Star Wars #32

Star Wars #32

The Screaming Citadel Part 4 of 5

Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Salvador Larroca
Colorist: Edgar Delgado
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Cover Artist: Marco Checchetto

The last issue of the Screaming Citadel arc got weird, and this one isn’t any less strange, but on the plus side, it does look better. Salvador Larroca returns which brings the visuals up to their usual splendor. However, the writing still isn’t making this arc shine all that much.

The issue opens with symbiote infected Black Krrsantan battling the queen’s lieutenant Bombinax. The werewolf Wookiee easily defeats the armored warrior, then moves on to take out all the other guards in his path. Leia, Sana and the murder droids use this as an opportunity to sneak back into the castle. They quickly run into a symbiote infected Han Solo who attacks them. Here the artwork gets a little confusing as everyone somehow gets split up. Leia is cornered, Sana i split off, and the murder droids sneak off as well. Sana catches Bee-Tee and Triple Zero before they split, and convinces them to work with them a bit longer. They rescue Leia from Han, and that’s were their story thread ends in this issue. On it’s own, it’s not that compelling, and it’s pretty bizarre to think symbiote possessed Han is canon. Furthermore, Sana’s character continues to be very one dimensional and kind of regressive. Her character introduction into the Star Wars main series revolved around her obsession with Han who she had convinced herself that she was married to even though it was all a con. In this issue, she’s bold enough to say she never much cared for Solos which is pretty much an outright lie and perhaps a hint that her character is suffering from some serious denial issues. She is after all convinced she wants to kill Aphra who is another one of Sana’s ex’es. It seems Sana has separation issues.

Aside from that, Aphra and Luke deal with their own problems. On one hand, the queen is feeding off of Luke via some strange chair and a series of tubes. She’s literally drinking him like some Force slurpy. Aphra gets her Force ghost possessed rock unlocked so she can talk to Rur, battles with her conscience, and ultimately decides to rescue Luke. Aside from that, there’s two key points worth covering. Number one, they further develop the hive mind thing with the symbiotes and how that is working with all the weirdos in the castle. The queen is infected like everyone else, however, due to her power, she’s on top of the food chain and can control the symbiotes. In fact she can even sever herself from the symbiotes if need be. This is why they don’t let certain species like Wookiees get infected because they can topple the hierarchy and challenge her right to rule. The second thing is that Luke gets infected with a symbiote which in turn allows him to challenge the queen for control of the symbiote hive mind. So, yeah, Luke is infected by some weird vampire bug.

All in all, the story continues to be weird with some less than stellar character development. Most of the characters are stagnant with Aphra being the only one who is going anywhere. With one more issue, we are sure to see the queen being killed, the hive being destroyed, Luke and Han being saved from the symbiotes, the planet saved, Sana and Aphra making some kind of peace, and everyone going off on their merry ways. Or they could surprise us. I’m really hoping for a surprise, otherwise this whole arc could be a bust.

Artwise, this issue looked so much better than the last Screaming Citadel issue that I’m pretty much willing to forgive it of its flaws. Those being a few confusing action scenes. Larroca decides to continue the vampire confetti effect to show the queens powers, which I could have done without. Otherwise there’s some good artwork in this issue with the character closeups and the coloring and lighting.

With good artwork, a weird story, and so so writing, I give Star Wars #32 a three out of five metal bikinis. I looking forward to this arc ending, but not so much because I want to see how this ends, so much as I just want to get away from it.

Reviewed By: Skuldren for Roqoo Depot.