2 out of 5

Giving Aaron a lot of leeway here.  Like selected runs from his other triple A titles Doctor Strange and Thor – the main issue I have with the writing here is an imbalanced tone, or rather a constant cutaway to one-liners that seems to be a requirement for most big two books.  But while elsewhere I was at least able to appreciate a general quality in Aaron’s writing, even that is questionable here, as the main arc collected in this trade – rebel jail – features several eyerolls worth of forced plot contrivances and completely illogical “just ’cause it sounds good” exclamations and justifications.  I was, sincerely, ready to hit Stop on my explorations into JA’s non-Indies… but then I got to issue 15 (sequentially out of order in the trade in order to make certain plot elements more sensible).  This trade isn’t my first Aaron SW read, as I’d checked out a current issue and approved enough to continue, then found this collection on a sale rack.  That issue had more of a stormtrooper focus, with art by Mike Mayhew, and it was pretty damn interesting.  Which lands us level with the Doc Strange and Thor issues I’d read which had the same effect, and issue 15 – with surprisingly emotive photo-reference style art again from Mayhew – an Obi Kenobi flashback one-shot, was on par with that other issue in terms of keeping me invested.  A head scratcher, then.  Is this to be my experience with these titles?  Flashes of good imbalanced by Meh?  That… would be consistent for most of my DC / Marvel modern reads, but the hope, of course, is that Aaron can tip the balance.

The issue, at the very least, had me searching out other impressions on the trade, and though I only ended up reading one review, its opinion that this particular arc was bad – but that Star Wars in general was a good read – seems to have course corrected me enough to keep reading for now.  Jerk.

Anyhow, volume three opens with Kieron Gillen’s annual, which, despite a heavy-handed narrative mantra about heroism, ends up being a fun and thrilling spy mission tale with some really great direction from artist Angel Unzueta and a rich but cinematic color palette from Paul Mounts.  Thereafter we get into the rebel jail arc, which concerns princess Leia and some characters I don’t know (and frankly aren’t written very compellingly) transporting one such character to the eponymous jail, which is then beset by mystery character who spouts dumb, ominous dialogue that no one really says except in dumb fictional narratives where we’re setting up a “twist.”  The story works in fits but has no sense of pacing, constantly cutting away to Han and Luke for comedic relief that undermines any buildup in the main thread (and then Leia and the gang get in on the one-liner junk and it’s even worse), but there’s also confusing panel direction – and who knows if this was Aaron or artist Leinil Yu – where the dialogue sets us up for a transition and then the transition either doesn’t happen or we end up focusing on something unrelated.  It’s really… unmotivating.  I also was a big fan of Yu when I first saw his sketchy linework way back on Mark Waid’s Birthright, but whether its a general evolution to his style or what he adopted for Star Wars, his work here is very shadow heavy and not very energetic, with repetitive widescreen layouts.  So that’s a no-go on art and story.

Bookended by worthwhile bits, the bulk of Star Wars volume 3 reads rather amateurish for two seasoned creators.  But those bookends (though one isn’t by series writer Jason Aaron…) offer just enough to keep my around for a little while longer.