Review: ‘Star Wars’ #36 – ‘The Trial Run’ Sees Lando Embarrass the Empire on a Deadly Mission
With the last few issues focusing on Luke’s journey to build a new lightsaber, the latest issue of the main Star Wars comic series The Trial Run pivots back to the Rebel Alliance.
Leia is intent on capitalizing on the anomaly in the Force affecting Emperor Palpatine, Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker by organizing a small military operation that will hit Palpatine where it hurts, perhaps even killing him. Lando leads a small squadron of Rebel fighters in a surgical strike on Coruscant of all places; once the risky mission gets started, it’s all-out action the rest of the way. Any Star Wars fan who has been missing starship battles and dogfights will be delighted to learn that this issue has all that in spades, even if it’s not actually in space.
While this mission has very little bearing on the overall story ahead of Return of the Jedi, it is immensely entertaining and is rare in that it acts as a self-contained story. The blistering action helps negate the feeling of filler content as we start getting a fantastic payoff for Lando’s character arc in this comic run. We also get an intriguing look at some of the less explored parts of Coruscant and it seems that a certain famous Star Wars species make their long-awaited debut in current Star Wars canon.
Spoilers ahead…
The issue begins with Leia’s military briefing outlining the situation. With Palpatine and Vader both preoccupied with the Force anomaly, she believes this is the ideal time to strike a blow against them right on their home turf. She tells her pilots they will lead a surgical strike on Coruscant itself, presumably aiming to strike the Imperial Palace while Palpatine is taken by surprise. The act will surprise the Empire and let the rest of the galaxy know that the Rebels are still fit and firing.
The pilots are shocked at first, but eventually come around once Ackbar takes them through the details. Before they can deploy, they need to get past the Imperial security checkpoint in order to get close to the planet. They store the ships in a freighter piloted by what looks a lot like a Bothan. Yes, this could be the first sighting of Bothans in the current canon! The alien looks incredibly similar to their Legends depictions, although his ears/horns do seem slightly different. The Bothan manages to distract the Imperials with his official cargo, a foul-smelling ingredient that is used to make Imperial food. The Imperial officer is so disgusted by the smell that he is eager to end the inspection and let the ship through.
Once past, the freighter releases the ships so they can begin their attack run, led by Lando and Chewbacca in the Millennium Falcon. Freyta remarks that she was surprised that Lando volunteered for such a risky mission, allowing Lando to proudly assert that he was happy to do so. It’s a nice payoff in his redemption arc, going from a self-serving individual at the beginning of this run and finally finding a purpose beyond himself during the Kezarat Convoy arc. That he would volunteer for this mission, which comes close to a suicide run, speaks volumes to how far he’s come.
They’re immediately detected by the Coruscant security net and the Imperial officers activate the orbital defence platforms and mobilize half of the planet’s TIE fighters. One A-Wing is destroyed by the platforms (I expected Captain Rowne was not long for this world as this was his first appearance) but the rest all make it through the initial defences and are better pilots than all the TIEs, making their way to the planet’s upper atmosphere relatively easily.
They start their bombing run but are caught out by two anti-air turrets that pop up at the base of the huge Emperor Palpatine statue. Thankfully the civilians have been barred from Monument Plaza since the Rebels’ last operation there so there’s no risk of collateral damage, but the pilots of the remaining A-Wings get ripped apart. The Empire may not have been expecting them, but clearly they planned for contingencies in the unlikely event that the Rebels could get as far as Coruscant airspace.
Suddenly overwhelmed, the Rebels are forced to retreat so they can escape with their lives. Lando decides to head underground, losing the Empire through the city planet’s mazey tunnel system. The rest of the Rebel ships are lost in the process, with Nien Nunb forced to actually leap out of his ship and into Chewbacca’s arms through the access port at the top of the Falcon.
Unfortunately, Chewie gets some kind of concussion as Nien Nunb hits his head, which means the Sullustan has to take over as co-pilot in his stead. It’s a fun explanation of how Nunb qualifies as the Millennium Falcon’s co-pilot in Return of the Jedi. I never felt like I needed that story, but I’m glad we have it regardless.
Lando takes the Falcon lower and lower into the planet, giving us an interesting window into Coruscant’s lower levels through a fascinating splash page showing us multiple levels descending down the page. At level 3726, local criminals start shooting the trespassers for stepping on their turf. I didn’t know this sort of illegal activity still existed on Coruscant in Empire rule, but I guess it’s far enough down that the Empire feels they can ignore it.
The Falcon passes the wreckages from other ships and there’s a single panel passing through level 1313, but that’s the only glimpse we get of that infamous location. Lando reveals that the bottom levels of Coruscant are basically a huge garbage pile of forgotten things from galactic history. Somehow, level 201 has a crashed Venator-class Republic cruiser and perhaps lower than that, they run into a huge tentacled monster reminiscent of the creature encountered in the Kessell Run in Solo: A Star Wars Story, or the Drengir from The High Republic. It’s crazy that a creature that deadly exists in the bowels of Coruscant and I love that it’s barely touched upon.
That monster destroys the final TIE Fighter and the Millennium Falcon is free to leave the planet, having lost its pursuers. Lando is downbeat, believing their mission a failure. The plan was interrupted before they could do any real damage to the Imperial Palace, they lost all their other pilots and it turns out the Emperor wasn’t even home.
Yet, Leia informs him the plan was a success. It seems right as the anti-air turrets at the Palpatine statue appeared, one of the pilots managed to get a shot off at the statue, blowing a crater right in Palpatine’s face. It was a symbolic victory, with holodrones broadcasting images of the smoking Palpatine statue across the galaxy. The Imperial officers remark that the Emperor will not be happy when he returns.
Leia’s right that while the mission didn’t pan out exactly as they hoped, that image of the smoking statue will serve as a symbol to everyone across the galaxy that the Rebels are still fighting the good fight, and they’re far from done. This issue doesn’t really tie into the wider plot all that much, but it was a ton of fun and a great story all the same.
Rating: 8/10
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.
