Published: June 14, 2023
Rating: Rated T
Writer: Justina Ireland
Artist: Pere Pérez
Colour Artist: Dono Sánchez-Almara, Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: VC’s Travis Lanham
Cover Artist: Ken Lashley & Juan Fernandez
The synopsis;
THE STARROS FAMILY INFILTRATES AN IMPERIAL DESTROYER. WHAT CAN GO WRONG?
• SANA STARROS and bounty hunter DEVA LOMPOP have boarded the KING’S RANSOM to save one of their family.
• But once they find out they’ve been betrayed, the STARROS CLAN will never be the same!
The review;
The final issue of this mini-series. Last issue, I said that it felt like something was missing, namely Sana, yet after such a strong start, Justina Ireland has earned the trust of her fans that she knows what she is doing. The finale of it all is the perfect way to wrap everything up, to show us what it was all for. With incredible artwork by Peré Perez, I’m quietly excited to see what this issue will hold.
The first thing that you can’t help but notice is the artwork by Perez. He grabs you from the very first panel, with an image of the Imperial cruiser that then forms the background to the rest of the panels on the page. It’s so beautifully done that I thought this would be my favourite page of the issue, oh how I was wrong. The lack of colour in flashbacks is utilised so well that it doesn’t seem jarring but helps keep the flow of the story. Not only that, but the action scenes, particularly the dog fights, are represented so well, you can hear the TIE’s zooming past the panels. However, there is a full-page panel later in the comic that will make your jaw drop wide open. it combines two different scenes together and Perez amalgamates them together perfectly. It’s one of those panels that you have to take a moment or two to just take in before you can move on. considering the point in the story, it is exactly what you want the reader to do. If you can’t tell from all the different types of art that I’ve mentioned, Perez brings a lot to this issue, showing just how wide his range is and how capable he is of meeting every need of the story.
There is a lot of action in this issue and as the finale, there should be. Do we see enough of Sana compared to last week? I’m not sure that we do. We do see her as she tries to rescue her family and how quickly she adapts to any situation she is presented with. When one solution doesn’t work, she quickly moves on and forms another and another. It is why she is so good at what she does, why she has been able to get Doctor Aphra out of several spots. She is quick on her feet. To the overall story of Sana and how these fits into Doctor Aphra, Ireland leaves that very much in the air. We see more of Lanitra and how far that relationship has come with Sana. Again, I feel like we needed to see more of this, more flirtations, more interactions and yes, more of Sana.
The Imperial side to these has always been this series’ strongest aspect and the same can be said for this conclusion. Phel and Sana have a showdown. Ireland doesn’t stretch this out, Sana knows what she has to do and does it with no hesitation. She won’t kill her brother, but the option she gives him makes the reader realise just how deluded Phel knows he is. Although he pretends the Empire is his new family, he knows his real worth to them, or lack thereof. It brings the word stubborn very quickly to mind and realise how far down the wrong path he has gone. Ireland also teases that there is something much more going on with him, with missing memories that might have changed his mind about the path that he was on. There is enough mystery here that, for at least this part of the story, I want to know more.
The real surprise in this issue and a very positive one, was the appearance of Honda Ohnaka. The character is a favourite here at Jedi News and to see him here, in his typical arrogant way was just perfect. He makes little difference to the storyline but even so, he’s the type of character you’d expect to be running around with Sana’s crowd. The fact that he listens to no one and just does his thing is perfect! The other thing that is done very well is the comparison of life and death, that at the same time as troopers being killed is the birth of life of Aryssha’s twins.
An action-packed finale that brings some answers yet raises more questions. Clearly there is going to be another series where some of these new questions will be addressed; on the issue of Phel and the Imperials this is very welcome. But this series as a whole, one that was to focus on Sana and her family feels like it came up slightly short, at least for me. I love the character of Sana and she has been utilised so well in the Doctor Aphra series. Here, it feels like Ireland has cast her net a little too wide, tried to include a little too much, that in the end it feels like we’ve had a fleeting glimpse of the characters and not really delved into them. Although I want to know about Sana’s family, this is really in relation to what it tells us about Sana, not her family directly. The parts about the Empire and Aryssha are fantastic, and Ireland really provides interesting insight, but this is one part of a two-sided story, and the other side is what I came to read about in this series. This really is for the most die-hard fans, the ones that really want to read around Aphra and fill in some of the gaps that are occurring within that storyline. The impact of this series on that is still to be determined, it could be quite impactful, or it could just be a pebble thrown into a very big galaxy.
Availability;
Sana Starros is a 5-part mini-series available from Marvel Comics and retails at $3.99. This issue is available via the ComiXology and all good comic book stores.
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