REVIEW: ‘Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters – Boushh,’ Issue #1

Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters – Boushh #1 is the latest one-shot tie-in to Marvel’s Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters crossover event, written by Alyssa Wong with pencils by David Baldeón, colors by Israel Silva, and letters by Ariana Maher. This one-shot is largely a tie-in to the Doctor Aphra end of the crossover, as Boushh and a team of other Ubese exiles are hired by Crimson Dawn to assassinate Domina Tagge, the leader of the Tagge Corporation.

Boushh is one of those characters that few people would likely care about were it not for Kenner toys and Star Wars fans’ penchant for obsessing over every background character. Unlike the more famous bounty hunters from Empire Strikes Back, Boushh, or his armor, anyway, doesn’t appear until Princess Leia dresses as him to break into Jabba’s palace in Return of the Jedi to rescue Han Solo. Since he doesn’t even actually appear in the movies, only his armor after he is already diseased, he may be the bounty hunter we know the least about of them all. This comic attempts to begin filling us in on who Boushh really was.

And I’d say it does a mostly good job of it. The comic opens with a sequence designed to not only introduce you to Boushh and his Ubese compatriots but it instantly bombards you with a tragic backstory. The details aren’t fully there, which is intentional but also a tad confusing as it’s delivered largely visually with no description. However, it is certainly just enough to have me totally interested in continuing to see the remainder of Boushh’s journey as well as his past and the past of all his fellow exiles.

The disappointing part of this issue is how much more time is spent on Lady Domina than Boushh. You don’t need to be caught up on Doctor Aphra to enjoy this one-shot, but for a comic literally called Boushh, I don’t feel like it spent enough time telling his story. I would much rather have seen more of Boushh’s backstory and tragedy and personality, all of which gets teased more than told and saved the Tagge Corporation infighting for an issue of Doctor Aphra. I enjoyed some of the Tagge parts, to be sure, but it too overshadowed Boushh and the Ubese exiles. Fortunately, it seems their story will continue in Doctor Aphra.

The best part about the art in this issue is how it upholds the mysteries the text dances around. Even if that dance frustrates me with its vagueness, moments like when the Ubese all take their masks off but we still never see their faces do wonders. Some of Lady Domina’s weapons are also quite well designed and colored. The star-filled sky of Ord Mantell is also a particular shining spot as far as the coloring goes in this issue. Lettering is quite typical for Star Wars comics; I only wish perhaps that during a scene where the Ubese sit around a table and talk with one another without their heads in the panel that the textboxes matched the color of the speaker’s armor to help make clear who was speaking. Perhaps if this kept up throughout, it might have helped drive home each other their personalities and kept them clear throughout the issue.

Boushh #1 is a mostly good background story on a little-known Star Wars character. I only wish the extended issue spent more time on him than on another series’ antagonist. It felt too much like a promo for Doctor Aphra and not enough like a Boushh one-shot with how the story was balanced.

Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters – Boushh #1 is available now wherever comics are sold.