Comics Commentary – Princess Leia #5

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Princess Leia’s miniseries ends. The end. Wait! There’s more than that–Dennis examines.

This review and commentary contains general spoilers for issue #5 of Princess Leia.

Princess Leia #5

Writer: Mark Waid | Pencils: Terry Dodson | Inks: Rachel Dodson | Colorist: Jordie Bellaire | Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramanga

The Princess escapes the vile clutches of the Empire and unites the surviving Alderaanians. The End. Unfortunately, the Princess Leia miniseries concludes without any real suspense or surprise. After Leia boldly walked back into the clutches of the Empire in the previous issue, there is absolutely no surprise when Evaan and Nien Numb show up in this issue to rescue her. Likewise, there is no surprise that the fleet that emerged at Espirion is comprised of surviving Alderaanians that manage to rally with the support of biracial Alderaanians from the planet Espirion to overcome and Imperial threat.

The Leia mini-series was fun. The galaxy’s toughest Princess got to shine without Han Solo or Luke Skywalker around to overshadow her. In fact, outside an appearance in the first issue and one of the concluding panels of this issue, neither Luke or Han appear much in this series. This choice preserved Leia’s agency in the series and also created room for new characters, such as Evaan. The mark of an interesting literary character is how they change and grow in the face of the adversity with which they are presented in the narrative. In the first issue of this series, Leia was challenged with creating a role for herself in the Rebellion and determining what to do about the legacy of Alderaan.

The first challenge was largely ignored by this series. Her pleas for an assignment rebuffed by an overprotective General Dodonna, Leia snuck away, in order to undertake her mission to preserve Alderaan’s legacy and its survivors. Over the course of her adventure, she met with many obstacles: opportunists willing to prey upon the weakness of the survivors’, paranoia among the hidden Alderaanian sects, latent bigotry among her own people, and Imperial persecution. However, Leia’s biggest obstacle was greater than the attention of the Empire. Leia had to win the loyalty and respect of her own people.

Evaan was introduced to this series as the symbol of the Alderaanian resistance and reluctance to embrace Leia as their sovereign. In the first issue, surviving Alderaanians and Rebels alike scoffed at Leia as the Ice Queen that could not properly mourn the death of her own parents and the destruction of her own world. Evaan also symbolized an idealized Alderaanian. As a ward of Queen Breha, Evaan dogmatically adhered to a code of honor and respect for not only Alderaan’s culture, but the nobility and symbol of that culture that Breha represented. Evaan devoted herself to protecting Leia not out of respect or admiration for Leia, but out of respect for what Leia symbolized: the final custodian of Alderaan’s legacy as “the Planet of Beauty.” As Leia immersed herself in the role of Alderaan’s leader over the course of the series, Evaan’s respect for the Princess grew until finally, and predictably, Leia had won Evaan over completely in the final issue.

Whether Leia grew or changed in this series is debatable. She has always been fierce, aggressive, and quick on her feet. After all, when Luke, Han, and Chewbacca had run out of options in the detention block of the Death Star, it was Leia that took decisive action by blasting a hole in the wall and directing everyone to escape into the trash compactor. Once they had escaped the dianoga and the trash compactor, Leia immediately attempted to take charge of the escape. If Leia changed at all in this series, it was her focus. After the award ceremony on Yavin IV, she was requesting an assignment to assist the Rebellion. After General Dodonna refused to give her one, she struck out on her own, almost as a consolation assignment, to round up the Alderaanians. Along the way, she remembered her heritage and in turn reminded all the scattered and scared Alderaanians of who they were. However, in the end, she chose to leave the Alderaanians in Evaan’s hands and return to the Rebellion. Perhaps she believes she succeeded in her mission, or perhaps she believes it is time to return her focus to overthrowing the Empire.

This series was entertaining. However, I do not believe it is a Star Wars series that will be long remembered or regarded as a classic in ten years’ time. The premise of Princess Leia embarking on a planet hopping adventure to rescue Alderaanians held a lot of appeal. Unfortunately, with the timeline currently under development with the core Marvel Star Wars title, this series did not have a lot of room to expand. It was largely limited to three planets: Naboo, Sullust, and Espirion. Leia is needed elsewhere in her adventures with Luke and Han. This series would have benefitted from having more issues and an opportunity to explore more worlds and spend more time on them. Readers barely had a chance to experience Sullust other than the subterranean caves that housed its Alderaanian refugees. The planet’s inhabitants were largely ignored. The worlds in this series were simply backdrops and fungible.

Perhaps the story of the Alderaanian survivors can be revisited at some point in the future. Fortunately, Evaan did not meet her demise in this series. She is Leia’s handpicked successor, assuming she can win the votes of the remaining Alderaanians, to lead. There are stories to be told here. One can almost envision a Battle Star Galactica tale of the Alderaanian fleet as they evade the Imperial fleet while searching for a new home.

Favorite Panel

For me, Evaan was a highlight of the series. Marvel has introduced many wonderful new characters with their comics this year, including Dr. Aphra, Triple 0, and BT-1 from Darth Vader, Janus Kasmir from Kanan, and Sana Solo from Star Wars. The gallery of expanded universe heroes that was relegated to Legends is slowing being replaced by a new pantheon of interesting characters. Evaan stands shoulder-to-shoulder with all of them. Therefore, it is only fitting that this issue’s favorite panel goes to the panel featuring Evaan on the boarding ramp of Nien Numb’s shuttle, blasting away at Imperials during the rescue of Princess Leia. Safe travels, Evaan.