Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Star Wars: Chewbacca
Marvel Comics
Duggan & Noto
"Chewbacca" is a mini-series that focuses on the partner of Han Solo, but on his own mission. The comic book has charm as Chewie is sought after to help a child (Zarro) that is on the run, but desperately trying to help her enslaved father (Arrax). The book has a level of cuteness to it, but deals with such a serious subject matter it's hard to determine what kind of reader this is aimed at. The comic is an okay read but seems to suffer from a true identity in this opening issue.
Chewie is on a secret mission and lands (or crashes?) on a planet that is in the middle of getting sold out to the Empire. Chewie is alone and finds a kid that seems to be in trouble. Chewie decides to lend a hand and ends up getting a little deeper into a mess than he probably was hoping for.
The comic book doesn't dive too deep into why Chewie is alone. This is important because he has a life debt to Han Solo and doesn't generally take on any mission without Han. Compounding this problem is that Chewie doesn't seem to show any urgency with laying low from the Empire. Wookies are known to be slaves of the Empire and Chewbacca is an escaped slave. He also happens to be one of the most wanted criminals of the Empire because he assisted in blowing up the Death Star. None of this is explained as the comic sticks to the character and plot introduction.
One of the primary problems with "Chewbacca" is the flow of the comic book. This is not the same as the pacing. The pacing is very good. It introduces the characters, the problem, provides some action and launches what is to be the focus of the next issue. However, the flow is very clunky.
The first four pages introduces the characters that get harassed, imprisoned, hatch a plan to escape, escape, get chased and run into Chewie. The problem isn't that so much occurs in so little space, but that the panels present an unnatural flow to the sequence. In one panel, the characters are discussing working off the debt, the next panel they are trapped as slaves without much hope of escape, only to reveal their is an escape plan in the next panel. This repeats when the father says to keep out of sight, but only to have the kid get spotted in the next panel and lead to a chase. I felt like this comic, specifically this sequence, was a visual recap.
The best qualities of the comic are the interaction with the other characters and Chewie. None of them can understand him and neither can the reader. This makes for some humorous encounters throughout the entire comic book. The conversations are sold because of the artwork.
The artwork takes on a tall task. This comic features a hairy character where you can't see his face too well and with no understandable dialogue. This doesn't seem to slow the artwork down. The art gives an excellent range of body language and facial expressions to Chewie and really helps the story move along well. The comic book has some action and that also is presented extremely well by the artwork. The comic is a very solid artistic effort.
"Chewbacca" is a mini-series that features a solo mission for Chewie. He ends up on a planet unexpectedly and finds that there is some local unrest in an especially touchy subject: slavery. The comic book introduces the characters, the problem and the plot for the mini-series in short order. However, the flow of the comic book seems to be an unnatural one as the story makes big jumps panel to panel. Characters are talking about a debt in one panel, enslaved in the next, escaping in the next and chased in the next. The comic is fairly jarring. The mini-series has plenty of time to tell a compelling story and with the strong character work and appropriate artwork presented here, the comic can certainly turn things into gold very quickly. I mildly recommend this comic.
3 out of 5 Geek Goggles
