Star Wars (2020) #19 - Comic Review

During the War of the Bounty Hunters Luke Skywalker had a deadly encounter with Darth Vader above Crimson Dawn’s flagship and auction of the carbonite frozen body of Han Solo. In order to distract Vader so the Rebels had a chance to retrieve Solo, Luke called him out and challenged him to a fight between Vader and himself in their respective fighters. After Vader let him go, claiming Luke was no threat due to being afraid of facing his father, our lovable Jedi in training now seeks a way to continue, and eventually complete, his training to become a full fledged Jedi Knight. His trusty droid R2-D2 has uncovered a list made by the Empire of planets that might have Jedi temples located on them. Star Wars (2020) #19 finds Luke and Artoo crossing various planets off the list, whether it’s places he already knows he will have no success on such as Jedha or Tempes or planets he visits only to be stopped by the Empire or the Force itself like the fan favorites that make brief, but exciting, appearances here. He inevitably lands on a moon known as Al’doleem, a place readers might recognize from the early issues of Charles Soule’s run on Darth Vader (2017), and encounters someone who seems to be friendly toward Jedi and willing to help Luke if they can!

Writer Charles Soule brings us one of the best issues of this current run with Star Wars (2020) #19 by leaving behind the massive interconnected world of the previous storyline and War of the Bounty Hunters event and going back to basics in following a singular character, studying his emotions, and delving into just what it means to be a Jedi. Within just this one issue we get Luke Skywalker’s character bare on the page for everyone to see. Soule gives us Luke’s struggles and doubts, let’s us feel them as strongly as Luke feels them, and shows how he can overcome them and become not just a better Jedi, but a better person. This issue is a stunning character study that’s up there with the best issues of Marvel’s Star Wars comics to date!

The visual artistic team for Star Wars (2020) #19 consists of artist Marco Castiello, colorist Rachelle Rosenberg, and letterer VC’s Clayton Cowles and together they absolutely match Soule’s writing with their own equally stunning work throughout this issue. While the fun, glossy, and flashy look of a lot of today’s Star Wars comics is very gorgeous and exciting, Castiello and Rosenberg gave this issue a more rugged and rough look that hearkens back to a look of the 90s and early 2000s in a beautiful way. The art is perfect for this story and feels right for a more restrained and down to earth tale of character and overcoming personal adversity. Also the way they crafted the various worlds that we’ve seen previously in various media, especially two worlds that are very core to the Star Wars universe, was absolutely breathtaking. Cowles’ lettering goes a long way as well, especially when it comes to an issue with a large lack of action. Cowles gets to focus on the main speech and thought bubbles as well as draw up constant noises for when Artoo is talking to the characters and gives a wonderful sense of fun character to the little astromech! Everyone on the visual arts team gets to be as restrained with this issue as Soule was writing it and it absolutely pays off in the most beautiful ways.

The main cover art of Star Wars (2020) #19 comes from artists Carlo Pagulayan, Jason Paz, and Rain Beredo and shows an imminent showdown between Luke, lightsaber at the ready, facing off against two Stormtroopers! It’s a beautiful piece and, while not fully representing the story inside, does have a sense of restraint as well that the writing and interior art have that sets a nice and exciting tone for the story inside. There’s also a few variant covers for this issue including a very impressive and epic feeling piece by E.M. Gist as well as another Action Figure variant, this time with the Ewok Lumat, from John Tyler Christopher. And of course no list of variant covers this year would be complete without a Lucasfilm 50th Anniversary cover from Chris Sprouse, Karl Story, and Neeraj Menon! This time they’ve given us their depiction of Cassian Andor and his droid companion K-2SO as well as their U-wing starfighter from Rogue One in the background!

Star Wars (2020) #19 is a very restrained and beautiful issue focusing mainly on character study and light world building as Luke Skywalker goes on his personal journey to finish his Jedi training. It’s a beautiful piece of art that sets itself high up in the list of best Marvel Star Wars comics to date. So fire up your X-wing and fly on down to your local comic shop to pick up an issue today!