Star Wars: Scoundrels, Rebels, and the Empire

Title: Star Wars: Scoundrels, Rebels, and the Empire

ISBN: 9781302953379

Price: $29.99

Publisher/Year: Marvel, 2023

Artist: Alessandro Miracolo, Lee Garbett, Java Tartaglia, Alvaro Lopez, Jethro Morales, Matt Horak, Brent Peeples, Rafael Pimentel, Paul Fry

Writer: Marc Guggenheim, Alyssa Wong, Stephanie Phillips, Jody Houser, Alex Segura, Daniel Jose Older

Rating: 3.5/5

It’s a sign of the staying power Star Wars has within our popular culture that we just celebrated the 40th anniversary of the release of Return of the Jedi in theaters. I’m now comfortably into middle age, but even I was too young to experience the film upon its initial release; I would say my first introduction to it was the toy line that already seemed ancient by the time I was old enough to play with them. Nonetheless, Return of the Jedi remains one of my favorite entries in the saga, and thankfully Marvel was willing to indulge fan nostalgia by digging into the crevasses of the film with a series of comics released to coincide with the film’s 40th birthday. It is the very definition of a superfluous comic collection, but the fanciful variety present in this book should satisfy fans of the original trilogy. 

Collecting Star Wars: Return of the Jedi one-shots Jabba’s Palace, Ewoks, Lando, The Empire, The Rebellion, and Max Rebo, each issue is a standalone adventure featuring a character or entity from the film. They all vary in tone and style, so there is little connecting tissue between these stories other than the movie’s loftier backdrop. It’s a rather brisk read, with an assumption that the reader already knows a lot of the Star Wars plot.

The creators featured in the book is a who’s-who of talent working in the Star Wars office. Marc Guggenheim, Alyssa Wong, Stephanie Phillips and Alex Segura are just a sampling of the writers and artists that do fine work in this collection. I especially love Wong’s Ewok book, which is told entirely by visuals and uses a handful of different artists to tell various Ewok oral stories, each with their own style and perspective. It’s a fun issue that veers between childlike and comical to horrific within 30 pages. The Max Rebo issue also stands out as a solid emotional reflection on the blue elephant musician’s odd place in the universe’s criminal landscape. Phillips’ Lando storyline, framed around the rouge’s gambling escapades is colorful and flashy as if it functions in a world of its own creation. All the issues are fine vignettes that fit in and around the events of the film. 

What’s truly impressive about this collection is that nearly a quarter of its length is dedicated to variant covers. For better or for worse, Marvel did not slouch in giving these one-shots different newsstand versions. While most don’t get the full-page reproductions, it is nice to see the various representations of Return of the Jedi, especially when one considers the consumer most likely to pick up this trade. 

For those looking to return to Jabba’s palace, Endor, or the siege of the Second Death Star, this trade provides ample flashes of enjoyment. It doesn’t chart any new territory for the Star Wars comic universe, but its variety and passion is notable.