‘Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #14’ (review)

Written by Ethan Sacks
Art by Paolo Villanelli
Published by Marvel Comics

In Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #14, we rejoin Valance and Dengar in the aftermath of a failed hit by an assassin from Crimson Dawn, carbonized Han Solo’s current owners and the organization driving the events of the War of the Bounty Hunters series.

Meanwhile, on a planet deep within Hutt space, Bounty Hunters T’onga and Losha, survive their own Crimson Dawn encounter.

Setting aside a few standard and sometimes annoying comic-book tropes, this is an engaging issue.

Dengar’s character development is surprising, especially when we learn the motivation for his actions.

There’s definably a Dune’s Doctor Yueh vibe going on here.

He’s gone from generic two-dimensional duplicitous thug to interesting character in all three dimensions.

His use in bring the audience up to speed on the history of Crimson Dawn and the crime syndicates is also very well done.

In a way, Dengar is the hero of this issue.

The B story feels tangential.

Whereas Dengar and Vanance’s quests are laser focused on the storyline’s main objectives, that of claiming the bounty on Boba Fett and finding carbonized Han Solo, T’onga and Losha are more concerned with protecting their crime family interests from Crimson Dawn.

Whether or not T’onga and Losha’s thread will become woven with the Fett/Solo storyline remains to be seen. In any case, I’m enjoying this arc.

We’re left with another twist, obvious and welcome at the same time.

Crossover story arcs like this are always ambitious. The planning and coordination needed to steer all the featured characters towards the same climax is no small feat, especially when we all know how this ends. Dengar will be at the palace when Boba Fett delivers Han Solo to Jabba the Hutt and Leia, Luke, Chewbacca and Lando attempt to rescue him. He may not be featured in Return of the Jedi, but Dengar’s present.

The fun is getting there.

So when we learn that Crimson Dawn has a greater agenda, manipulating the pieces on the board and steering them all in the direction of their choosing, we’re not surprised, yet we’re relieved to know that there’s a rhyme and reason to everything that’s happening in War of the Bounty Hunters.