Tag Archives: Poe Dameron

Sep 28 2018

No Heroes in Star Wars Poe Dameron 31

by Patrick Ehlers

This article containers SPOILERS. If you have not read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!

There’s a letter in the back of the final issue of Star Wars Poe Dameron that questions the disparity between the character we see in the comics and the character we see in Episode VIII. “In The Last Jedi, Poe’s actions show that he is brash and headstrong. During the movie he becomes a great leader.” And that’s true: in deed and in name, he is the Best Pilot in the Galaxy. Writer Charles Soule answers this letter with the following observation: “[Poe] hadn’t really failed to that point.” In The Force Awakens and Star Wars Poe: Dameron, he is still a singular hero. Star Wars: Poe Dameron 31 strips away the narrative myth of the Chosen One, forcing victory by ensemble, by circumstance, and by hope. Continue reading →

Jul 23 2018

De-Romanticizing War Stories in Poe Dameron 29

by Patrick Ehlers

This article containers SPOILERS. If you have not read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!

This arc in Star Wars Poe Dameron has been all about telling war stories: who does it, and why they do it. The answers thus far have been pretty straightforward. Poe tells Rey and Finn what he was up to during The Force Awakens so they can bond over their differing perspectives on a shared experience. It brings them closer together. And Artoo and Beebee honor their fallen droid brothers by recounting the serial number of every robot lost in the attack on Starkiller Base. These are noble war stories, and that’s weirdly consistent with the tone of the original trilogy. For as much as Star Wars was about Vietnam, Lucas perhaps didn’t have the historical perspective to capture the tone or cadence of war stories from that conflict. With Poe Dameron 29, writer Charles Soule taps into a sense of hopeless, confusion and pointlessness, rounding out his list of reasons to tell war stories with one of the hardest explanation out there: because they happened. Continue reading →

Jun 25 2018

Approaching Old Stories From a New Angle in Poe Dameron 28

by Spencer Irwin

This article containers SPOILERS. If you have not read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!

The fact that The Last Jedi picks up almost immediately where The Force Awakens left off leaves the Poe Dameron comic in a bit of a tight spot — the Star Wars comics have been mining the fertile ground between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back for decades now, but Poe Dameron doesn’t have that kind of space to work in, instead leaving Charles Soule and Angel Unzueta only tiny blank gaps of backstory to fill in. We here at Retcon Punch have been a bit frustrated by this over the past few issues, generally preferring the sweet, chemistry-filled framing device (a conversation between Poe, Rey, and Finn) to the actual stories it’s being used to tell. Poe Dameron 28, though, finds success by approaching these vignettes from a new angle, building a mystery around who actually is telling the story. Continue reading →

May 17 2018

Torture Buddies are the Best Buddies in Poe Dameron 27

by Taylor Anderson

This article containers SPOILERS. If you have not read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!

It’s easy to overlook throughout the Force Awakens and the Last Jedi, but Poe Dameron and Rey (does she have a last?) have spent virtually no time together by the time the latter film ends. That’s kind of odd when you think about how Poe, Rey, and Finn are touted as the next iteration of Luke, Leia, and Han. This being the state of things, however, it makes sense the three of them would have a lot to catch up on. Still, the last issue of “Story Time with Poe and Friends” wasn’t all that great despite it’s apparent need. So does the second issue featuring the same premise fare any better?

Continue reading →

Apr 20 2018

Star Wars: Poe Dameron 26: Discussion

by Michael DeLaney and Mark Mitchell

This article containers SPOILERS. If you have not read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!

Michael: Marvel’s Star Wars line of comics were launched on the idea that what happens between the movies behind the scenes are stories worth telling. Surprisingly, many of these stories have been deep, creative chapters in the lives of the characters we know and love, building upon their respective character philosophies. Not every aspect of these characters’ lives shares that amount of depth or insight, however. We spend a lot of our lives sitting around, not doing anything consequential. Unfortunately, the same is true for the heroes of Star Wars: Poe Dameron 26. Continue reading →

Feb 15 2018

Star Wars: Poe Dameron 24: Discussion

by Taylor Anderson and Patrick Ehlers 

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

Taylor: Star Wars fans of a certain age remember a time when new Star Wars movies weren’t something to be expected like the changing of the seasons. For these fans, the original trilogy was sacred canon, spawning innumerable subtexts which, because there were no movies to look forward to, were anticipated greatly. In particular, the X-Wing series stands out as being a fun permutation of the early Star Wars novels because it supplied fans with the flair of space battles and the familiarity of well-loved, if obscure, characters like Wedge Antilles. More than anything, though, these novels were fun because they were a journey into the unknown where anything could happen. That’s not the case with Poe Dameron, since we all know how the comic ends. The limitations this places on the series is apparent, and no more so than in issue 24. Continue reading →

Jan 29 2018

Villains Done In By Their Own Mistakes in Star Wars: Poe Dameron 23

by Michael DeLaney 

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

In the battle of good vs. evil, two things are usually true about the bad guys: they are stupid and they are crazy. In Star Wars: Poe Dameron 23, writer Charles Soule gives us some examples of both of these in the First Order agents Malarus and Terex.  Continue reading →

Dec 21 2017

A Thrilling Heist Propels Star Wars: Poe Dameron 22

by Mark Mitchell

Star Wars Poe Dameron 22

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

I’m a sucker for a good heist story, and one of the fundamental elements that separates good heist tales from bad is clearly defining the roles of each team member. Knowing exactly what part every person plays orients the audience, and communicates the stakes of each individual moment. In a heist film, the heist is usually painstakingly laid out early in the movie, with the point man taking the players, and the audience, through every piece of the plan. But comic books don’t have the luxury of time afforded a two hour movie, and so it’s doubly impressive that Charles Soule and Angel Unzueta’s Poe Dameron 22 manages to create such a thrilling heist, with clear roles and interesting stakes, in the limited confines of a single comic book issue. Continue reading →

Dec 6 2017

More Than Just Offensive Accents in Star Wars: Poe Dameron 21

by Taylor Anderson

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

There are few aliens in the Star Wars universe who are hated as much by fans as the Neimoidians. True, Jar-Jar Binks makes the all of the Gungans disagreeable to a certain extent, but the Neimoidians seem especially hated. Maybe that has to do with the fact that they instigated much of the political unrest that caused the Clone Wars, or maybe it’s because George Lucas made the highly questionable decision to give them all accents that border on the offensive, given that they sound like a caricatures of a Japanese accent, but the Neimoidians have always been disliked by fans. While they aren’t necessarily likable in Poe Dameron 21, at least we get to see that there’s more to them than just a silly accent. Continue reading →

Sep 26 2017

Tying the Narrative Threads in Star Wars: Poe Dameron 19

by Mark Mitchell

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

I spent much of my discussion with Spencer of Angelic 1 praising that issue for delivering a narrative that went in unexpected directions, and it must be a good week for satisfying stories, because Charles Soule and Angel Unzueta’s Poe Dameron 19 pays off narrative threads in unanticipated ways.

Continue reading →