The series checks in with Shara Bey, still chillinâ in the belly of a Star Destroyer, in Star Wars #21, written by Charles Soule, drawn by Marcos Castiello and Ramon Rosanas, colored by Rachelle Rosenberg and lettered by Clayton Cowles.
One of the ways a series like this – one featuring characters from another medium set in a time period in which the fates of said characters are largely known – can still present unexpected character arcs and plot twists is to build up a comics-only supporting cast.
Readers know that Luke is, eventually, going to become a Jedi like his father before him, that Leia will remain steadfast in her commitment to the Rebellion but still execute a rescue of Han Solo, that Lando will eventually become a Rebel general leading the assault on the second Death Star. Less certain (or, at least, more directly in the hands of writer Charles Soule and his creative team) are the directions and fates of characters like Shara Bey, Kes Dameron, and the members of the Pathfinders and Starlight Squadron groups. In them, the series has more freedom to push the characters further than with the âOriginal Trilogyâ stalwarts.Â
That said, events in the Star Wars comics world havenât allowed these comics-only characters much room to shine of late; the massive âWar of the Bounty Huntersâ crossover took over the narrative of the series for several issues, and when it concluded, other narrative threads – chiefly Lukeâs ongoing quest to complete his Jedi training, as covered in the previous two issues – needed to be addressed. Now, at last, the series returns to the plight of Shara Bey, the Rebel pilot and mother of Poe Dameron who got stranded aboard an Imperial Star Destroyer. It is unclear how long sheâs been stranded aboard the Tarkinâs Will in-universe, but itâs been roughly ten issues for readers, which certainly feels like a long time for her to have been living in the walls of an enemy ship.Â
To their credit, Soule and his collaborators (Rosanas handles the material with Kes amongst the Rebel fleet, while Castiello depicts Sharaâs adventures aboard Tarkinâs Will) make up for lost time by putting the focus squarely on Shara in this issue: of the movie characters, only Leia and Mon Mothma appear briefly, when the story cuts away to Sharaâs husband Kes deciding what to do about rescuing his long-absent wife. This focus allows for a larger view of what Shara has been up to, how sheâs been surviving, and how, maybe, she hasnât been as clever as sheâs thought, as Grand Moff Tarkin’s protĂ©gĂ© Commander Zahra is shown throughout the issue to be getting wise to Sharaâs antics.Â
Zahraâs role here is key. She has been the central non-movie antagonist of this volume of the series almost since the beginning, and while her admiration of Tarkin and zealous adherence to Imperial doctrine is well-established, her role in rooting out Shara in this issue helps cast that antagonism in more personal terms. We know she hates the Rebellion in general and wants to wipe them out, but in the same way the offscreen destruction of Alderaan doesnât carry the same emotional weight in A New Hope as the death of Obi-Wan Kenobi because the scale is more abstract and the distance between the audience and the people affected is greater, the site of Zahra running Shara through with a sword just ten seconds before she was about to escape to freedom, and return to her waiting husband and infant son, makes her threat and our reaction to her more personal and visceral. This escalation is an especially good thing to have happen as the larger, âThe Rebel fleet is in danger!â arc of the series appears to be heading towards something of a climax. Â
Ultimately, while devoting the issue to Sharaâs adventures is a quick and appreciated way to both shift Sharaâs story back into the focus of the main series narrative and increase Zahraâs impact as a villain, the extent of both Sharaâs actions to survive and Zahraâs quest to root her out would be more impactful if both had been doled out over a larger span of issues. Even if a few previous issues had just checked in on this subplot across one or two pages an issue, that build-up would have made the climactic showdown between the two in this issue hit harder and land with even more emotion. As it is, the return of the series to its âownâ plotlines (as opposed to ones dictated by the larger concerns of the overall line) continues to be enjoyable, even as the focus on Shara here feels long overdue.Â
Force Facts
- Yes, I recognize that for all my talk of original comic book characters having their fates more unknown than the movie characters, both Shara and Kes are âprequelâ characters here, in that weâve seen them in canonical events that take place after this series and thus know that Shara hasnât actually been killed by Zahra, all appearances to the contrary.Â
- The images of Shara climbing through the bowels of the Tarkinâs Will seem inspired by Rey in The Force Awakens.
- Â The revelation that the Tarkinâs Will is leaving its damaged portions damaged as a kind of memorial to the destruction of the Death Star (which is what caused the damage) makes for an effective visual representation of Zahra and her crewâs zealotry; the reveal that they left the bodies of everyone who died in those sections to lie where they fell just seems gross (if necessary, plot-wise, to give Shara access to equipment and disguises), especially since those sections still have atmosphere (Shara is seen moving through them without a helmet), which means the bodies are going to rot.Â
Austin Gorton also reviews older issues of X-Men at the Real Gentlemen of Leisure website, co-hosts the A Very Special episode podcast, and likes Star Wars. He lives outside Minneapolis, where sometimes, it is not cold. Follow him on Twitter @AustinGorton
