Review: Star Wars Bounty Hunters #13

After last issue’s sharp, focused story-telling, Bounty Hunters #13 dives head first into the War of the Bounty Hunters crossover with a battle between Chewbacca and Valance. The artwork by Paolo Villanelli continues to impress with great character work, great action sequences and a style that keeps all the characters recognizable but still maintains a unique style. The writing is fantastic when it focuses on Valance and Dengar but is a bit weaker in other places.

Chewbacca clearly has reason to hate Valance as he believes Valance betrayed and tried to kill Han Solo. It does not help that he’s accompanied by Dengar who electrocuted Chewbacca at their prior visit. Every one collides in the markets of Nar Shadaa as they search for Boba Fett and Han Solo’s Carbonite body.

Valance and Dengar are a great pairing and seeing them alternately help and betray each other in small and large ways is endlessly entertaining. As they question witnesses as to the whereabouts of Han through decidedly aggressive questioning techniques, they insult each other and bicker like brothers. The action shifts to Chewbacca and C-3PO trying to find Han nearby before all parties run into each other and Chewbacca attacks Valance.

Just as things are getting good the momentum is stolen by a pointless interlude with T’Onga and Losha. They are on Dotharian and trip on the aftermath of a battle. They discover the culprits are the resurrected Crimson Dawn, a sequence meant to show how ruthless that group is, but in a toned down world of mainstream comics neither the art nor the scene convey the devastation with any visceral impact. That and Valance discovering the same information about the Crimson Dawn’s return at the end of the issue makes these scenes feel pointless and disruptive.

The action returns to Chewbacca battling Valance and Dengar. The battle is solid but we don’t really get Chewbacca’s perspective on the conflict as Valance explains that he never meant to hurt Han. This has been a limitation with story-telling involving Chewbacca that countless creators have struggled with. Because the comics and novels can’t simply translate his speech without betraying a core part of the character there is a separation between the reader and Chewbacca that many writers can’t overcome. Having C-3PO simply follow him everywhere and translate his anger and disgust simply worsens the problem. This problem was so common that the old expanded universe simply gave up and idiotically killed the character off. The Chewbacca miniseries did a better job of this, playing Chewbacca off of other characters more directly rather than constantly ignoring his perspective or needing to translate all his words.

At the end of the tale, Chewbacca takes Valance at his word and leaves in peace but tells him to stay out of his way. Valance in turn continues to work his witness and discovers that Crimson Dawn has returned. The return of Crimson Dawn is a massive game changer and its exciting to see it being used in multiple books. Hopefully this threat continues on well past this crossover. When this comic stays focused on one conflict and remains character driven it shines, when it makes tangents or makes plot override characterization in struggles. Overall this is an excellent issue with great art and great action, here’s hoping this crossover brings a renewed sense of focus to this book.

Writing: 3.3 of 5 stars
Art: 4.3 of 5 stars
Colors: 4.0 of 5 stars

Overall: 3.8 of 5 stars

Writing: Ethan Sacks
Art: Paolo Villanelli
Colors: Arif Prianto
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Author Profile

M.R. Jafri

M.R. Jafri was born and raised in Niagara Falls New York and now lives with his family in Detroit Michigan. He's a talkative introvert and argumentative geek. His loves include Star Wars, Star Trek, Superheroes, Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, Transformers, GI Joe, Films, Comics, TV Shows, Action Figures and Twizzlers.