REVIEW: ‘Star Wars: Bounty Hunters,’ Issue #12

Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #12 begins the comic’s turn in the War of the Bounty Hunters crossover event. It is written by Ethan Sacks, with art from Paolo Villanelli, colors by Arif Prianto, and letters by VC’s Travis Lahnahm. The comic is published by Marvel. Valance and Dengar are reluctantly teamed up as other bounty hunters have them in their sights. Meanwhile, in flashbacks, hints of Valance and Han Solo’s relationship continue to expand.

I’m not saying this crossover event and this series place in it, in particular, don’t have potential. Valance isn’t entirely a disinteresting character and knowing what we do already of his past with Han, this series has the potential to add some additional emotional dimensions to the bigger story. But if the series continues at this pace, it will be a disappointment. The story goes pretty much nowhere from start to finish and what does occur isn’t entirely clear.

In the present, Dengar and Valance are bickering but it’s not especially interesting. And the other bounty hunters coming after the two are just as disinteresting. There are no kernels of personality in any of the characters other than being angry and not caring whether anybody lives or dies. It’s not as though they all need to have deep backstories and fleshed-out personalities to be interesting. But they all just sit there, yell, and do little else panel after panel. It’s not witty, it’s not interesting, and it’s just a shame the start a major crossover this way.

I will say, however, that I think the art is strong in this series. Star Wars comics have long had issues with their character illustrations, but in Bounty Hunters #12, I think the characters look mostly well-realized. A major mark of good Star Wars illustration for me is how Wookiees look and the brief appearance of Chewbacca certainly works for me here. Dengar is a bit emotionless, and not because he’s just a quiet stoic, but Valance and Han both get a number of opportunities to have emotions drawn on their faces. The faces are generally minimal in detail, but even still, you can see all types of anguish throughout.

Another frequent plague of Star Wars comics is the constant use of brown and grey, and while there is a fair amount of that this issue, the colorist does an excellent job providing an array of different colors, especially by adding color to the background of action scenes. The various red, blue, and green hues overlayed on a number of panels also helps keep the visuals from getting dull. The space chase panels in particular are really well-colored, especially when a flock of Exogarths gets in the way.

Bounty Hunters #12 is not a good start to this crossover arc. Little happens and what does feels pretty inconsequential. I’m not ready to count it out completely yet, but it will need to improve both its plot’s reason for being and its characterization of basically every character in the book. Hopefully, it can become a more interesting contribution to the crossover.

Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #12 is available wherever comics are sold.