoidian palaces, especially with all the gold. The Neimoidians looks great, and in general, all of the character faces are well done, human and alien alike. There’s lot of detail, good attention to likenesses, and it’s easy to follow along panel-to-panel. The layouts do a good job of bringing the comic to visual life and keeping things interesting. It’s well done.

With good artwork and a fun story, I give Poe Dameron #21 a four out of five metal bikinis. It’s kind of funny thinking how this whole series started out with the search for Lor San Tekka, but we’re only getting around to it now. In a way, it’s a been a long time coming, but I’m glad they finally got around to it as it’s a good story element.

Reviewed By: Skuldren for Roqoo Depot.