Empire #7 Sacrifice Story: John Wagner Art: Cam Kennedy Coloring: Chris Blythe Lettering: Steve Dutro Cover: Ryan Benjamin, Saleem Crawford Released: 04/09/2003 Reviewed by: JF Boivin (01/09/2007) SUMMARY: On the backwater planet Solem, Imperial Governor Malvander is trying to ingratiate his superiors by killing Rebels even if it means also killing innocent civilians in the process. He hires Fett to capture his own brother, Yolan Bren, who his an inspiration for the resistance. When an injured Yolan Bren goes hiding in the city G'ai Solem and see a doctor, Fett manages to track him down and kills a few of Bren's protectors. Bren surrenders himself to avoid any other deaths and is brought to the Governor's mansion. Soon after, the Rebels atack the mansion to free Bren and Fett doesn't save the Governor because his job is done and the payment is made.

[final cover] [preview cover]

THE STORY

Boba doesn't have one word of dialogue in this issue. I guess maybe Wagner got some flack that he made him too talkative in past series like Boba Fett: Death, Lies, & Treachery and Boba Fett: Enemy of the Empire and now he's trying to make up for it. A computer does speak to him though when he needs to analyze some coded papers, presumably the Slave I's computer even though we don't see the ship at all in this issue. The story takes place shortly after the destruction of the Death Star, around which time Boba was on Tatooine (in A New Hope Special Edition). It's nothing remarkable; much like the last one shot Agent of Doom it has a ridiculously evil Imperial who is ready to kill everyone just for fun only this time he's doing the hiring, not someone who wants to get revenge on his evil actions. I don't think Boba is shown as cold hearted, he did his job got paid and left. He is not there to interfere with some local politics between Imperials and Rebels. As Yolan Bren puts it at the end, "he's little more than a machine, a tool to do a job."

Speaking of Yolan Bren, there are a lot of characters in his group, with names like Tark, Naia, Daron and Yarda thrown around. With the exception of a couple of prevalent ones, Lol and Ardal, it gets confusing to follow who's who. Apparently Daron's death is supposed to be significant as the Rebels want to avenge him, but I just didn't know who Daron was! The different supporting characters are undistinguishable from one another. but I guess the plot is simple enough that as long as we follow Boba, Yolan and Malvander we get the point. So basically it's not a significant story in the overall Star Wars canon, and is mildly entertaining.

THE ART

I'm beginning to see that Kennedy's alien characters all look the same. I fuess he doesn't like to draw humans, as even the Imperial Governonr is an alien and the whole planet is the same race as he is. They are one of Kennedy's many green-skinned, pointy-eared humanoids of an unknown species (see Agent of Doom and Dark Empire as examples). He gives them some individual disctinguishing marks such as goggles and bandannas, but it doesn't help the fact the the aliens look boring. Also I don't like the way Kennedy portrays Fett. His helmet is too round and short and looks like a Sergio Aragon?s version of Fett. And that's not talking about the rest of the armor. Sure Kennedy's got his own style, but I guess I'm tired of seeing the same designs and backdrops over and over.

CONCLUSIONS

a mildly entertaining story. Might be better in a collection of Boba Fett one-shots.

Rating: 5.5 / 10