Today saw the release of issue #6 of Marvel Comics’ second-season adaptation of the live-action Disney+ series Star Wars: The Mandalorian, and below are my brief recap and thoughts on this installment.
The Mandalorian Vol. II #6 is an adaptation of the memorably eventful episode entitled “The Tragedy” from the smash-hit series’ second season. Fans will remember this installment as the one in which bounty hunter Din Djarin and his diminutive ward Grogu travel to the planet Tython after being advised to by former Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano. There, they find a rock formation atop a mountain and a seeing stone within it, on which Mano perches young Grogu to see if he can use it to connect to the Force or other Jedi.
As they’re attempting to make the seeing stone work, the familiar-looking ship called the Slave I appears in the sky, and Djarin uses his jetpack to fly down to the ground below and confront its pilot, the infamous Boba Fett. Fett reveals that his partner Fennec Shand is perched on a rocky outcropping above and prepared to shoot Grogu if Mando doesn’t turn over the armor he got from Cobb Vanth back on Tatooine. This negotiation is almost going smoothly when Imperial dropships appear in the planet’s atmosphere, carrying stormtroopers along with them. What follows is a knock-down, drag-out battle between Fett, Shand, Djarin, and the stormtroopers on Tython’s surface. It worked wonderfully in The Mandalorian episode directed by Robert Rodriguez, and the comic-book creative team of writer Rodney Barnes and artist Steven Cummings do their best to translate that material to the sequential-art page.
Viewers of the show will also remember that this chapter ends with poor Grogu being kidnapped by a flock of Dark Troopers and brought to Moff Gideon, all of which is conveyed straightforwardly here as well. There were a couple moments that didn’t work for me in comic form, however, such as the destruction of Din Djarin’s ship the Razor Crest, which gets lost in a single panel instead of given the weight and real estate it undoubtedly deserves. But overall I would say that Barnes and Cummings– alongside inker Wayne Faucher and colorist Rachelle Rosenberg– are still doing a satisfactory job of bringing these beloved Mandalorian episodes from the small screen to comic book form.
Star Wars: The Mandalorian #6 is available now wherever comic books are sold.