The Last Command #3 (of 6)

Story: Mike Baron (adapted from Timothy Zahn)
Pencils: Edvin Biukovic
Inks: Eric Shanower
Colors: Pamela Rambo
Editor: Bob Cooper

Imperials attack Karrde's smuggler gathering who vow revenge. Luke and Lando break Mara free so that she can show them Wayland... just before Thrawn launches an attack to destroy Coruscant. Reviewed 02/06/97 Story We've now officially reached the climax of the trilogy. All of the plots and major players are poised for final conflict and resolution. It's pretty exciting and has a great Star Wars feel to it. Of course, this is credit to Zahn, but Baron is translating it well. (I wish I didn't know what was going to happen.) This issue has done a better job than previous of translating the complex chess game Thrawn plays with his strategies. I quite liked the characterization we're getting of Ghent (a character I'm particularly fond of). He's quiet, unassuming, keeps to himself, a touch too young, just-out-of-the-loop... yet his talents are indispensable and he knows as much as any of the "heros". He only speaks up to save the day, then lurks back to the shadows. Art There are many great visuals here, but I'm most struck with the attention paid to poses and body language. In the panels of many comics (eg: CE#2) the only thing the drawing of the character tells us is who's talking. While Edvin's characters aren't as strong as his technology, he's clearly made the effort to make every pose of every character (foreground and background) in the panel ADD TO the dialog. (Read this one again and take a look.) I'm not yet in love with the style, but they're really trying. Chewbacca makes his first appearance and he looked great in each panel. Ghent no longer looks as much like me, but I haven't sent DH any pictures to work from. The Coruscant misty exteriors were nice. The art team is giving the reader reason to stop and take a good look at each panel. Summary The book isn't stunningly beautiful, but it's high quality all around. 8/10. Recommended.
"EnsViews" are copyright ? 1997-8 by Paul Ens. They are posted to rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc, emailed to Dark Horse Comics and archived on theForce.net. With the exception of Dark Horse Comics Inc, they may not be reprinted without permission. Titles, Cover images, Dark Horse Comics, and the Dark Horse logo are trademarks of Dark Horse Comics Inc. and its respective Licensors.