Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #1 - Marvel Comics

STAR WARS: BOUNTY HUNTERS No. 1, May 2020

Set during the aftermath of the Battle of Hoth, and advertised by “Marvel Worldwide” as “the bounty hunter adventure you’ve been waiting for”, Ethan Sacks’ thrill-a-minute script for this opening instalment to his “Galaxy’s Deadliest” storyline probably entertained the vast majority of its 61,941 readers in March 2020. But whilst much of this comic’s pre-publication hype focused upon Nakano Lash supposedly violently betraying the likes of Beilert Valance, Bossk and Boba Fett, the twenty-one page periodical’s plot arguably tells a somewhat different tale.

To begin with, Valance’s much-maligned mentor doesn’t actually deceive any of the mercenaries working for her on the outskirts of Coronet City, but rather simply slays “the crinkin’ heir to the deadliest crime syndicate in the sector” after the arrogant criminal seemingly slaughters an unseen target which the Nautolan clearly felt should have been left unmolested. This action obviously blows the entire mission, and puts Lash’s team in deadly jeopardy from the corrupt consortium’s retribution. However, from the way some of her colleagues react to the news of Khamus’ death, especially the highly unlikeable Fett, many bibliophiles would have thought Nakano had personally tried to gun them all down so as to claim the reward for herself: “Your mentor just got us all killed… I’m going to make sure I return the favour.”

Similarly as disconcerting is Sacks’ depiction of Jango’s son, who is portrayed as an incredibly arrogant killer who is as reckless as he is self-centred. Admittedly, this book’s opening is set some years in the orphaned clone’s past when the Mandalorian was still honing his skills and professional attitude. Yet it is still debatably hard to witness Boba rushing headlong straight into a heavily-armed fortification armed with little more than a hand-flamer, and then idly stand by whilst his back-up is shot to pieces right beside him simply so he can make a point to a facially-disfigured Valance that “you just get in the way.”

Happily though, such quibbles certainly don’t stop Issue One of “Star Wars: Bounty Hunters” from being a pulse-pounding publication, partly thanks to Paolo Villanelli’s layouts imbuing the comic with a furious pace that simply doesn’t stop until the book’s end when Slave-1 receives an incoming transmission concerning an “especially sentimental bounty” and its owner decides that Jabba can perhaps wait a little longer before the Hutt receives a certain Corellian smuggler encased in carbonite. The Italian artist seems especially good at pencilling frantic firefights, with Beilert’s battle against a gang of furious Devaronians proving particularly sense-shattering.

Writer: Ethan Sacks, Artist: Paolo Villanelli, and Colorist: Arif Prianto