Crimson Reign #1 - Comic Review

Following the epic War of the Bounty Hunters crossover event, Crimson Reign #1 finds Crimson Dawn leader Lady Qi’ra officially putting the group’s plans into motion. What started as an auction for the carbonite frozen body of Han Solo turned into a very loud statement of the syndicate’s return. Now, with her plan set in motion following their appearance at the auction, Qi’ra sets Crimson Dawn and her various criminals and factions working for her into the greater galaxy. Qi’ra’s end game is to destroy the Sith. With groups like the Knights of Ren and Chanath Cha and The Orphans as well as violent criminals such as Deathstick and Ochi of Bestoon at their disposal, Crimson Dawn plants the seeds of chaos throughout the galaxy by first going after the various crime syndicates and setting them against each other!

Writer Charles Soule, fresh off the first part in this epic Crimson Dawn trilogy with War of the Bounty Hunters, continues the story of Qi’ra and her war on the dark side with Crimson Reign #1. This issue covers a massive amount of prep and information about the history of Crimson Dawn, Qi’ra, it’s past leaders, as well as her future and the future of the group overall. It’s deep, rich, and full of surprises, including the name drop of a certain Legends character that was huge during the time between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. Soule has crafted an enticing and fascinating beginning to the second part of his trilogy that now breaks open the lore and world of Star Wars in a wonderful and exciting way!

The visual artistic team for Crimson Reign #1 is made up of artist Steven Cummings, colorist GURU-eFX, and letterer VC’s Travis Lanham who have created an epic work of art on par with the massive scope of Soule’s writing. There’s so many characters, be it crime syndicates, various criminals, civilians, Imperials, and more as well as plenty of settings and planets that litter the pages and Cummings and GURU-eFX have done a stunning job with all of them! It’s a testament to their skill as artists that each and every panel feels just as fresh as the rest, never once feeling like a location or character design we have already seen (unless it’s a recurring character, of course). Lanham, as always, kills it with this issue as well. His lettering is stunning throughout and I’m a huge fan of how he used italics and boldness to convey emphasis when characters are speaking. He also utilizes sound effects less than expected, but that just makes the action pieces that he chooses to use them for that much more intense and effective.

Leinil Francis Yu and Sunny Gho did the cover art for Crimson Reign #1 and my goodness is it stunning. Vader and Palpatine’s menacing profiles cover the background of the cover while Qi’ra, looking muscular and incredibly badass, stands in the foreground holding her weapons ready for anything. There’s a slew of variant covers for this issue from various artists most of which depict a single character from the various sides within this event. The Enemies of Dawn variant is by Clayton Crain and features Darth Vader. Valerio Giangiordano and Arif Prianto bring us Warriors of Dawn with Qi’ra as the focus. Rahzzah gives us the Knights of Ren variant showing off one of the members of the dark group of warriors. And Khoi Pham and Lee Loughridge brought the crew of Jabba the Hutt (C-3PO included) for the Syndicate cover. David Lopez also did a variant with Sabacc cards, the main piece here being a hand of Sabacc with one card featuring Qi’ra herself. Ario Anindito and Edgar Delgado did the Connecting cover with a stunning profile of Darth Vader. And last, but not least, interior artist and colorist Steven Cummings and GURU-eFX have an incredible cover to themselves featuring major players throughout the issue looking cool as hell.

Crimson Reign #1 starts the beginning of the middle part of Qi’ra and Crimson Dawn’s epic trilogy off with a bang. Rich with lore, world building, excitement, and teases of larger events to come, this issue is a must read for everyone interested in the greater Star Wars galaxy! So fire up your swoop bikes and head on down to your local comic shop to pick up an issue today!