Review: ‘Star Wars’ #40 – “Droid Disaster” Is a Slow Build but Ends on a Bombastic Note
Thankfully, the 40th issue of the main Star Wars comic series makes it clear from the off that Lando is running to the Rebel Alliance to help rescue Lobot. Our main cast of characters have been mostly absent since the Kezarat Convoy arc so it’s good to get them back together again, even if the issue takes longer than necessary to get to that point.
Unfortunately, far too many of the initial pages are concerned with catching up fans on some of the things that happened earlier in the run — namely, that Lando sold the Talky protocol droid to Jabba The Hutt without the Rebels’ knowledge, even though it contained all the encryption codes to Rebel frequencies. This is undeniably useful to new readers, but for those of us who have been keeping up over the last three years it feels like treading water.
It does set up the predicament that Lando’s in clearly; he has to ask the Rebels for their help rescuing Lobot when it was he who went to Jabba’s Palace in the first place without telling any of his friends. Then he has to tell them that he sold the Talky droid containing their secrets to the galaxy’s biggest crime lord, and finally hope that they’ll help rescue his friend and not just kick him off the Rebel Alliance for good. However, most of us knew this information going in.
Some of this drama gets held back for a later time, presumably once the Dark Droids crossover is done and in the rearview mirror, and by the end of the issue all our favorite heroes are together again and off on another mission. The issue ends in a pretty hectic manner, leaving a decent cliffhanger that will presumably get picked up in Dark Droids #4.
Spoilers ahead…
I do think it was a mistake to start this issue with the long recap conversation between Lando and the Talky. The droid is mildly entertaining, but it felt too much like an exercise in needless exposition and I was glad when Lando just turned the thing off by the end.
We then get another flashback with Lando and Lobot, this time on Alderaan after another successful job. Lobot is astounded and more than a little concerned that Lando is so good at lying, able to switch from one fake character to the next seemingly without any preparation. Lando corrects him on this, and I appreciated the admission that he makes copious amounts of notes on the people he’s ripping off and the personalities he constructs to do that.
Lobot wonders if he’s just another one of the many people Lando cons and throws away once he’s done with them, and that’s when Lando explains just how much his friend means to him. He considers Lobot the one friend he doesn’t keep secrets from, who he can tell anything to keep himself from going insane. It does sound a little like he thinks of Lobot as a tool to use, but I don’t think that’s intentional — it’s clear that Lando values his friendship highly, once again underlining why he’d do anything for him in the present day storyline.
Lando asks Leia for help but when she initially rejects his proposed rescue mission, he knows exactly how to play her. He accuses her of not having her friends’ backs when they need her most, which plays right on her conscience. I don’t know that I like that subtle grin on his face when Leia asks him to wait, knowing that he’s manipulated a friend, even if it’s for a good reason. He even pretends that he went to Jabba’s to find Han, which is remarkably dishonest. I thought he’d turned a corner but clearly he has a way to go still. The conversation does give us one vital piece of info we needed going into Return of the Jedi though; we now know how Leia and the Rebels learned where Jabba is keeping Han.
Leia agrees to send a small elite team to rescue Lobot, admitting that the hybroid is very useful at a time when they have been forced to power down all their droids. Lando somehow has the upper hand now, getting Leia to feel guilty even though he’s hiding something way worse from her. Clearly he needs to get this secret off his chest before he completes his redemption arc.
I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the elite team includes Luke Skywalker and Chewbacca along with Leia and Lando, and the rest of the issue is a blast. They land on Epikonia — a fantastically rough landing that has the Millennium Falcon scraping along a satellite dish, something out of the Han playbook — and despite the Droid Scourge’s warning, they fire on the droids, with a shot of a malevolent Lobot as the Scourge sees an opportunity to get its hands on Luke Skywalker.
The 40th issue of the main Star Wars comic was much slower than it needed to be, mainly setting things in place for the next Dark Droids issue, but still proved a fun read in the end.
Rating: 7/10
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.
