The mighty empire has its own secret agents and this is a story of one of them. I decided to read this because it has characters that interest me like bounty hunters. To be honest it’s hard to do spin off's with Star Wars because they are praised or hated with no real in-between. Today we meet Jahan Cross, labeled as the Bond of the empire. The story starts out in a quiet office Cross waits for his target to question him about sell off droid technology. Quickly it turns right to action. Cross’ droid takes out the two battle droids with no effort and Cross’ take out the target with tech I haven’t seen before. He heads back to a briefing on his mission and head to a new lead. There you get a glimpse of the tech room and testing. In true James Bond fashion he picks up some new tech for his next mission. The story changes gears as Cross heads in to the Corporate Sector to follow a lead. After he lands we run into some familiar characters since this story takes place in-between episodes III and IV.

The story is written by John Ostrander who has written Star Wars: Legacy and Star Wars: Republic. The story is written well and flows just as well. It is a little slow in the middle but really it’s a set up for the bigger story. But the little detail on how the characters are written makes the story come to life. The characters aren’t flat and boring but have depth and uniqueness to them.

The book is done well and captures the action of the series, especially in the first scenes. It also shows the power of the weapons used in the story. The colors are pretty vibrant in this issue which is a little unexpected for a story from the empires point of view. Some of the characters are drawn make them recognizable and bringing life to them. One thing that bugs me is some of the action scene the limbs seem over exaggerated in length.

To sum it up the story is a good starting point for the book and I hope it gets faster moving. It’s a simple enough book and far enough side story you really don’t need to be involved with other Star War books, but I’m sure it will add to other story lines down the road. If you enjoy Star Wars side stories then pick this up. If you prefer the regular Star Wars then judge for yourself. Me on the other hand I’ll pick up the next issue to see how the story progresses and see if it will capture even more of my attention.

Score: 3/5

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics