Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters Alpha #1 by Charles Soule
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The name’s Fett, Boba Fett.
Or…for much of this comic, he’s Jango…great choice of a pseudonym there…heh…
But, yeah, this is really good, which shouldn’t be surprising to anyone who’s familiar with the work of Charles Soule or Steve McNiven. Speaking of McNiven, this book is gorgeous, and Soule is also on great form here.
This is ground that Star Wars has trodden before, specifically in the now Legends multi-media event, Shadows of the Empire. The basic conceit is: What happened between Boba Fett leaving Cloud City and delivering Han Solo, encased in carbonite, to Jabba on Tatooine? If you thought the answer to that was along the lines of, “He sat back and read a good holo-novel while he travelled through hyperspace,” then this thirty-four part crossover, spanning the next six months of Star Wars comics, is sure to set you straight.
You see, the carbonite Solo’s encased in is degrading, and to get someone to fix it Boba Fett is forced to take part in a gladiatorial tournament, by the end of which someone has assassinated the person who was going to fix it and nicked Han and the carbonite block he’s in. That person, or persons, is almost certainly another bounty hunter…and so…the war of the bounty hunters begins.
Now, I will say here that a thirty-four part crossover spanning six months is absolutely absurd, and for people who aren’t already reading/collecting all the Marvel Star Wars comics (I assume that other people aren’t obsessively buying every canon Star Wars novel and comic…and to those people I ask…what’s it like to have shelf space?) I suspect it’s as likely to put them off entirely as it is to get them to buy everything…but, then, the REAL market for this stuff is in trade paperback form, so what does it really matter? But, as I’m buying everything anyway, it doesn’t really bother me. I’m just here to sit back and enjoy the ride!
One last thought, if Hasbro are paying attention, can we expect an all black Boba Fett action figure soon?
Random Ramblings Of A Ragamuffin 