Star Wars Vol. 4: Last Flight of the Harbinger

by Jason Aaron

[Quirky Cat]

Jason Aaron is continuing his run on Star Wars with volume four, Last Flight of the Harbinger. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m always so happy/relieved when a writer I like sticks with a big name like Star Wars (it’s not like they’re hurting for authors). I hope Jason Aaron continues to write for Star Wars for the foreseeable future (hey, a girl can hope!).
As a reminder, so far all of the Star Wars comics have run after A New Hope, but before The Empire Strikes Back. This little fact helps to clear up lots of confusion, like how a certain character has been introduced, but doesn’t know something specific or have a certain ability yet. I have to keep reminding myself of this.



There are three main plots for this volume, the first is a longer story that’s been going on (about Obi Wan), the second is actually tied into the third pot, but introduces/reminds us of an important character for it, and the third is the namesake of the volume.
This volume starts off with another glimpse of Obi Wan’s life, called Obi Wan’s Journals in the comics. I like these little vignettes of Obi Wan, even though they’ve mostly focused on his time on Tattooine, where he’s protecting/watching over Luke. I feel like most of us (myself included) had assumed that Obi Wan’s time in exhile was pretty uneventful, but these little stories prove us wrong. Obi Wan actually had to go through quite a lot (while being discreet) to protect Luke and his aunt and uncle. It adds a whole new level of respect for what he’s gone through. Also, it never even once occurred to me that he would have known Black Krrsantan, or that Black Krrsantan had worked for Jabba - though I guess that shouldn’t be terribly surprising, I imagine most of the more talented bounty hunters have crossed his path at some point.
The next issue felt a little bit jarring, mostly because we jumped from one character’s backstory to another, as opposed to the anticipated plot. There’s a point to this issue, I promise. This issue helps to establish Kreel, a force-sensitive stormtrooper, as a valid threat for Luke and the rest of the Rebels. I think without this we would have been more confused than anything, especially once he (spoiler warning) drew his lightsaber. It also showed us a much needed perspective – how some people can see the Empire as something other than an evil controlling force. It’s easy to lose sight of that, when we only see things from the Rebels side of the fight.
The main plot itself is both interesting and full of humor. The Rebels (well, mostly Luke and Leia) have decided the only way to get supplies to a planet being starved by the Empire is to steal an Empire ship. Sounds safe, right? Well naturally things don’t go quite as planned, because they never do, and that’s how we get the bulk of this volume’s story.
There were a lot of climatic moments in this volume, such as the fight between Luke and Kreel. His perspective on the force is actually pretty interesting, and it makes him a fantastic foil for Luke. Han and Leia also get their moment (I didn’t mean that as an innuendo, but whatever), as does Sana, R2D2 (his was actually pretty fantastic), and as per usual C3PO caused more problems than he solved, which is pretty par for the course.
I can’t wait to see what volume five brings us, hopefully it’ll have more of the current cast, as I’m really enjoying the dynamics between them all (I obviously know that the main group will stay the same, but I like Sana as an addition as well).


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