Star Wars: The Force Awakens #5 - Marvel Comics

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS No. 5, December 2016

Covering an incredible amount of story from Lawrence Kasdan, J.J. Abrams and Michael Arndt’s screenplay, this tumultuously superficial film adaption must have mortified many of the comic’s 39,329 readers in October 2016, with its brief account of Finn’s reunion with Poe at “the Resistance Base on D’Qar” and all-too sudden demise of Han Solo at the hands of his troubled son, Benjamin. True, Chuck Wendig’s narrative for Issue Five of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” does manage to exude plenty of pace and action, as Rey makes her escape “from the evil clutches of the First Order” and Black Leader is subsequently given “full authorisation to attack” Starkiller Base. But all these 'key' sequences are over so quickly that anyone within the book’s audience who were unable to previously watch the motion picture would surely have been scratching their heads as to just what was taking place…

Indeed, arguably crucial components of the franchise’s celluloid plot are seemingly just glossed over in order for the Goodreads Choice Award-winner to ensure that his script concludes with Kylon Ren’s treacherous killing of the Millennium Falcon’s captain and resultantly, the twenty-page periodical never explains just how Dameron helped his former stormtrooper friend end up briefing General Organa on Armitage Hux’s “hyper-lightspeed weapon built within the planet itself’, nor how precisely the Jakku scavenger convinces her guard to “remove these restraints. And leave the cell. With the door open… And you will drop your weapon!”

Just as clumsily handled is actor John Boyega’s sporadically humorous portrayal of FN-2187. Somewhat amusing on the silver screen, the character’s over earnest desire to demonstrate that “I’m in charge now, Plasma” is utterly lost in translation on the printed page due to Wendig disappointingly not penning for the elderly Solo to paternally advise the ‘kid’ to “bring it down.” Likewise, the duos’ “surprisingly honed comic timing” during Finn’s 'intense' attempt to later locate Rey deep inside the First Order’s base is similarly poorly realised, and disappointingly doesn’t convey any of the impressive interplay found within the 'aborted rescue scene' whilst watching “the direct sequel to 1983's Return of the Jedi.”

Perhaps providing the final nail in this comic’s coffin though, is the flat, oft-times wooden and inconsistent artwork of Luke Ross. Clearly able to occasionally delight, such as expanding upon Captain Plasma’s unceremonious journey down a garbage chute by actually pencilling the Commander's fall into the trash compactor, the Brazilian artist frustratingly struggles to imbue any semblance of life into the likes of the story’s silver-haired smuggler or his long-time love interest, Leia…

Writer: Chuck Wendig, Artist: Luke Ross, and Colorist: Frank Martin