The Star Warriors take a working vacation in Star Wars #29, written by Charles Soule, art by Ramon Rosanas, colored by Rachelle Rosenberg and lettered by Clayton Cowles.
Star Wars #29 kicks off a new story that is part of the proud (?) tradition in genre storytelling of “main characters take a vacation in the middle of a crisis.” To enjoy such a story, one must first accept the argument at the center of it: that the benefit of the characters in question taking a break from specific challenges to refresh and recharge outweighs the cost of their subsequent inaction (for example, how many people across the galaxy are suffering under the yoke of the Empire while the heroes of the Rebellion are hanging out poolside in this issue?). Once that premise has been accepted, the “vacation story” faces the same question as any other story: how well does it work?
In Star Wars #29, it works well enough. That it succeeds at all is based on two factors. The first is that the issue is largely a character study of Amilyn Holdo, Princess Leia’s friend, future Resistance Vice Admiral and executor of the most badass capital ship maneuver in Star Wars history. While younger here than in her later portrayal, writer Charles Soule taps into the later characters’ presentation for inspiration. We can see, for example, the character’s inclination for out-of-the-box solutions on display here. The Rebel vacation at the heart of the issue comes at Holdo’s urgings, and it quickly becomes clear there’s more to her suggestion that Leia and her friends chill at an upscale resort than it first appears. In that, we also see Holdo’s tendency to keep her plans close to the vest, sharing critical information only when necessary, a tendency which so bedeviled Poe Dameron and a certain segment of viewers in The Last Jedi.
The second reason Star Wars #29 works is that it quickly becomes clear this isn’t *really* a “heroes take a vacation” story. While plenty such stories typically end up with the vacationing heroes pulled into some sort of conflict, here it is revealed that this was Holdo’s plan all along: the “vacation” is just a cover for the Rebels to purchase an antique Nihil starship which, Holdo believes, holds the key to solving the Rebellion’s fuel issues (Holdo being involved in matters of starship fuel is another Last Jedi nod).
This leads to the issue’s requisite action scene when, after Leia and Holdo fail to win the ship at auction while bidding against the curator of an Imperial museum, Lando suggests they just steal it instead, and a firefight breaks out as Luke and his lightsaber are (smartly) used to draw the attention of the Stormtroopers guarding the craft.
It’s all pretty standard stuff, right down to the “twist” that once aboard the antique ship, Holdo is crestfallen to discover her hunch was wrong and it won’t be able to lead the way to a hidden cache of starship fuel, only for, in the end, the ship to seemingly take the Rebels to a mysterious location when they use it to escape the pursuing Imperial forces, with the setup obviously being that Holdo was right along. But it gets by thanks to the character work, from the way each character spends their time on vacation — Lando and Chewie play cards with each other, supernerd Luke Skywalker studies a book about the Force, and Leia frets about being on vacation — to Lando bringing his status as a gambler, swindler, and smuggler to bear on his read of the auction and his advice for how to modify Holdo’s plan. And it works largely for the way it brings Holdo into the mix, both in new ways — such as her affinity for Republic history and an almost Indiana Jones-esque perspective on some of its legends — and ways that underscore her existing characterization from The Last Jedi.
Force Facts
- Artist Ramon Rosanas returns to the series with this issue, the same month as he begins drawing the new Star Trek series, which has to be some kind of record.
- The details of Holdo’s plan in this issue all tie in to the High Republic era: the ship she tries to buy at auction (and which the Rebels later steal) is one of the Nihil vehicles, and Holdo believes the special path engine used by the Nihil to travel unconventionally through hyperspace is the key to finding the legendary stash of fuel.
- Holdo mentions that Crimson Dawn hasn’t come through in their offer of supplying the Republic, which seems like a wink at the fact that the Crimson Dawn subplot has mostly fizzled in this series.
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
