Review: Star Wars Halcyon Legacy #5

These past few months are pretty awful times for fans of Star Wars literature and Star Wars: The Halcyon Legacy #5 is a perfect example why. Star Wars comics should be interesting, action packed, filled with nuanced characters and interesting conflicts. Instead we get a watered down tie-in to the failing Galactic Starcruiser which ends with a completely anti climatic cameo.

This book should be drawing in less seasoned fans to the world building around the Galactic Starcruiser experience. The past few issues have done a fair job of this by highlighting the current crew but then showing flashbacks with familiar characters on the Halcyon. This issue takes a massive step back.

The current story has a pirate working for the First Order searching for a Resistance spy who has rebel codes. The flashback features some minor characters facing off against bounty hunters including 4-Lom, Zuckess and Bossk. Unfortunately the bounty hunters are barely featured and they are simply foils for the much less interesting heroes.

Will Sliney and Rachelle Rosenberg do fantastic work with the art and colors but it feels wasted among so many characters and concepts we just don’t care about. To have an entire series conclude without us knowing anything about Captain Keevan or Lenka Mok is such a wasted opportunity. The book is supposed to make us care about the Halcyon and it’s crew but instead we are given garden variety capers that just happen to occur on this ship.

The issue ends with the capture of the Resistance spy and the revelation that he never had the codes. Instead we flash down planetside as Vi from the Star Wars novels delivers the code. Bringing in an extraneous character that new readers may not even recognize is such an odd choice for a moment to end on. There are some action scenes which do keep things interesting between the pointless plot. Bossk takes on Stolak and quickly loses, 4-Lom takes on Stolak and R’Tess and quickly loses. Pirates take on a cruise director and quickly lose.

The art in the action scenes make them exciting in spite of the absolute lowest stakes possible. The fact that most of the action takes place in a flashback also robs us of any real concern for the characters involved. Tie in books are meant to bring in new readers to comics and bring comic readers to the featured attraction. Neither of these are likely to occur with the standard, pointless ending to this series.

Writing: 1 of 5 stars
Art: 4 of 5 stars
Colors: 3 of 5 stars

Overall: 2.6 of 5 stars

Writer: Ethan Sacks
Art: Will Sliney
Colors: Rachelle Rosenberg
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.