When Marvel first announced that it would be releasing in continuity comics, fans get pretty interested.  Perhaps the height of the point of interest was for the ongoing main series, set between episodes IV and V, which would help to fill in some of the blanks for the characters.  So too were many interested in the Darth Vader series, presenting the complex villain as something more than just pure evil.  It seemed though that many did not know what to make of the Princess Leia miniseries.  As Geroge Lucas had conceived the concepts for Star Wars partially from the book “Hero of a Thousand Faces”, it meant that the princess was archetypal in many respects.  That she was a princess but also often a damsel in distress.  For the time she was maybe a strong female action lead, but through the modern lens she was shown to be somewhat dated.

The series set off to change those conceptions, but it did not come fast.  Another main problem with the character was that she was also among the less developed of the characters in the original trilogy, acting as a mostly unexplained parallel to Luke’s journey, though one with less focus.  This meant too that this series took longer to establish itsself and its characters.  The second issue saw the establishment of the Princess and her assistant/sidekick as credible players, but it is in this third issue where the two manage to come out looking like champions.  It can be said that in some respects that there is more potential for female characters in fiction.  As they tend to not have as much brawn to rely on, they are forced to rely more so on their brains, and that is the case here as Leia is led into a death trap, but then turns that to her advantage.

What follows is thus the strongest issue thus far of this series, and proof that the creative team was wise to go the route of using the Princess as one of its primary early focuses for establishing something more in the Star Wars continuity.  There will be fans that will find this to be too much of a stretch from what came before in the movies, but this is also Princess Leia taken from the 1970s and dropped into the modern day.  The end result is engaging and fun, and promises that the rest of this series will be a good ride.

Story: Mark Waid Art: Terry Dodson
Story: 9.0 Art: 9.0 Overall: 9.0 Recommendation: Buy