Certain Points of View: War of the Bounty Hunters consumes Star Wars comics
By Keigen Rea — There are many wars in Star Wars. The Clone Wars, the Galactic Civil War, and the new trilogy’s very creative (ahem!) First Order-Resistance War. These wars are, in fact, the focus of the three trilogy saga, but there are other wars too, whose stories are told in other places. This summer, Marvel Comics is running an event called War of the Bounty Hunters, which is less a war in strict definition, but has — I’m happy to report — flown way over my expectations, at least so far.
As such, this new event, War of the Bounty Hunters, is the focus of the latest edition of Certain Points of View, a monthly column wherein I talk about the state of Star Wars comics with an emphasis on how much I’m currently enjoying them. This is the much delayed third edition of the column, but I promise I still love Star Wars. And, as noted, I love that I have been so pleasantly surprised by War of the Bounty Hunters.
Spoilers for War of the Bounty Hunters and Solo below
Being so early in War of the Bounty Hunters, I honestly have no idea if it’s a good story that will stand the test of time, but so far, it’s been incredibly fun. It’s really helped the main Star Wars comic to find a focus, and Doctor Aphra has had a similar shift. While it emphasized some of the problems that the Darth Vader series has had, it’s still probably my favorite ongoing of the line. Bounty Hunters was already unreadable, and it hasn't gotten worse, so I’ll call it a wash.
Mostly, I’ve been enjoying the event because it’s so much fun. Han’s for sale, and everyone across the Galaxy wants to bid on him. It’s the perfect combination of setting and characters. So far though, what’s stood out the most is the inclusion of one character in particular — Qi’ra.
As far as last page reveals go, this one will probably loom large for me in the future. Like the core concept of the event, using Qi’ra as the inciting character immediately adds drama to the situation, and makes sense of it as well. More than that, though, it grounds the story in a way that Star Wars has recently been doing a great job of, by helping to create a more cohesive narrative through a focus on continuity. Oftentimes, focusing on continuity can cause stories to feel empty, little more than the trivia section of a Wookiepedia page, but current Star Wars has been doing so in a way that is additive to the whole while also resonating thematically. The use of Qi’ra here is one such example.
Qi’ra’s introduction to Star Wars took place in Solo, a prequel depicting the most important weekend in Han’s life. She’s a major character in it, acting as a love interest for the smuggler, but more importantly a higher up in a crime syndicate, known as the Crimson Dawn. By the end of the film, she (more or less) becomes the second-in-command of the organization, picking up Darth (well not really Darth) Maul as a boss in the process.
The reveal of Maul as the Crimson Dawn crime lord is one of the better things about Solo (I enjoy the film, but I enjoy most any star war, including Rise of Skywalker, so…) as it created a tangible link between the Prequels, The Clone Wars series, and the Original Trilogy. Those links already existed through other events and characters, but the way Solo did it felt special to me, because it took Han, the character who feels least connected to any of the events in the PT, and made him one degree of separation from on of the more tragic and well-developed figures in Dave Filoni’s star wars oveur, and moreover, did so without showing Han as a hyper competent badass who could fight an ex-sith lord. Instead, Maul is just his ex’s boss, which is both fitting and hilarious. It’s little more than a sight gag in execution, but in action, it creates a connection that makes sense, and creates new context for multiple characters going forward.
Beyond that, Qi’ra is a competent woman in Star Wars, a saga that often is lacking in that department. Being a mob boss accentuates everything cool about her, making her not only a historically (within the fiction at least) important character, but one who stands out—especially in the films—as one of the few non-heroic women.
War of the Bounty Hunters leverages all of that, and adds the new wrinkle of Qi’ra showing up over a decade later, as the actual leader of the Crimson Dawn no less. The new context is a great way to introduce Qi’ra into the current setting, and the current frozen-in-Carbonite-ness of Han. Who better to buy and sell someone than their spurned and abandoned former lover?
Along with the very nice and crunchy context, though, it also further solidifies those connections that were initially made in Solo by pulling them into the OT as a setting, and keeping Qi’ra at the center of it is great because she’s great! Using her allows for the story not to have to stop and explain who she is, while also creating the mystery of what’s going on with her, what’s changed, and what her deal is.
Her use here is reminiscent of the way Bad Batch is pulling characters in from other Star Wars projects that Filoni has worked on, and helping to create a cohesive narrative for those characters, along with a strong standalone story. War of the Bounty Hunters is still fairly early in its story, (the shipping schedule and length is a real complaint of mine, but whatever) so we don’t really know what’s gonna happen with it, but I hope it proves to be as strong a Qi’ra story as possible. Just using her has been delightful and exciting, but the event can end up being some of my favorite Star Wars if it sticks the landing where she is concerned.
Keigen Rea has emerged from his hiatus, just as tired as ever. Who knows what is coming, but whatever it is, it will involve more school probably.
