TIE Fighter #5

TIE Fighter #5 (of 5)

Writer: Jody Houser
Artists: Roge Antonio, and Juan Gedeon
Colorists: Arif Prianto, and Dono Sanchez-Almara
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Cover Artist: Tommy Lee Edwards

TIE Fighter #5 brings the mini-series to an end, but I’m not sure what it accomplished. As a tie-in to the book, it really wasn’t much of a tie-in at all. As a standalone story, it was kind of mediocre. And in regards to the greater story of Star Wars, it really didn’t add anything. To be honest, it’s not a series I’d recommend to anyone.

With this last issue, Squadron 5 of Shadow Wing goes on a last mission to take out a mobile rebel training base, which is just a Rebel transport ship. Working together, they take it out and that takes up most of the issue, so there’s lots of action and dog fighting. With two new recruits in the squad, they do some on the job training. But what’s the point? This is the last issue. Building up these two new characters is a waste of time. On top of that, the series never fully explored the existing characters. There was never enough there to get me fully invested in any of them. And there was no big overall story for the series. No big accomplishment, no big reveal. The story ends with them finding out the second Death Star has been destroyed and Palpatine is dead. If you go on to read Alphabet Squadron, you won’t see these characters again as that book follows the Rebels, not the Imperials. Again, I’m not sure what the point was here.

Yet the missed opportunities are furthered muddied by the odd writing structure of all these issues. Like all the previous ones, this issue is broken into two stories which take place at different times. There’s the main story, then a follow-up story that focuses on Jeela and squad commander. They have a little chit chat bonding on the gun range. As a way to end the series, it was terribly anti-climatic. On one hand, I get the idea of trying to flesh out the characters with these little side stories. But the problem is the side stories don’t work. There’s not enough to the to flesh out the characters, and the timing of each of them is so out place that it hurts the overall story.

The artwork, at least, is pretty good. It’s bright and colorful and the action is easy to follow. There’s lots of emotional expression on the characters faces and it’s easy enough to see whose who. The artwork in the backstory was a little odd as the artist did some extra linework to make it look like there was motion and it just made the artwork look kind of bad.

In the end, I think this series was a miss. The last issue didn’t do anything to save it. Even if you were a fan of the book, I would not recommend this “tie-in” series since it doesn’t really have anything to do with the book. I give TIE Fighter #5 a two and a half out of five metal bikinis.

Reviewed By: Skuldren for Roqoo Depot.