Review Star Wars: Legacy 2 Prisoner of the Floating World #2

Script: Corinna Bechko & Gabriel Hardman
Art: Gabriel Hardman
Colors: Rachelle Rosenberg
Lettering: Michael Heisler
Cover Art: Dave Wilkins

It is a time of fragile peace in the galaxy.  A fledgling power-sharing government has risen from the defeat of the One Sith and forged an uneasy triumvirate of the Jedi Council, the Imperial Court, and the remnant Galactic Alliance.

In the isolated Carreras System, a junk dealer named Ania Solo and her Mon Calamari friend Sauk find an Imperial Knight’s lightsaber and a damaged communications droid. Attempting to sell their prize, Ania and Sauk run afoul of local security.

What they don’t know is that the real owner of the lightsaber has been captured by a Sith who has taken over his identity in order to manipulate the political situation in this corner of the galaxy. But elsewhere, the Knight’s disappearance has been noted . . .

This issue opens over in the Ithori system where a young Imperial Knight, Jao Assam, has a bad feeling about Master Yalta Val’s failure to show up on time.  And well he should because Yal is being taunted by the Sith who’s taken his identity and is trying to turn him to the dark side.  Since the Sith is attempting his machinations by holo, I imagine it doesn’t have quite the same effect.  Still you have to feel for Yalta Val, locked in a mask he can’t remove, staring a his own face gone dark and unable to do anything about this Sith who he knows is determined to screw up a fragile galaxy.  Jao Assam contacts his Empress for permission to search for Yalta Val, but Marasiah refuses.  She has her reasons, and they’re valid, but Antares Draco tries to get her to change her mind.  He doesn’t succeed but we are treated to a nice tableau of Empress and Imperial Knight that hints at Draco’s feelings for Marasiah are maybe not so unrequited after all.  I wish those two would just get on with it.

Meanwhile elsewhere it seems to be a regular day in the GFFA, which, for a Solo, consists of blasters, fast vehicles, bad situations deteriorating to worse and narrow escapes.  Ania is certainly a chip off the Han Solo block, and it looks like her defiant stand in issue #1 didn’t go down so well, because she and her friend Sauk appear to be fleeing for their lives in a vehicle that’s seen better days.  Being a Solo, of course they manage to escape but not until after we see an amusing twist on a tried-and-true Star Wars staple.  It’s Sauk, the Mon Cal, who confronts the bad guys with the lightsaber…and nearly becomes one with the Force before Ania makes good on their escape.

Of course it doesn’t take long for things to deteriorate again for Ania and Sauk.  There’s a brief interlude of peace for the duo as a customer, AG-37,  shows up, and Ania heads him in the right direction to find a linear converter.  Then all hell breaks loose again as the Sith and some really nasty looking goons appear.  The Sith has found out Ania has his lightsaber and he wants it back.  Ania tells him no and that goes down about as well as you’d expect it to.  The Sith gets his lightsaber back, orders the goons to kill Ania and Sauk, and they’re on the run again.  Fortunately they run right in the direction of AG-37.  AG-37 is one cool droid.  He not only dispatches the goons, but gets Ania and Sauk off Carreras.  Everybody can now breath a sigh of relief as Sauk manages to fix the droid that was originally hiding the lightsaber.  While working on the droid, Sauk activates a holo that reveals the Sith fighting the real Yalta Val.  AG-37 quickly figures it all out (I told you he was cool), and gives Ania a history lesson on the Jedi, as in they’re the good guys.  AG-37 is about to say more when a proximity alarm sounds and bunch of ships make a sudden appearance, and Sauk wonders, “Is that all for us?”

This issue had a lot of action going on spelled by interludes of  calmer exposition, and while that could have felt abrupt, it didn’t.  It worked and this issue furthered the story along quite effectively.  I’m still trying to reconcile the artwork of Legacy 2 with it’s predecessor, which it very different.  I find I don’t have any problem when it’s just the new-to-Legacy characters in a scene.  But I’m a little unsettled when I see Legacy 1 characters like Empress Marasiah and Antares Draco.  That’s not the fault of the artist, and his work is effective in capturing the mood and atmosphere of a scene.  Whatever emotion the characters feel is well conveyed through the art, but the action sequences are equally satisfying.  Story and art work well in conjunction, and while it’s still early days, I definitely want to see more of the Legacy 2 story.  Five metal bikinis for this issue.