Relationship Drama Takes Over Bounty Hunters This Week in a Two-For-One Review

We promise “NO disintegrations” as CXF’s Star Wars team brings you a Bounty Hunters 2-in-1 Review!

First up…

Bounty Hunters are makin’ up in Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #15. Written by Ethan Sacks. Drawn by Paolo Villanelli. Colored by Arif Pritano. Lettered by Travis Lanham.

The Scum & Villainy section of Marvel’s Star Wars toy-box gets to some good ol’ fashioned male bonding and team building in Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #15.

Still operating on the edges of Marvel’s latest War Of The Bounty Hunters crossover, Bounty Hunters #15 continues the title’s streak of taking it’s relationships really seriously. Cyborg bounty hunter Beilert Valance and Empire Strikes Back scene-stealer Dengar are still on the run from the Crimson Dawn’s Deathstick, taking to the streets of Nar Shaddaa in order to find a ship that allows them to get after Boba Fett. And save Han Solo, thus redeeming Valance (or so, he thinks) in the meantime.

But on the other side of the galaxy, our other pair of leads, T’onga and Losha, find their former syndicate continually ravaged by the Crimson Dawn’s crossover-inspiring gambit and resolve to put a team together to strike back. A team that includes my main bug-man Zuckuss, recently wounded, literally and figuratively by his partner 4-LOM, and a younger Tasu Leech. Ya know, that ultra-badass played by The Raid’s Yayan Ruhian. 

Just on the surface, Bounty Hunters #15 continues to deliver more classically entertaining scoundrel-based action. The story-ripples cast out by the event’s main action really compliment Bounty Hunters’ ongoing action and keeps all the characters reacting to everything around them; a fun wrinkle that elevates Star Wars’ more morally dubious characters overall.

But writer Ethan Sacks, backed by the kinetically expressive art team of Paolo Villanelli and Arif Pritano, continues to put a real beating heart behind all the backstabbing and blaster-ing. For one thing, Dengar and Valance again act as an unexpectedly great double-act. Both of them are a specifically different kind of surly and compliment each other well during all the patter and scene building. T’onga and Losha somewhat suffer with the comparison, as they don’t really have as clear of a dynamic as Dengar and Valance, but still add to the duos-focused energy of the title.

And better still, you can really tell the creative team is working to make them all real people. I joked a little on Twitter that it’s interesting that this whole arc has been predicated on a dork cyborg (Valance) trying to get a cool kid (Han Solo) to like him again, but Bounty Hunters #15 really calls my bluff in the best way. See, Sacks here, using the backdrop of the divisive, but still immensely cool Canto Bight, continues to peel away both Dengar and Valance’s bluster, getting closer still to their personal motivations and how it’s brought them closer together in the meantime. 

I know people don’t really come to Star Wars for “intimate explorations of intense male friendships” but I am really happy Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #15 gives us that option. All wrapped in some splashy, two-fisted action artwork to boot! Though this issue might require a little more investment in an event than reader’s are willing to give, Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #15 continues to surprise thanks to putting its heart, not blaster pistol, forward. 

Bounty Hunters are breakin’ up in Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters – 4-LOM & Zuckuss #1. Written by Daniel José Older. Drawn by Kei Zama. Colored by Felipe Sobreiro. Lettered by Ariana Maher.

One of Star Wars’ most enduring power couples breaks up in grandly hilarious fashion in Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters – 4-LOM & Zuckuss #1.

Written by the constantly entertaining Daniel José Older (read Last Shot, y’all) and illustrated by IDW Publishing’s Transformers breakout Kei Zama, this one-shot is a tersely funny break-up story played straighter than a slab of beskar. One only Star Wars could support. 

Set after the events of War of the Bounty Hunters #1, we open on the legendary Gand findsman Zuckuss in major distress. Some might even say heartache. His partner, the droll FOR-ELLOEM, has been destroyed by Boba Fett and his head then stolen for further insult. He wanders the streets of Nar Shaddaa listless, worried that his future as a bounty hunter is now ruined as he recounts the tale of their first partnership to a rowdy, but largely uninterested, open-air cantina. Meanwhile, that same story is coming back to haunt Zuckuss in the now, bringing a re-programmed and upgraded 4-LOM back into his life…just in time to kill him!

Though the awkward placement of this one-shot in the crossover’s order muddies some action, Older’s script is really sharp throughout. His Zuckuss is fussy but hilariously mournful, swaying wildly from whistful recountments one moment to murderous rages the next, giving the mercurial Gand a really compelling drive throughout. Even better, he actually sells the “heartbreak” of their separation, making it a real moment when they are forced to meet as enemies and handily exploring throughout the issue how that will upset their standings throughout the world of bounty hunting.

Artists Kei Zama and Felipe Sobreiro also prove wonderful companions for Older’s droll storytelling. Bringing to this one-shot the same blocky, but expressive energy that made Optimus Prime such a great read, Zama’s take on Star Wars scum is just instantly fun. With nary a humanoid in sight (save for one in the issue’s flashbacks), Zama leans into the creature and robotic designs of the franchise and makes them all feel like living, somewhat breathing, things. 

The pair also add a really cinematic quality to this one-shot that I wasn’t expecting. Thanks to Sobreiro’s lush, Technicolor inspired colors and Zama’s shifting panel-style (the “current” action is rendered in angled panel boxes, while the flashbacks are rounded), 4-LOM & Zuckuss #1 really stands out. This isn’t to say that the whole event looks “bad” or homogenous overall, it totally doesn’t. Zama and Sobreiro (scaffolded by Older’s surely particular script) just seem to have a very specific visual take on this story. A take rooted in film techniques and displayed in simple, entertainingly non-invasive ways. All of that just makes 4-LOM & Zuckuss #1 stand out all the more.

Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters – 4-LOM & Zuckuss #1 is obviously a cog in a much larger narrative machine, but it succeeds by playing its own game. With a sharp wit and even sharper visuals, this one-shot makes a pretty compelling case for being one of the best War of the Bounty Hunter efforts thus far. The fact that it’s about a bug-person and killer robot who break up and worry about how it will affect their work friends just makes that argument all the stronger.

Bounty Guild Transmissions 

• The “official” placement of these issues puts 4-LOM & Zuckuss #1 BEFORE Bounty Hunters #15, but I found that it really didn’t matter much either way. They both compliment each other well but if you want the “chronological” reading order it also won’t hurt your experience of either reading the other way round.
• Still VERY charmed by the writers all phonetically spelling FOR-ELLOEM when people talk about 4-LOM. It is the little things you have to hang onto, ya know?
• I didn’t even MENTION that Deva Lompop is in the 4/Z one-shot. THAT’S how good that thing is. So good that Deva Lompop being in it isn’t even the third best thing about it. 

Zachary Jenkins

Zachary Jenkins co-hosts the podcast Battle of the Atom and is the former editor-in-chief of ComicsXF. Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside all this.