by Michael DeLaney

This article contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!

After a series of long arcs and crossovers, Star Wars is switching formats to give us single issue stories that are mostly self-contained. Star Wars 35 is a lighter chapter where Han Solo and Chewbacca get back to their smuggler roots as they haul Grakkus the Hutt to a Rebel base.

Salvador Larroca uses a photorealistic style for Han that looks eerily similar to stills from A New Hope. This approach is only used on the human characters however, so it’s a little jarring when Han is in the same panel as Grakkus or Chewbacca — like they’re from different comic books altogether.

While I’m not sure how they got the Millennium Falcon to take off with a Hutt onboard, the majority of the issue takes place in the Falcon’s cockpit. Larroca plays the Hutt’s massive weight for laughs, as he blocks the doorway to the cockpit. The character design of Jabba the Hutt has always been menacing, and Larroca plays that up here with Grakkus’ glowing eyes watching from the shadows.

With that imagery in mind, Jason Aaron positions Grakkus as the devil on Han’s shoulder. Grakkus tries to pay off Han and wipe his debt with Jabba clean in order for his freedom. More importantly, Grakkus plays on Han’s fears that he’s going soft. He tempts Han with the swashbuckling life he once knew before he signed up with the Rebellion. It doesn’t hurt that he compliments the Millennium Falcon either.

To be honest, I kind of find myself tempted by Grakkus’ offer, as well. Unlike Luke, Han and Chewbacca were fully-formed characters with their own histories when we met them in A New Hope. If Han backslid into smuggling for a little bit, would that be the worst thing? It would be an interesting deviation before he gets his carbonite bath in The Empire Strikes Back.

The conversation doesn’t stop there. What do you wanna talk about from this issue?