Comics Star Wars #44-49: Mutiny at Mon Cala (6/6 Released)

Spoiler

Well that one ship does look like an MC-30. Maybe (hopefully) that's how they'll go about it. It'd be a delight to see that ship.

To be honest I didn't like the MC-30 before since it was such a departure to the Mon Calamari design and all on its own. With the introduction of a somewhat identical design (MC-75) I've grown to welcome it to the Mon Calamari roster now that it has an accomplice.

And Ackbar's wearing a cape. That's cool.

 

Spoiler

I feel like this is right in this forum’s sweet spot.
ARTIST: Okay, gonna do a Star Wars picture, what do you want to see in it?
NICK: Ackbar!
JELLO: A cape!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I'll add, if the character in question was wearing a fancy hat as well, you'd have the perfect blend of Nick/Jello sensibilities.

--Adm. Nick

 

Red and Gold Squadrons, attack formation. Defend the fleet. Blue Squadron, get to the surface before....oh wait. Same line, wrong Admiral. Looking forward to this issue and the arc after it.

 

I think the point is that the Rebels need to acquire a fleet large enough to fight a Galactic-scale war. Remember this is only a few months to a year after the Battle of Scarif, which featured the entirety of the available Rebel fleet- and it wasn’t that much.

The Rebels have capital ships, but not enough for large scale offensives; they can only perform surgical strikes at the moment.

 

Alright, thus ends the Mutiny on Mon Cala arc!

Spoiler

Well, it ended with a literal bang. Some general thoughts below:

• Overall, the art was better. Not stellar, scaling is off on alot of the ships, but still better than the past.
• The lack of Rebel capital ships (including Home One) is explained by Ackbar saying this was all that could be mustered in short order.
• Ackbar shows off why is a creative and quick thinker. Nice tie in to SOLO with the coaxium reference.
• After learning that the Home One-type MC80 Aurora Flare is carrying coaxium, Ackbar asks the ships commander if he is willing to sacrifice himself to open a whole in the blockade. Captain Lila offers to ram his cruiser into one of the ISD's, opening a hole in the blockade.
• The fleet escapes!
• As retribution, the Empire bombards the location of the regents home. His sacrifice has meaning, as the merchant fleet has escaped.
• Flash forward "several months" at the Rebel Base at Mako Ta. We see that 12 MC80's have been readied for war.
• We see that Queen Trios is a traitor. She has notified Vader of the base's location.

Overall, I loved it. I am concerned that the "epic" event in issue #50 is going to lack the epicness it requires. If it merely is the loss of the base and the loss of part of the new fleet... it won't have any real impact for me. We already know in TESB that the Rebels are on the run. We already know that a large number of MC80's will be at Endor. So, if this epic event doesn't tie into the Mid Rim campaign... I'll be let down.

--Adm. Nick

 

So, Nick, certain outliers aside, if there was to be an OHC collecting Ashes of Jedha and this, should I put it on the hit list? Even with the weird-as-hell at times art?

 

Yeah, I'd recommend you buy it, Ben. If you can overlook the art, it's actually a very good story 90% of the time.

--Adm. Nick

 

I'm fairly impressed by the so quick integration in other medias of movies stuff (coaxium). Last panel is...surprising.

 

All the buildup to this issue really paid off. An awesome space battle with an exciting last page reveal, looks like #50 will be very dangerous for the rebel heroes. Larroca does a great job drawing ships, so this issue being space battle heavy worked well in his favour.

I'm an OHC collector myself, but I read the issues digitally as they are released. I think I'd pass on the OHC because the Ashes of Jedha story wasn't that great and the artwork has been poor throughout, though I found it got better during Mutiny at Mon Cala. I try to be selective about what I buy because I'm a fan of Marvel comics in general, so all the other OHCs they put out are competing against the Star Wars ones for a piece of my wallet.

 

There was plenty of good in this issue but also some bad.

Spoiler

+Nice space battle art
+Leia being badass
+Han calling Ackbar "Admiral Amphibian"
- for Wedge, one of the heroes who survived the First Death Star attack, being used for the "when/if we survive" cliche. Ugh. UUGGGGGH. This freaking guy!

Spoiler

- for another instance of starship ramming. It was fine once in Rebels, and Rogue One, but then it happened in TLJ and now again we have it again here. I would think the Rebels are capable of actually defeating a Star Destroyer head-on by this point, and would have loved to see it.(I know, there was a whole blockade of ISDs, but apparently they only need to take down one to break it)
- for Trios with the double cross. Sigh. I would have liked her character better as a true Rebel. This "twist" was predictable and lame. Now I only hope for a brutal end for her.

 

For being widely impratical in space, a light freighter ramming a capital ship at the combat speed required for deep space combat would have devastating effect.
Kinetic Energy = (1/2)MV2

Say, Apollo XI ramming at cruise speed a capital ship would equal to

1/2 (30 000 kg, more or less) x 11 000 meters per second (square) = 1815 billion joules = 433 tons of TNT.

 

Oh I'm selective, but I also buy 'em as cheap as I can!

 

Well, they don't give the mass of starships in SW or the actual speeds they can attain, so I was giving an example based on a real life spaceship going in real life speed, hence the formule 1/2 MV2. TLDR : even the space shuttle ramming at space shuttle speeds would lead to a pretty big explosion, so a frigate sized spaceship ....

 

Spoiler

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Twilight Company reference. The Aurora Flare picked up its cargo of coaxium from Redhurne. This means the authors are definitely aware of the Mid Rim Retreat. I'm hoping that if it doesn't appear outright in its own arc(s), it will at least get referenced in the next one. Perhaps the new fleet they've just refitted was earmarked to reinforce the units already engaged in the Mid Rim, only for Vader's arrival to scuttle that plan and contribute to the overall collapse of the Offensive.

 

Nice catch!

 

Spoiler: Spoiler

Now that the battle is over, the wiki page could use some love!

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Mission_to_Mon_Cala

 

Seems like a lot of the comic articles need some love, the Screaming Citadel mission doesn't have much info either: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Mission_to_Ktath'atn. Whenever I get around to re-reading these stories I'll work on their Wook pages if it hasn't been done already.

 

I wasnt crazy over the issue, its just typical stuff. The main Star Wars line I just do not find very good overall.

 

Spoiler

Oh my god where is that wonderful panel from? I need 50 copies ASAP

 

The Storms of Crait one-shot from the Journey to TLJ series.

 

Oh I skipped that. Gonna have to read that now

 

This was solid cuz I actually really like Lorrca when he does tech and ships (I thought he worked really well on Darth Vader, maybe slightly less on the main title) and it's basically a big ship brawl, and Leia got in some funny lines about her manning the Falcon's guns. And the Imp snark was pretty good "The rebels have proven to be poor sailors".

 

I just had to jump on here to post that I am flabbergasted as I read through this thread! I realize art is subjective, but I thought it was obvious beyond belief that Salvador Larroca was pretty much the very best artist working in comics today! I will buy pretty much anything when I see his name attached, and when he moved on to Star Wars, that was a no-brainer!

On the contrary, IMHO most of the artists over the years on Star Wars (and I started with Issue #1 with Marvel, back in the 70s) has been overall pretty bad. It's been rare that there's ever been art that's even good, with a lot of it just being spectacularly bad.

So put me down as one with the exact opposite opinion of so many here. I think the art throughout Gillen's run has just been amazing!