Review by: Kevin Reilly So far, Brian Wood’s Star Wars has been really strong. It’s fun, refreshing, and it’s what we needed from a Star Wars story. Especially since this might just be the last big Star Wars story from Dark Horse. Star Wars’ success is in its simplicity. Taking place between “A New Hope” and “The Empire Strikes Back”, the book follows the adventures of all of your favorite characters that we didn’t get to see, or perhaps only imagined with action figures.

The story shifts between three continuing stories: Luke and Wedge have snuck onto a Star Destroyer. Han, Chewie and new character Perla escape the clutches of Boba Fett, but most impressive of all is Leia’s story. Leia has a large role in the series, and we see her doing things that girls way back when only dreamed of. Leia goes off on her own exciting adventure complete with her own X-Wing and Astromech. While not too much happens to her in this issue, the potential for her storyline is enormous, and clearly going to be the draw of the book for many months to come for reasons I can’t go into without spoiling the issue.

The art by Ryan Kelly continues to totally fit the fun, easy flow of the book. The characters we know don’t necessarily resemble the faces we know, but this is for the benefit of the book, making these versions stand out as their own.

Without spoiling anything, I can recommend this book to anybody, whether you’re picking it up for the first time or you’ve been rabidly anticipating this book. The benefit of these licensed books is that you’re at least somewhat aware of the characters at play, making everything readily accessible. Pick it up! Do it!

Score: 4/5

Writer: Brian Wood

Artist: Ryan Kelly

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

Price: $2.99

Release Date: 8/14/13