Star Wars #40

Star Wars #40

Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Salvador Larroca
Colorist: Guru-eFX
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Cover Artists: David Marquez & Matthew Wilson

Star Wars #40 gets weird as they delve deeper into the ashes of Jedha. Luke fights with Saw’s surviving partisans as they take out a mining base, then gets talked into a pilgrimage to the void. That’s when things get strange.

The attack on the mining base goes pretty much as you expect it. The good guys win, and Saw’s partisans slaughter everyone, which doesn’t sit well with Luke. Afterwards, Chulco talks with Luke and convinces him that they need to go to the shrine of the Cult of the Central Isopter in order to visit the place where the Great Temple used to be. Now it is only a void, but perhaps also a nexus of the dark side. And the Cult of the Central Isopter might not be that friendly. Regardless, it’s kind of fun exploring these different Force religions that were represented in Rogue One.

There’s some other stuff that happens in the issue. Queen Trios sends in a bigger mining citadel ship, thus placating the Empire and their worries over losing the first mining base. Leia also reveals what here last words were with her father, which is pretty neat, and also ties into Rogue One, though with an inevitable scene we never saw. Overall, there’s some action, some fun plot development, and some intrigue to keep readers interested in what will happen next.

The one bad thing about this issue is the artwork. Larroca is very persistent in his use of photo-realistic faces despite the fact the faces don’t match the look of the rest of the artwork. In this issue, it really stands out and looks bad. Unfortunately Larroca’s mish-mashing of photo-realism and standard comic art is not getting any better. Thankfully, it generally only ruins the panels that Han, Luke and Leia are in.

Despite the weird artwork, this issue is still really good. I give it a four out of five metal bikinis.

Reviewed By: Skuldren for Roqoo Depot.