Star Wars Adventures: Smuggler’s Run #1 - Comic Review

These days, it seems there is a new Star Wars story announced every other day … no complaints here!

Between live action, animation, publishing and comics, our cups runneth over. With this endless content, it’s a great time to be a Star Wars fan. It also can be daunting; many hardcore fans I’ve spoken with just don’t have the time or bandwidth to get into the litany of books released since Disney acquired the IP, regardless of the quality. However, these fans still want to know what’s going on, and experience the fun associated with digesting a new Star Wars story. Luckily, both IDW and Marvel have endeavored to make that fun more accessible by bringing some of these stories to comics.

IDW’s Star Wars Adventures: Smuggler’s Run #1 is the latest in that effort, with Alec Worley adapting writer Greg Rucka’s similarly-named 2015 novel Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens Smuggler’s Run: A Han Solo Adventure, and we are immediately reintroduced to the greatest “odd couple” in a galaxy far, far away. Set immediately after the events of Star Wars: A New Hope, the Rebel Alliance is scrambling to evacuate from Yavin IV and rightfully fearing the Empire’s reprisal for the destruction of the Death Star. At the same time, a very important Rebel asset named Ematt is on the run from the Imperial Security Bureau (ISB) many parsecs away in the Outer Rim. Ematt isn’t just a spy; he knows far too much about the network of current and potential Rebel base locations to slip into enemy hands. Ruthless ISB Commander Alecia Beck, her imposing figure channeling Rocky IV-era Brigitte Nielsen (albeit with a cybernetic eye), and a bevy of Stormtroopers are hot on Ematt’s heels and there are no Rebel ships fast enough to make it to him in time.

“‘Fast ship?’”

Leia, flush out of better options, begs the still-very-much-a-scoundrel Han Solo to take the job who, under protest (and shamed by everyone’s favorite furry moral compass), sets off with Chewbacca to the planet Cyrkon, neither particularly thrilled to be jaunting into Hutt-controlled space. Touching down on the city of Motok, it only takes our heroes a few moments before everything goes sideways. Turns out Ematt is not the only one being hunted now … and Beck is not the only one doing the hunting. Enter Captain Delia Leighton, an enchanting and enigmatic ”friend” from Chewie and Han’s past. Will she buy Han’s flirtation with altruism (or whatever it is when you do a good deed and get paid well for it), or will she put a blaster bolt in him? Danger at every turn, will these harrowing, edge-of-your-seat hijinks be too much to bear for our heroes? Maybe for us … but this is a ho-hum kind of day in the lives of Han Solo and Chewbacca, the galaxy’s greatest drama kings.

Star Wars writers always have absurdly large shoes to fill, and working with such iconic characters makes them doubly imposing. Worley proves they’re up to the task with dialogue masterfully capturing the relationships we’ve all grown accustomed to (and fond of) between Han and Leia, and of course Han and Chewie. I’ve always felt that, if you read it and you can almost hear a pre-curmudgeon Harrison Ford saying it, you’ve done your job. Cheers also to artist Ingo Römling. From Yavin to the bridge of the Star Destroyer Vehement to Leighton’s den of disrepute, every panel crackled. Particularly noteworthy were the scenes in Motok. My throat is still sore from traveling with Han and Chewie through its dusty, polluted streets! Amauri Osorio’s lettering and design work is exemplary and also fits perfectly with both the art and writing, managing to keep the very important dialogue in place while still allowing the art to flourish.

Behind this team and the solid core story, I’m ready to hop in in the Falcon for issue #2. How about you?