Empire #28 Wreckage Story: Ron Marz Art: Adriana Melo Coloring: Michael Atiyeh Lettering: Michael David Thomas Cover: Tommy Lee Edwards Released: 12/29/2004 Reviewed by: JF Boivin (12/31/2004) SUMMARY: Boba Fett fights mynocks and droids in the wreckage of a crashed star destroyer. He was hired by an ex-Imperial captain to retrieve a personal item that is been missing from his life for too long.

[final cover] [preview cover]

THE STORY

Ron Marz hasn't been in my good books, after the last couple storylines. But thankfully this issue was quite enjoyable. It's the latest one-shot Boba Fett issue, which we haven't seen since Empire #7 by John Wagner almost two years ago, and Boba Fett: Agent of Doom by John Ostrander two years before that. It's always fun to see the galaxy's most feared bounty hunter in all his Classic Trilogy glory, especially after his adventures as a young kid in a series of Scholastic books.

Originally titled "Payment in Full" in advance solicitations, the plot is simple: after taking two TIE fighters by surprise, Boba lands Slave I near the object they were guarding, a wrecked Star Destroyer that crashed on a seemingly lifeless moon. After that, it's 13 pages of Boba fighting off the last defenses aboard the old ship, including mynocks and a Rodian D-Tec Hunter-Trainer droid. There is no dialogue aside from a five-minute interval countdown that counts down the arrival of the Star Destroyer Adjudicator in 30 minutes. Boba leaves the planet just in time, blowing up the old wreck. Then it cuts to what looks like Coruscant (it would have been nice to specify) and Boba collecting the rest of his money from a retired Imperial captain who was discharged for allegedly crashing the aforementioned Star Destroyer (named the Anya Karu). Turns out the guy is a old sentimental, as he hired Boba to retrieve a hologram of his dead girlfriend. He wanted to see her one last time before Boba accomplishes the second part of his job: to shoot him in the head for not paying him his full fee.

Boba doesn't talk much, and once again shows he is not a good guy, which is what fans like. The character of the ex-captain Aron Harcourt is pretty interesting, and his despair becomes evident when he reveals he is holding on only because of the memory of his lost love. Boba is emotionless when he kills him, and we don't know if he expected the captain to want to die or not. Nevertheless, Harcourt finally finds peace and his lover's message of "I hope we can be together soon" takes on a whole new meaning. A fun and very quick read.

THE ART

I was very impressed with Melo's work in issue #22 (which you can sample here), and the first half of issue #26, which left me wondering why she was replaced for the rest of that story in #26-27. While the ships are not entirely detailed as I would have liked, the art overall is very lively and colorful (with help from Mr. Atiyeh). Two high points are the impressive reveal of the crashed SD on pages 4-5, and Boba Fett himself on page 6. the mynock who jumps right on Fett's armor and the Rodian droid are instantly recognizable, which shows that Ms. Melo did her research. One thing that bothered me is that Harcourt looks almost exaclty like Grand Moff Tarkin, especially in his famous grabbing-his-chin posture. But along with the great, great cover by Edwards this is one nice piece of work.

CONCLUSIONS

A fast-paced touching story. It's always nice to read a Civil War-era Boba Fett story, and Marz didn't miss the mark.

Rating: 7 / 10 Recommended