Darth Vader Is The Target Of A Caper In This Week’s Best Comics

Marvel’s Star Wars books have the interesting challenge of being “in continuity,” that is, anything that happens in the comics happen in the movie universe. That makes Cullen Bunn and Marc Laming on the hook for Star Wars Annual #4, and also a bit fenced in. How Bunn and Laming wittily overcome this, right down to a gag about those notorious prequels, is a part of the fun of this caper.

Like any caper, there are multiple parties after multiple McGuffins, all in the context of the Empire’s Kentucky Derby-esque podracing competition. Turns out the rebels are skimming off the top of the gambling, and all Luke and Artoo have on the docket is to collect their funding and split. Meanwhile Darth Vader is on planet, looking for an ancient pair of Sith lightsabers, and Sana Starros (nee Solo) is on-planet to sell them, to somebody else. Adding to the problem is that these sabers are cursed, driving anybody who holds them into a murderous rage.

Bunn, who’s usually a bit more grave, has a hell of a lot of fun here as McGuffins change hands, the plot twists and turns, and things get more serious and more absurd at the same time. But it’s Laming who really stands out here, using careful angle and layout choices to evoke the movie and give what could be a throwaway gag, Luke in a podracer while Vader unknowingly observes his piloting, some emotional weight. If you’re getting psyched for Solo this week, this is the perfect amuse bouche, a loving tribute to the more screwball side of the Star Wars universe that doesn’t lose any of its emotional gravity.

Peter Milligan and Colin Lorimer continue their revitalization of the beloved ’60s mindscrew with Breen taking over the role of Number Six. This issue is something of a tribute to the show’s general formula, wherein Breen comes up with a clever escape plan, only for it to fall apart under the burden of the Village’s endless craftiness and the hero’s crushing paranoia. Milligan and Lorimer clearly are fans, with Lorimer in particualr working in subtle nods to the show on every page. Whether you’re a fan of the original or just want a new thriller in your pull-list, this is well worth catching up on.

Joe Henderson and Lee Garbett deliver quite a bit of plot in this second issue of their SF series, where gravity has gone wrong and only the rich and famous stick to the ground. But while Willa shows us more about this strange world, what really makes it stand out is how Henderson and Garbett have thought this setting through. Willa’s sheer delight in gravity is both hilarious and heartbreaking, and they cleverly fill in some important blanks without being condescending or clumsy. It’s a sheer pleasure to read, and a role model for SF comics that want to try something new.

Ta-Nehisi Coates and Daniel Acuna drop-kick us into a shocking setting here. T’Challa has no memory of his past, and has somehow wound up deep in space. The good news is that centuries ago, Wakanda sent out colonists to try and gain a small foothold on a desolate world. The bad news is, uh, they’re now the evil empire, gripping all of space in their fist, and T’Challa’s been dumped with the vibranium-mining slaves. Unfortunately for these lost Wakandans, T’Challa may not remember who he is, but he’s still noble to a fault and fully capable of applying his royal boot to oppressor ass. Acuna, always an imaginative artist, runs wild here, pulling from pulp space opera and Brian Stelfreeze’s work on Black Panther. And while Coates has a clear theme in mind, here, he’s also clearly just having a hell of a lot of fun, and it’s infectious.

Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormiston’s mix of serious look at the humanity of superheroes and how they struggle and some pretty pointed satire of the silliness the superhero genre has indulged in over the years delivers heavily on both in its second issue as the new Black Hammer fights against the grimdark demons and antiheroes of the 1990s speculator boom. If you’re a comics fan, this issue is absolutely hysterical in places. But the humanity is what’s in the foreground, and it makes what could be just a goof a surprisingly affecting story.

Lumberjanes #50, BOOM! Studios: The delightful all-ages series hits a major milestone, and packs it with some of its most fun comics of the whole run.

Justice League: No Justice #3, DC Comics: DC’s massive superteam crossover continues to be a heck of a lot of fun, especially with the twists this issue throws in.

Incognegro: Renaissance #4, Dark Horse: Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece noir delivers a few shocking twists as it lays the groundwork for its finale.

Love And Rockets Magazine #5, Fantagraphics: The Hernandez Brothers have been delivering a particularly strong arc of their long-running series lately, and this issue fills in a few important plot gaps.

The Beef #4, Image Comics: Tyler Shainline and Shaky Kane’s bizarre parody of ’60s pop culture and Silver Age comics continues, with a hilariously metafictional bent.

The Black Hood Vol. 2: The Lonely Crusade, Archie Comics ($15, Softcover): Duane Swierczynski and Michael Gaydos follow up the superb first series with a second detailing just how Greg Hettinger has kept it together as a vigilante. Not very well, it turns out!

The Wild Storm Vol. 2, DC Comics ($17, Softcover): Warren Ellis and Jon Davis-Hunt explore the conspiracies secretly controlling the world, in a dryly funny and well-considered superhero story.

Coin-Op Comics Anthology 1997-2017, IDW Publishing ($30, Hardcover): Maria and Peter Hoey, siblings who draw and design comics together, have spent years putting together immaculately designed and sometimes very strange stories for Blab! and on their own, which are now finally collected in one place.