[image=http://www.rebelscum.com/comics/SWAgentsOfTheEmpire4.jpg] STAR WARS: AGENT OF THE EMPIRE - IRON ECLIPSE #4 (of 5) John Ostrander (W), Stéphane Roux (P/Cover), Julien Hugonnard-Bert (I), and Karine Boccanfuso (C) On sale Mar 14 FC, 32 pages $3.50 Miniseries So far tonight, Jahan Cross has been "killed," has entered into a "marriage" of convenience with the sister of his enemy, and has had a knock-down, drag-out fight with a murderous droid. Now he's onboard the Millennium Falcon and headed for an obvious trap! All in a night's work for an agent of the Empire! ? A view of the Star Wars galaxy from inside the Empire! ? Guest starring Han Solo and Chewbacca!
I remember Lando's words about Cloud City being "a small operation". Is this floating city going to be an example of a "large-scale operation" that's worthy of the Empire's attention? Loving the droid selection on the cover, too! Is that 8t88 and IG-88 or lookalikes?
A Las Vegas wedding and a tag team match with IG-88, C-3PX, and every other assassin variant known to man? Sweet.
Probably lookalikes; the uniform one-red-eye thing and the bit about a murderous droid attack suggests that we've got some kind of sinister plot involving an army of reprogrammed droids.
Another great cover. I'm really liking the style of these AotE covers. Um. But I can't help but notice that the humans are a bit... Cross-eyed.
CBR has a preview up. It SAYS AotE 5 but that looks like issue 4 to me. http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=preview&id=11619 -- John
Forgive me if I'm wrong, but is the artist the same as the one who worked on Jedi Council : Acts of War? The preview John posted reminded me of AoW - one of my favourite comics!
There was something in the letters section about how Ostrander has already turned in an outline for a second arc. That's very, very good news. I really enjoy the art in this series. It reminds me a lot of the stuff from the later part of the Rogue Squadron series.
I've finally got around to catching up on the pile of unread comics on my desk, meaning everything from this, KOTOR:War, CE3 and DOTJ. Right now, AOTE is the series totally doing it for me. There's just... something really refreshing about it? Not that I've disliked the other series. Agent is just the one that I'm totally digging currently. I must just be a bit Jedi and Sithed out I guess. Nice to have a change.
So... Iaco Stark is a bit crazier than the last time we saw him. Geez. I was expecting him to be alive, but damn, that is extreme. And Cross' background is excellent. No wonder he became an Imperial Agent. Really shows how effective Sidious' plan was in convincing the population about the "truth" behind the Clone Wars.
Yeah, Cross was just a little kid so he would believe the story about the supposed Jedi rebellion, nice to find out his thoughts on the Empire. Basically the Empire brings order, although it'll be interesting sometime to see him come face to face with some of the worst stuff the Empire has done (so far he's sorta been like Mara Jade, sent after corrupt officials and such). Although I wonder if he's just trying to avoid thinking about the horror of his family being killed and the Jedi provided a convenient scapegoat. Heh, Han doesn't like rich girls, too high maintenance, and neither is he the marrying sort (nice to have Salla referenced too). No surprise that Iaco isn't dead, but like that... well, that's creepy. Sure he got a droid body, but he couldn't pick a more humanoid one? At least it didn't just come down to the typical crazy son, who turned out somewhat nice at least to his sister. Good classic Star Wars adventure, looking forward to the conclusion, and the art is still great too. Not entirely sure I'll follow this series forever though, to be honest (sorry, spying isn't really my personal favorite story).
Those aren't the pre-existing droid individuals both on cover and inside the issue itself - just pre-existing models. I'm pretty sure I spotted a partially destroyed PROXY holodroid there, plus some other familiar models. On a totally unrelated note: it looks like the artist Stephane Roux could be congratulated on a marriage based on the finished issue cover.
With every issue I get more and more excited about this comic. The absence of Jedi, the focus on a two-fisted hero, the MANY references to EU material--it's just so great. The issues are informative without being bogged down in exposition, the characters have clear (and not annoying) voices, and the action is frequent and vibrant. This might actually be my all-around favorite Star Wars comic. Very excited to see that a second arc is outlined! And I'm still waiting for a Kir Kanos team-up
I'm absolutely loving all the beautiful color illustrations of CSA vehicles and ships in action, when previously for most of these we only had a single B&W WEG illustration; the Koros interceptors chasin a TIS Zeta 19 was the kind of moment that made my Inner Fleet Junkie shed tears of joy
Loved the issue. Though has it become fashionable to put bodyparts on spider droid bodies lately or what? .
