Review: STAR WARS #36

STAR WARS #36
Written by Jason Aaron
Art by Salvador Larroca, Edgar Delgado, Clayton Cowles
Published by Marvel Comics
Release Date: September 13, 2017

R2-D2 is hellbent on saving his pal in Star Wars #36, “Revenge Of The Astromech”.

Jason Aaron writing an issue where the driving force is R2-D2 storming head first onto a Star Destroyer to retrieve C-3PO? Deal me in.

This one is cute, I’m not sure how else to put it. Aaron frames this story well, narrating what a “normal” R2 unit is compared to everyone’s favourite astromech. Needless to say, Artoo is not your everyday droid and he raises some serious hell on the poor Star Destroyer that housed the captured C-3PO. I was delighted to watch him unleash his mayhem, and enjoyed reading this bridge issue between arcs, for lack of a better term. Aaron’s writing has been damn strong and it continues to be as he kept me entertained through this whole issue of Artoo outrunning the Empire.

Sadly, the art isn’t up to the caliber of Aaron’s writing. Salvador Larroca’s work with Artoo, 3PO, the ships and the Stormtroopers is fine, but whenever a character is on the page who has a human face, everything falls apart into some kind of awkwardness that looks more like photo manipulation than comic book art. Larroca’s work has often looked like it relies heavily on photo reference, but this is a new extreme I have not witnessed until this issue. The best I can describe this is using a photoshop filter or effect to soften a photo and make it a bit fuzzy to resemble art, rather than penciling a face from scratch. Without knowing how this art was crafted I can only hazard guesses, and I truly mean no insult with my description, but no matter the process, it doesn’t work…at all. Every panel featuring a human face is, for lack of a better term, jarring enough to pull me from the story to try to figure out what is going on with the art.

Delgado’s colour work is solid, and he does a great job of nailing the Star Wars tone, but it isn’t enough to salvage the mess on the page whenever there is a human face on the page.

Star Wars #36 is an entertaining read that was totally let down by some awkward, poorly executed pencil work. Considering what we’ve seen in the past from artists on Star Wars, including Larroca himself, this just isn’t up to par.

The Verdict: 6.0/10

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