REVIEW: Prison Break: Star Wars style in ‘Star Wars, Vol. 3: Rebel Jail’

Jason Aaron writes some of the good stories in the Star Wars mythologies right now. So good that unsurprisingly, Jason got re-nominated for this year’s Eisner’s for Best Writer due to his ever increasing confidence in tone and substance in his storytelling. The new Star Wars story arc entitled REBEL JAIL is one of the proofs why Aaron deserves such accolades he receives right now.

The volume contains Star Wars #15-20, which Jason orchestrated a virtual all-female Star Wars cast led by Princess Leia. What’s more, Philippine comic book superstars Leinil Francis Yu and Gerry Alanguilan illustrates and inks respectively this harrowing story that literally pushes Princess Leia’s moral compass to the limits. The setting is dark and the pacing is well-balanced with suspense and fast-paced action scenes. The lightest moments are the bantering exchanges between Han Solo and Luke Skywalker, but the rest centers on Princess’s Leia’s confrontation with an unknown perpetrator who would do anything to make her break and commit something she distains the most. On the other hand, issue #15 and issue #20 are two separate but interconnecting chapters that focused on the lost years of Obi Wan Kenobi in protecting the young Luke Skywalker against bounty hunters and even a rare confrontation with Vader’s half-brother.

Artistically, Leinil’s illustrations improve a lot since his take on the Sith Lord in Darth Vader Annual #1. So goes with Gerry’s inks. Actually, their brand of illustrations work pretty well to the setting and tone, and the atmospheric feel that is reminiscence with the Aliens movie franchise, alongside with good stories about prisons and jail breaks as well. Yu even makes some experimental paneling along the way to demonstrate his newfound confidence in visualizing Aaron’s highly accessible but serious script. Sunny Gho’s colors contemplate well with the Philippine’s dynamic duo’s illustrations that are obviously dark and even amplifying the sense of dreadfulness and suspense, especially on the femme fatales’ race against the clock on the main antagonist’s machinations. On the separate stand-alone issues, Mike Mayhew’s painstaking illustrations are simply breathtaking. The artist’s beautiful visual interpretations of planet’s vast desert landscapes; and the characters are definitely almost realistic to the point they are made to the widescreen, particularly the old Jedi master’s facial portrayals.