Star Wars #21 Review

Writer: Jason Aaron / Artist: Jorge Molina / Marvel Comics There’s just no way around it. Star Wars is an infinitely lovable book, one of the best things to happen to Marvel in the past few years now. You want a master class in world building? Jason Aaron mines the mythology for the purest aspect of everything we adore about it and crafts something that rests comfortably in the middle of “new” and “familiar.” Issue #21 is solely dedicated to introducing the Alliance’s newest threat: the SCAR Troopers, specialist stormtroopers that are basically Navy Seals in space. Aaron attacks this task with a different tact, giving readers a healthy dose of internal narrative from the squad leader, Sgt. Kreel. The book is highly effective in giving us adequate insight into Kreel’s motivations, telling us exactly what kind of villain this is and what the Empire represents to him. More than that, I appreciate how the new theme with Star Wars stories (much like in Force Awakens with Electro Baton Trooper) is to undo the notion of stormtroopers all being uber killable morons that have as many kills as the Knicks have won games in the past three years.

The franchise mythos is long overdue for a deeper, less comical look into the other side and the banality of evil. These guys don’t see themselves as vicious, mustache twirling Big Bads. They’re just highly trained soldiers doing their jobs. I wish there were just a little more insight into the rest of the squad, but we can give the benefit of t…