Today saw the release of issue #46 in the current volume of Marvel Comics’ flagship Star Wars title, and below are my brief recap and thoughts on this installment.
Star Wars #46 begins at an unknown location, where Rebel Alliance leader Mon Mothma is being held prisoner by a group of mercenaries called the Scarabi. One of these kidnappers, who calls herself Hachi, sits down with Mothma for a conversation– not an interrogation, mind you– about what made the former Republic / Imperial senator join the resistance against the Empire. Here’s where we get some great insight into Mon’s character (for the first time in the current canon outside of the live-action Star Wars: Andor series on Disney+) as she tells a story about a particularly rare fruit she loved growing up and how Imperial cruelty took that away from her, and everybody. Then writer Charles Soule and illustrator Madibek Musabevov cut to the rebel flagship Home One, where Admiral Ackbar, Princess Leia, General Crix Madine, and Chewbacca the Wookiee are meeting with Kes Dameron, transmitting in via hologram. Together they discuss their options of rescuing Mon Mothma, paying the requested ransom money, or perhaps even– as an absolute last resort– taking out the rebel leader before she falls into the hands of the Empire.
So a desperate search-and-rescue mission is launched, and Chewie requests that Lando Calrissian go with them– despite the fact that he is still on trial for treason against the Alliance– because he has valuable information about the Scarabi that would be useful in tracking them down. Of course, as readers we know that it was Lando who secretly tipped off Chewbacca about the Scarabi connection at the end of the previous issue. The remainder of this chapter follows Lando, Kes, and Chewie– along with a couple more rebel grunts– as they systematically check out Scarabi bases, the locations of which are provided by Lando, looking for Mon. Along the way they encounter dangerous booby traps like a Droideka security system, while Soule and Musabekov intercut the continued discussion between Mothma and Hachi. And just when the rebels are about to arrive at the correct location (referred to here only as “Safe House Four”), Mon actually manages to convince Hachi of the Empire’s malignance, only to be shot in the back by a fellow Scarabi before she can truly commit to changing her mind about the kidnapping.
In the end, it’s Lando who frees Mon Mothma from her restraint, as I had predicted a couple issues ago when she first got kidnapped. So this buys him some good will with the rebel leader, even though General Madine still wants to throw Calrissian out an airlock as punishment for his various crimes. The cliffhanger ending here sees Mothma insisting that the trial resume upon her safe return to the fleet, and we’re left to wonder what exactly the outcome will be, even though we know Lando ends up as an Alliance general by the beginning of Return of the Jedi. This is another great issue, and I rarely if ever have any complaints about Soule’s writing or Musabekov’s very attractive artwork (accentuated by the work of colorist Rachelle Rosenberg), but I will put forth yet another grievance with the cover art for this issue– the “A” version of which features Luke Skywalker swinging his current yellow-bladed lightsaber with some rebel troops behind him as they presumably hunt for Mon Mothma’s captors. It’s a cool image, but Luke does not even appear once in this entire installment, so once again I am left feeling like it’s a bit of false advertising for a story that could absolutely be sold on its own merits with complete satisfaction for any reader who plunks down five bucks to buy it. Otherwise this is still pretty great stuff, and as always I can’t wait to see what happens next.
Star Wars #46 is available now wherever comic books are sold.