Review: ‘Star Wars: Hyperspace Stories’ #4 Is a Wholesome Life Day Story
Written by Amanda Deibert, the fourth issue of Hyperspace Stories sees Chewbacca take Rey to Kashyyyk to celebrate Life Day, the Star Wars analogue for Christmas. It’s a wholesome story really suited for children, especially around Christmas time.
They land on Kashyyyk, and Rey is introduced to Chewbacca’s son Lumpawaroo, in the young Wookiee’s first canon appearance since the Aftermath: Life Debt novel. With children as the target audience, this series always seems canon-adjacent like the LEGO Star Wars short films, but it’s nice to see Lumpy pop up again regardless.
Rey’s having a wonderful time decorating the Life Tree when things start to heat up. It turns out that Kylo Ren has sent a bounty hunter to apprehend Rey and Chewbacca (placing this story sometime between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker), who interrupts the festivities when she shoots blaster bolts into the Life Tree. The rest of the story is fairly straight forward from here so I won’t go into spoilers, but there are classic Christmas themes at play here; namely, forgiveness.
I was pleasantly surprised to see the issue go out of its way to acknowledge that Christmas isn’t always a time of joy and happiness for everyone. It acknowledges that people who have lost family members at a young age often spend Christmas Day remembering loved ones they may have lost. It’s a lovely touch that makes the story feel that bit more inclusive. No one is forgotten and hopefully everyone feels seen.
Honestly, it’s surprising this is only being released now as it would have been an ideal December issue for Hyperspace Stories. For some reason, the series took a break after November, and I can only assume this was originally supposed to release before Christmas. It feels like this has come two months too late, or ten months too early.
Hyperspace Stories #4 is a nice Star Wars Christmas story. I don’t think adults will find it particularly interesting outside of Lumpawaroo’s appearance so it’s skippable in that sense, but it’s a great story for kids. If you’re looking to get your child or younger sibling into Star Wars then this series is a great entry point.
This fourth issue would make a particularly great Christmas present for a young child. It’s just a shame that this didn’t come out a couple of months ago when it would have been most relevant.
Rating: 6/10
Star Wars: Hyperspace Stories #4 is available this Wednesday, March 1, wherever comics are sold. Special thanks to Dark Horse Comics for the ARC used in this review.
Josh is a huge Star Wars fan, who has spent far too much time wondering if any Star Wars character could defeat Thanos with all the Infinity Stones.
