Hey everybody,
It’s time for the third crossover from the 2020 Marvel Star Wars comics series. Hidden Empire is essentially the end of “the Qi’ra trilogy”, and sees the Emperor fight back against her so-called Crimson Reign. However, all of the pieces begin to fall into place, as we see why the Knights of Ren were sent to steal a key from Vader’s castle on Mustafar. Qi’ra has a device called a Fermata Cage, which is opened by that key; this action attracts a great deal of dark side power, and draws the attention of the Emperor. A rumour is spread that the Cage contains the spirit of an ancient Sith Lord, which piques the Emperor’s interest; as he must ensure the Rule of Two is maintained, Vader begins to believe that Palpatine might replace him with this ancient Sith. In reality, Qi’ra intended to trap the Emperor and Vader inside the Cage, therefore restoring freedom to the galaxy. However, while the plan does work to a degree, the Knights of Ren double-cross Qi’ra and destroy the Cage’s ability to establish a Force hold on anything. The Knights are hoping to ingratiate themselves with the Emperor, who does agree to bear them in mind for future works.
While Qi’ra’s plan ended in failure, she goes into hiding and essentially abdicates from Crimson Dawn, giving Cadeliah full control of whatever remains. In an epilogue, we see Qi’ra in a cantina when the news of the Empire’s defeat spreads through the galaxy. While she didn’t play a direct part in the destruction of the second Death Star, her syndicate war had distracted the Empire for long enough that the Rebel Alliance was able to regroup following the Battle of Hoth, and ultimately gave them the time needed to muster their strength to succeed at Endor.
Unlike the previous crossovers, the events of Hidden Empire are much more self-contained, with only some references made within the books in the four main series. We begin with Doctor Aphra: Ascendant, where Aphra is still being controlled by the Spark Eternal, and Sana Starros is still trying to rescue her erstwhile girlfriend. Sana is caught up with the internal politics of the Tagge Corporation, as the returned Ronen Tagge is trying to wrest control of the company from his aunt Domina. Domina, who would rather like the power of the Spark for herself, sends Sana off to retrieve it, however Aphra herself senses the Fermata Cage and heads there. Somehow the Spark is separated from Aphra, and Sana and the crew recover Aphra. There’s a tense meeting between Aphra and Magna Tolvan, though they finally clear the air between themselves, and Magna goes on her way. Sana confesses that she still loves Aphra, however she is aware that Aphra is not good for her, so essentially says goodbye.
Needing to clear her head somewhat, Sana heads off to her grandmother’s fortified house in her own miniseries, Family Matters. Despite needing some time away from the front lines, Sana is immediately embroiled in her own family’s drama, as her cousin is pregnant with twins by an Imperial officer. Turns out that the Starros family have some magical doohickey the Empire wants, and as part of the family’s plan to get it back, the cousin has married an Imperial. The story is fine, though hardly setting the world on fire. I’m disappointed, because there was an issue of the 2015 ongoing series, I think it was, with Sana and Lando teamed up, and she seemed like a much more interesting character there. True, the Sana here has been through more, and definitely has an attitude of “don’t got no time for this BS”, but it didn’t really feel like the story was anything, if that makes sense? Further to my rambling critique of the Aphra run last time, here we gain the further lore tidbit that Sana has two dads as well as being gay herself. It really feels like Marvel is just throwing all of the gay characters at the Aphra and Aphra-adjacent books, and the more it happens, the more it feels like it’s being forced, and made a spectacle of. Maybe I’m just the wrong target audience for this?
Bounty Hunters: Bedlam on Bestine holds a great deal of promise as we have Inferno Squad on the front cover! The elite team led by Iden Versio from the Battlefront video games, it’s really interesting to see them used in comics. The actual Bedlam on Bestine arc sees T’onga’s crew come into direct conflict with Valance and his Imperials, as T’onga takes on a job running supplies for Crimson Dawn. T’onga comes face to face with Valance, and informs him the Empire has bombed his former home planet where he had believed Cadeliah to be kept safe, so the cyborg goes rogue and Inferno Squad are sent to neutralise him as he has potentially seen the Death Star II construction plans. Iden and her team catch up with the bounty hunters, and after a brief fight, they essentially wipe Valance’s memories, which was somewhat anti-climactic in my view!
The storyline also involves some backstory on Zuckuss as he has a seizure while flying the ship, and we learn about his early years on Gand. Interesting in its way, but I’m not convinced that it was entirely necessary. Just when we get the crew back together, Tashu Leech tells them all he’s leaving as nobody stuck up for him against Kanjiklub in the same way they stick up for Valance, so T’onga asks him to take her wife back home as the team decides to go after Boba Fett.
I’ve had some issues with the somewhat muddled storytelling of the Bounty Hunters book, though at times it did feel like the more straightforward of the four, especially the ways in which the books crossed over with the Qi’ra trilogy stuff. However, with the split of Valance as an Imperial lieutenant and T’onga in charge of the crew, things did get a bit muddied. Given how the storyline with Inferno Squad went down here, I’ve not got high hopes for the impending showdown with Fett, but I suppose you never know!
Star Wars: Quests of the Force has something of a two-part feel, as we start off with Leia and the gang still stuck in No-Space, though Chewie realises they can make it back into the galaxy with the Nihil path engine that Holdo had stolen after she lost it at auction. The rebels agree to take some of the people who have been lost in No-Space with them, and so naturally are able to bolster their numbers along the way. We then have Leia arranging an attack on Coruscant itself, as the Emperor and Vader are both known to be off-world at the time. They target a statue of Palpatine, though this turns out to be a trap and several pilots are killed. It all feels a bit weird, if I’m honest, as Leia doesn’t seem likely to be the sort of leader who would happily risk lives this way. I was a bit disappointed in this volume though, but interestingly we have the suggestion that Luke’s power in the Force has been ebbing and flowing due to the fact that Qi’ra has been playing about with her Fermata Cage. Oh yes, and Lando and Holdo hook up…
The final two books in this time period belong to Darth Vader. Return of the Handmaidens is something that I was kinda looking forward to, really, as we’ve had a lot of build-up with Sabé and the others, and what they’re going to be doing about Vader. Only Sabé is aware that Vader is Anakin, of course, but the other Amidalans are still presumably out for revenge for Padmé. They launch something of a rescue operation, and Ochi of Bestoon is along for the ride because he’s sick of Sabé usurping what he thinks of as his rightful place. He leads Dormé on a mission to infiltrate Vader’s ship and rescue Sabé – because of course, if all the handmaidens resemble Padmé, they must also resemble each other? Well, age is not so much a thing in Star Wars! Anyway, it doesn’t work, and we soon discover that Sabé is very happy where she is – with Padmé’s dying words “there’s still good in him” echoing in her mind, Sabé seems to think she must redeem him.
The Emperor is on to them, however, and with all of the Force stuff going on thanks to the Fermata Cage, Vader becomes an absolute monster! Unbound Force sees him unable to control his power, and he almost tears the ship apart. Sabé is somehow able to remove him from the situation, and they crash together on a desert island planet. However, Vader unceremoniously flings her into the ocean and determines to retrieve a powerful artifact to help focus his power once more – enter Doctor Aphra. She leads him on the hunt for a weird shield thing that he can use to focus his Force powers, though word has got out that he is perhaps vulnerable, and so a bunch of droids decide to try to take him out. Naturally, with his new shield toy, he can control the Force far better, and so the droids all end up working for him. Cue Dark Droids, I guess?
This third crossover series of issues was perhaps the least offensive in that you didn’t really see a lot of the Hidden Empire stuff bleeding into the other series. Knowing that there is a Force-related event going on is perhaps all you need to know, especially as it was quite confusing anyway. I have been enjoying the Vader run up to this point, and was particularly interested in where everything was headed with the handmaidens, but it seems like they were just going nowhere? Unless something else comes of it – there are still four volumes of Vader to go before the end. I think it had so much promise, with the idea of Sabé leading a band of Naboo loyalists who wanted answers and justice for Padmé, only to then see Sabé working as Vader’s lieutenant – for what? There were also missed opportunities with not having Moff Panaka involved, as well!
Anyway, this post is running long now, so I should probably end it here. Dark Droids is the next crossover event, and will see Bounty Hunters and Doctor Aphra conclude into the mix. The ongoing series and the Vader series run on a bit longer, and I hope we will see Bothans getting the Death Star II plans, because that’s definitely something needed as we slide towards Episode VI!
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