Review: Marvel’s ‘Bounty Hunters’ #40 Sets Up the Series Endgame
One of the best elements of the Dark Droids crossover is that each ongoing series has kept a focus on its core characters. Broadly speaking, nobody has felt trapped by the larger narrative, with each given room to grow organically. For Lando, it feels like his Star Wars arc is finally reaching its climax ahead of where the character is at in Return of the Jedi. For Darth Vader, his mind games with the Emperor only get more dangerous by the day. There might not even be a need for more Doctor Aphra stories if she continues to sacrifice her desires for the greater good. And for a series with only three issues remaining, Dark Droids has granted Bounty Hunters an easy way to get back to the emotional highs of the “Bedlam on Bestine” arc.
Issue #40 continues the Dark Droids November issue pattern. This is a setup for the December finale, but Ethan Sacks has to take his penultimate entry a step further. The actual endgame for this series is fast approaching, which sees Sacks move around pieces that don’t matter, and bring back surprising pieces that do. It’s a balancing act that works well for the time being, but leaves me concerned the payoffs won’t be fully earned.
Beilert Valance has fallen under the control of the Scourge, who has begun the final phase of its plan. Can it bridge the gap into the meat? That question doesn’t even matter to T’onga, who is about to risk it all for her family one last time.
Spoilers ahead…
No time is wasted as we open with T’onga sending a “goodbye” recording to Losha. It’s exposition-y as she recaps what’s been happening (again), but it hits hard with the newly added context of the series’ imminent end. This is the most poignant of all the callbacks this issue has. Throughout Bounty Hunters, T’onga has constantly struggled to move on from the pain the bounty-hunting life has caused her.
A big theme Sacks has tried to explore is that the grass can be greener on the other side if you give it a chance. In the Cadeliah days of the series, T’onga wanted to bring peace to this section of the underworld. Now, she’s fallen deeper into the muck. Hopefully, this mother hen gets to take a day off and move on from this life with her love once this is over. That’s the ending this character deserves.
Especially since almost immediately after finishing the recording, she is betrayed. Sacks decided he was done playing with Khel, Durge, and Deathstick. They take the money and go after arriving on Epikonia in search of Valance, leaving T’onga and Zuckuss for dead in a mass of infected droids. Bossk goes with Khel, citing Valance as a lost cause.
As Khel leaves, she tells Bossk he made the right choice, and we get a moment where the Trandoshan seems regretful. While I will not mourn the loss of the new additions as they have been ineffective, Bossk is someone I want to have one last moment with. Besides being a classic film character, this crew has been through everything, and it would be odd for Bossk to miss out. He and Valance started this series at each other’s throats, then had flashes of brotherly love, but ultimately couldn’t reconnect after Valance had his memories wiped. Here’s hoping.
As the droids take T’onga and Zuckuss, we flash to Lieutenant Haydenn backing up what the Empire has of Valance’s memories. The last time we saw her, she gave the order to Inferno Squad to wipe them, but now she is making good on her mistake. How she knows Valance is one of the scourged and why the Empire cares enough to try and stop her from escaping with Valance’s backup memories is beyond me. They should have other things to worry about.
Before moving on, I will say this. Regarding next month’s issue: I will riot if saving Valance is as easy as Haydenn sticking a flash drive in the back of his head to wake him up. I have zero problem with the Empire having a backup. That actually makes complete sense. But this is not Haydenn’s fight. The relationship between her and Valance was not developed enough to make me want to see her redemption and get a happy ending. Suddenly reappearing to conveniently save the day isn’t the way. Unlike other characters like Vukorah, we never saw Haydenn live with her choices. Hopefully, Sacks will go in a different direction and include T’onga.
As I was saying though, the Empire should have other things to worry about. Like Darth Vader, who makes a random appearance and delivers a cringe-fest of a line. Of course, Vader willingly let the Scourge infect him, so his dialogue will be warped, but come on man. What are we doing here? I concur with what my fellow writer Josh said in our Darth Vader #40 review. His arc in the early Dark Droids issues was legitimately interesting, but his confrontation with the Emperor was the peak. He’s ready to move on, but the crossover isn’t ready to be done with him. I hope there’s something important planned besides just the usual flashy lightsaber spectacle.
If you’re caught up with the rest of Dark Droids, the cliffhanger to this issue won’t be a huge surprise. T’onga wakes up in the depths of Epikonia. Confronted by Valance, she finds herself strapped and propped up on a table, ready to be experimented on. The Scourge started full-scale tests on the planet’s organics in Dark Droids #4. Now, T’onga is subject to the same fate, barring a miracle.
Bounty Hunters #40 is a solid table-setting issue with many necessary twists and turns. With signs of hope for a brighter future, readers can assume happy things are on the horizon for the core cast. However, this is a series where happiness is a fleeting feeling at best. While I’m a little scared the next issue might spoil Dark Droids #5, I won’t be able to avoid it when it hits shelves. That’s the ultimate sign the endgame is working. Nothing else matters but needing to know how it all ends. With two issues to go, mission accomplished.
RATING: 7/10
Nate uses his love for Star Wars and movies in general as a way to cope with the pain of being a Minnesota sports fan. When he's not at the theater, you can usually find Nate reading a comic, listening to an audiobook, or playing a Mario video game for the 1,000th time.
