Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Shattered Empire #3

JOURNEY TO STAR WARS THE FORCE AWAKENS - SHATTERED EMPIRE #3

Written by: Greg Rucka
Art by: Marco Checchetto & Angel Unzueta
Cover by: Marco Checchetto,
Colored by: Andres Mossa
Lettered by: VC's Joe Caramagna

Published by: Marvel
Cover Price: $3.99

Warning! This review contains quite a few spoilers!

This issue starts with Kes and the rest of the Rebel Special Forces working to seize an Imperial Security Bureau Black Site on the Outer Rim planet Tayron. Meanwhile, on Naboo, the Imperial Forces have set up weather manipulation satellites all around the planet. Princess Leia, Naboo's queen, and Shara take to the sky in fighters to save Naboo from Imperial Forces. They find a Star Destroyer waiting for them. They are about to be overwhelmed when Lando and a Rebel Fleet arrive to save the day. Despite all the dangers their faced, Kes and Shara manage to survive this issue to reunite and probably have some sexy time off panel before the next and final issue.

Over and over again, they keep putting Kes and Shara in situations where they looked like they were going to die, only to save them at the last minute. At this point, they almost can't kill them just because it has been that heavily foreshadowed. But they basically have to die at some point. Actually that could be a great plot twists. Poe lived a happy, normal, well adjusted life with both parents. A heroic character who is not an orphan? Yeah...that just isn't going to happen.

The scenes on Naboo were cool. I especially loved when Leia got a quick flash through the force of Darth Maul's battle with Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon Jinn. Leia's connections to Naboo run deep...her mother was queen and her father helped save Naboo from the Trade Federation when he was still a kid. Leia knows just about nothing about her parents, and Naboo holds a lot of the answers. Though neither Leia nor anyone on Naboo is able to make that connection.

I did think that the Empire's plan to disrupt Naboo by creating weather satellites was a little strange. I can't help but think about Cobra's Weather Dominator. Go Joe! It's not like the Empire was trying to be subtle about their plans to take Naboo. They sent a whole frickin Star Destroyer. But I've been reading comics for close to 25 years now. If nothing else, I can suspend my disbelief for unusual plot contrivances.

Honestly, Shattered Empire hasn't had anything majorly wrong. Most of my complaints come off as petty and nitpicky. I get that. I just was expecting a little more from this series. Greg Rucka is one of my favorite writers, and he wrote a real good Star Wars story in SMUGGLER'S RUN. By the way, he will be doing a short stories about Rey, Finn, and Poe (the three main characters in THE FORCE AWAKENS) in the anthology BEFORE THE AWAKENING, which comes out the same day THE FORCE AWAKENS debuts in theaters.

One thing I have loved about this series continues to be the gorgeous art. Marco Checchetto does terrific work here, managing to keep up with all the action sequences in a wide variety of settings. I definitely want to see him do more STAR WARS. He could do some great posters for THE FORCE AWAKENS.

For some reason, Marvel is releasing issues 2, 3, and 4 in three consecutive weeks, so I guess I'll be back to do this again one more time in a week. See you then!

Score: 4/5