Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #10 - Marvel Comics

STAR WARS: BOUNTY HUNTERS No. 10, May 2021

Besides an intriguing opening scene which sheds even more light upon the fractious relationship between Beilert Valance and Han Solo back when they were both Imperial cadets together on Qhulosk, Ethan Sacks’ script for Issue Ten of “Star Wars: Bounty Hunters” is primarily focused upon providing the science fiction franchise’s fan-base with a truly pulse-pounding gun-battle aboard a lone Rebel Alliance transporter. Indeed, this conclusion to the author’s “Terminus Gauntlet” storyline is almost unrelenting in its action-packed antics as the human male bounty hunter goes on a solo killing campaign against Skragg’s band of piratical misfits.

Rather pleasingly though, this twenty-page periodical’s plot isn’t simply limited to a number of unimaginative set-pieces in which the cyborg brutally murders his opponents so as to save the lives of the space vessel’s crew, but instead includes a surprising secondary scenario concerning Dengar the Demolisher being long-term friends with the traitorous Commander Hill Purpura, and the scurrilous pair’s plan to sell “the transponder codes for every ship in the Rebel armada” to the Empire.

In addition, despite his preparedness and ability to physically connect himself to the transporter’s computer-controlled systems, Valance is still ‘realistically’ shown as being somewhat vulnerable to chance, and more than once relies upon the assistance of Private Blanch Sproull in order to overcome his vicious adversaries. Such susceptibility to bad circumstances really helps add a truly palpable sense of concern for this title’s central character, and also imbues each of Beilert’s successful assassinations with an extra celebratory element – especially when the former mining slave manages to pull off something quite clever like trapping a pair of poorly-thinking bandits in an air lock; “Doesn’t require much intelligence to become a pirate does it?”

Helping this comic’s narrative bound along is artist Paolo Villanelli, whose marvellous panel work both clearly shows all the steps required by the facially-disfigured bounty hunter to enact his plan for retaking the stranded Rebel Transport, as well as portrays the increasing fear experienced by the new Ohnaka Gang as their superior numbers quickly dwindle and they realise that their own deaths are imminent. Furthermore, the illustrator appears to be able to pencil a seriously bone-crunching blow whenever it is called for, as seen on a couple of occasions by the cybernetically-enhanced Sproull walloping her foes from behind with a trusty iron bar.

The regular cover art for "STAR WARS: BOUNTY HUNTERS" #10 by Mattia De Iulis