Star Wars Annual #1 Review

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Warning: this article contains spoilers for Star Wars Annual #1.

Star Wars Annual #1

Writer: Kieron Gillen | Artist: Angel Unzueta | Colorist: Paul Mounts | Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna | Cover Artists: John Cassaday & Paul Mounts

The Annual takes a break from the story of Luke, Han, and Leia to tell the story of Eneb Ray, a Rebel Spy that has infiltrated Coruscant in the days after the destruction of the first Death Star. He has taken on the identity of Tharius Demo for his work on the Imperial capital world. “Tharius” is an Imperial revenue agent of some sort. Eneb throws himself into the part by threatening a local merchant who is in arrears on his taxes. While discussing the merchant’s tax problems, Tharius makes one of those side comments that go along way towards world building in the galaxy far, far away that are illuminating on the practices of the Empire. He remarks that if the merchant is so bold as to finish a seditious statement about the Rebellion arriving on Coruscant, then Tharius will have no choice but to file a report, the report will lead to the merchant’s incarceration, and the merchant’s incarceration will make it difficult for his family to pay the taxes. This would ultimately lead to the children being sold into slavery. Harsh consequences indeed, but the statement goes a long way towards illustrating yet another way in which the Empire was so oppressive and it only took a couple of panels.

Eneb Ray uses his cover as a revenue agent to procure Imperial shipping data that he passes on to the Rebellion. He is humble in describing his skills for the reader, but a high ranking Rebellion officer is quick to point out how valuable and skilled he really is. The Bothans pay deference to Eneb when they praise the ability of spies. Of course, these statements are flattery intended to convince him to take on a more important and dangerous mission to rescue some condemned senators. He accepts and heads off to a prison-complex holding the condemned Senators.

Eneb quickly achieves his primary mission objective before everything changes. The rescued senators reveal to Eneb that the Emperor is on his way to the complex for a final interrogation. Eneb cannot let the opportunity to dispose of the Emperor pass and quickly works with the senators, an Imperial mole, and Alliance command to set up an ambush. The ambush starts off well enough, but Eneb and his companions are unprepared for everything the Emperor can bring to the table. As with most denizens of the galaxy, they do not know his true identity. With his guard defeated, the Emperor moves to flee from the prison and Eneb makes a heroic effort to pursue. For a split second, it appears that Eneb has successfully brought the Emperor to justice, and just as suddenly the Emperor turns the table and gains the upper hand and victory.

This book was fun. In some ways, it can be described as James Bond meets Star Wars. Eneb pours on the confidence and suave that you would expect from the famed British spy. You can almost hear Eneb ordering a martini shaken, not stirred, after completing a mission. Like Bond, Eneb has a dark side that allows him to do what needs to be done in order to complete his mission. He relies on the knowledge that there is a greater good to be served, and relies on that to carry out otherwise ethically questionable tactics. After all, assassination is not an ethically superior choice, but Eneb knows that the galaxy is better off out from under the rule of the Emperor. Gillen uses Eneb’s inner monologue and thoughts to compare his actions to that of the monster—Emperor Palpatine.

Eneb comes to see the Emperor as someone playing the same game. The Emperor knows that acts of brutality may be necessary to achieve the larger goal. However, the Emperor is an advanced player and the best that the Rebellion has to offer are mere amateurs by comparison. The Emperor set up the Rebellion and turned their mission into an instrument of Imperial propaganda. Eneb allowed himself to believe he was the hero capable of making the hard decisions when they needed to be made and how to make them. He was thoroughly outclassed by the Emperor who counted on a spy just like Eneb making those choices. As he would later say in Return of the Jedi, everything that has transpired was exactly as the Emperor had foreseen it.

This was a good story. It adds a chapter to the mythos of the evil of the Emperor and the Sith. Palpatine expertly engaged in the Sith’s time honored tradition of manipulating events behind the scene, baiting a trap, and patiently waiting to spring that trap at a precise moment. As a standalone story, the reader need not be concerned about placing this event into the timeline other than to be safe in knowing it occurs after the Battle of Yavin and before the Battle of Hoth. Gillen has crafted a fine tale of the Sith, and hopefully, he will have the opportunity to craft other such tales in the future.

Translating Aurabesh: I was going to attempt to translate what appeared to be Aurabesh writing on the first page after the crawl. Towards the bottom of the full page panel are two scrolling marquees. However, when I held the page away from my face, I found I could actually read it. One reads: “Import and export duties increases now apply to all Coruscant traffic.” The other reads “Ex-Senators trial imminent. Emperor promises justice.” The writing is in fact not Aurabesh. Some of the characters are similar, but others appear to be new. This was an interesting change. On the one hand, it allows readers to dive into the Star Wars world without having to translate anything, but on the other it does break continuity a bit. In this case, it helps establish the magnitude of the story, if in fact the reader caught it, before the reader even knew the plot of the book.

Favorite Panel:

I usually pick the favorite panel for the art. Unzueta delivers a consistent effort in this book. However, for this issue, I picked a pair of panels based purely for story telling reasons. In these panels, Eneb has escaped the trap set for him and the Rebellion. He is listening to the Emperor spin his propaganda and lies concerning the Rebellion’s “act of terrorism” on a large view screen overlooking the city streets of Coruscant. Everything that the Emperor achieved has sunk in, and Eneb realizes how utterly defeated he and the Rebellion were in that mission. Eneb allowed his hubris to get the best of him and he pushed to expand the scope of his mission from rescuing the senators to assassinating the Emperor. Now, the Senators are dead, the Rebellion has been slandered by the Emperor in a manner the Rebellion will have a difficult time refuting, and the Rebellion’s spies on Coruscant have been eliminated. It was a total victory for the Empire, and Enab’s inner thoughts and body language says it all.