So here’s the thing. I want to enjoy this comic a lot more than I am currently. It’s been a bumpy ride so far. Carlos D’Anda’s art hits the right balance between referencing the actors and being cartoony enough to give them motion and momentum. And he can draw the hell out of X-Wings and Tie Fighters. This book looks like Star Wars, but not without touches of a unique style here and there.

Kudos to Brian Wood for adding wrinkles in the relationships between Luke, Leia, and Han. The interactions between Luke and Leia are especially noteworthy, showing the mutual attraction without making it too incest-y. It’s sad that these six issues probably constitute the one of the two or three best plotlines for Leia in the entire SW expanded universe. These last two issues brought Wedge Antilles (Hero of the Rebellion) to the forefront, and I hope he continues to play a big role in the series. Seeing his candid opinion of Han in his discussion with Mon Mothma was the best page in this issue.

What’s the problem? There’s no excitement. The idea of a mole within the Rebellion in interesting, but there hasn’t been the overwhelming sense of fear and dread, you might expect. This isn’t a very exciting comic thus far, and that’s what I really want it to be most of all. Intrigue can be a great thing, but the only impact it’s had is extremely isolated. The Rebel Alliance of the films is always shown to be this fragile thing, on the brink of collapse or annihilation. Why would the Empire waste a mole on a few X-Wings when they could trap the entire fleet? Additionally the Han and Chewie plot thread will probably connect to this somehow, but it feels extraneous. All of these plotting problems have made me lost interest in the arc.