The Bounty Hunters: Aurra Sing Story: Timothy Truman Art: Timothy Truman Cover: Timothy Truman Released: 08/11/1999 Reviewed by: JF Boivin (10/12/1999) SUMMARY: Infamous bounty hunter Aurra Sing meets with a priestess of Ffib on the moon of Endor. The blind mystic wants to hire the hunter to track down a former Jedi Knight, now become a pirate, who raided a Ffib temple on Lorahn. Since hunting down Jedi is her specialty, Aurra Sing accepts the job. She is told that the pirate, a Twi'lek named Reess Kairn, used two Shi'ido shapeshifters to impersonate him so he'd be harder to track down. He can be found on one of three elemental worlds: Hoth (liquid), Tatooine (flame) or Bespin (sky.) Aurra Sing goes to all three planets and on each kills a Shi'ido impersonator. The third one gives her a clue as to where the real Kairn is hiding.

[final cover] [preview cover]

THE STORY

The story is very well-paced and easy to follow. Truman knows how to be straightforward and create some nice unexpected twists and turns. The ending is especially cool.

There are quite a few cameos that add a nice touch to the story. Among these are Teek (from the second Ewoks TV movie), a Dragon Slug (from the Classic Star Wars series), Thranta Riders (from the Illustrated Guide to the Star Wars Universe) and a young character who will later appear 30 years older in a certain Episode IV movie.

On the down side I thought that using four worlds from the movies was kind of unimaginative, what with the hundreds of planets that were created throughout the Expanded Universe stories. Maybe this was to create a sense of familiarity in the reader, but it was a bit too familiar for my tastes (especially the over-used Tatooine.) But overall, this is a very enjoyable story. Tim Truman has a very good handle on Aurra Sing's character. Figures, he's the one who developed most of it. (She also appears in the second story arc of the on-going Star Wars series "Outlander" also written by Tim Truman.)

THE ART

Tim Truman really achieved something here: not only did he write the comic, he drew the whole thing including the cover. And a stunning cover it is. I had it as wallpaper for my PC for months! The interior art is also quite good. Although for some reason, the flashback sequence shows Kairn with only one lekku like in the book Zorba the Hutt's Revenge for some reason. But later on, we see the impersonators have both the tchin and the tchun (right and left lekku.) Maybe it was just the "camera angle"...

The wampas look a little goofy as well. But again, these are only minor details that are most likely to go unnoticed by most readers.

CONCLUSIONS

Good story. Nice visuals. Mr. Truman is a man of many talents.

Rating: 8 / 10 Recommended