‘Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #15’ (review)

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

Bounty Hunters #15 starts off sharply with Losha meeting Deathstick and scoring Crimson Dawn’s invitation to carbonite frozen Han Solo’s auction. Not a word or pencil stroke is wasted in this opening.

Valance and Dengar are still on the run from Deathstick, en route to Canto Bright, which I must admit, makes me cringe. But, that’s okay. It works.

I can’t put my finger on why this storyline is resonating for me so well. It probably has to do with how personal the stakes are for our protagonists, Valance and Dengar. Valance is motivated by a life-debt and Dengar by, of all things, love. Their relationship grows more genuine with each issue; two people who don’t really like each other finding that they have more in common than they thought.

I’m a sucker for these types of buddy stories!

While Valance and Dengar are still trying to locate both Han Solo and Boba Fett, T’onga and Losha are assembling a team to crash Crimson Dawns party.

While a new character is introduced here, an old favorite is recruited to crash the party as well. And while I’m sure this character has been seen without his encounter suit in previous adventures, we get to see this Bounty Hunter in his native atmosphere for the first time in the War of the Bounty Hunters series.

This character is featured in this week’s enjoyable companion issue, which I should mention, you should read first.

Perhaps the icing on the cake this week is the lead up to the consistently satisfying final panel you’ll find in the War of the Bounty Hunters series.

Dengar uses Valance’s personality to perfection while trying to acquire information on Han Solo and Boba Fett’s whereabouts. In the chaos that results from Dengar’s methonds and another assassination attempt from Deathstick, Dengar pick-pockets Deathstick as she and Valance duke it out in Canto Bright casino.

What he steals is exactly half of what they’ve been looking for; Han Solo’s exact location with Crimson Dawn.

And in one issue, we now have, not one, but two more factions set for a wild date at the Han Solo Carbonite Black auction party.