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Review: Lando: Double Or Nothing #1

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Lando Calrissian is a smooth talking, cape wearing con man with impeccable fashion sense and maybe too much weakness for gambling. He was also recently played by Donald Glover in Solo: A Star Wars Story, and the younger version of the character is the star of the miniseries Lando: Double or Nothing #1 from Rodney Barnes, Paolo Villanelli, and Andres Mossa. The story is an extended negotiation between Lando, who just wants some extra credits to turn the Millennium Falcon into a space casino, and Kristiss, who wants him to use his vaunted smuggling abilities to help her people, the Petrusians, rebel against the Empire. She promises him to pay him too because Lando isn’t super altruistic.

On a pure craft level, Lando #1 is a success. Barnes sharply recreates the voices of both Lando and his socially conscious, snarky droid co-pilot L3, and Villanelli is at ease drawing Lando’s smile and body language as he comes to grips with Kristiss’ offer and tries to play it cool. Likewise, Villanelli is also in his element depicting highly rendered space battles and chase because, of course, the Falcon runs into some Imperial TIE Fighters pretty early on. His style is a happy medium between the cartooning of IDW’s Star Wars Adventures and the photorealism (And possibly tracing.) of Salvador Larroca’s work on Darth Vader and Star Wars. To complete the visual package, Mossa lays down a smooth color palette to show the bright light of the club, the classy interior of the Falcon, and energy coursing through space when Lando and company go on the run.

Lando #1 trades celibate, imperialist mysticism and trade disputes for flirting, fast spaceships, and cluttered interior spaces. Sure, this is a first issue so Rodney Barnes has to quickly get readers up to snuff on the whole Perusian situation via exposition, but Kristiss isn’t a helpless innocent and plays Lando at his game plying him with drinks, deals involving money, and maybe even a kiss. They have pretty decent chemistry, and Barnes mines a lot of humor from L3 commenting on Lando trying to be a smooth operator with a pop of yellow shirt. Whenever Lando thinks he’s legendary or has some general sense of swagger, she is there to cut him down to size with a sharp remark. Humor is really the engine that keeps this comic running at this point.

Lando: Double or Nothing #1 is a great comic to pick up after watching Solo and (and hopefully) wishing that maybe Lando and L3 deserved a little more screen time. Paolo Villanelli and Andres Mossa turn in a spectacular chase sequence, and hopefully, they and Rodney Barnes can continue to add some fun wrinkles to the opportunism versus altruism conflict that has defined Lando as a character since he mispronounced Han Solo’s name for the first time back in 1980.

Story: Rodney Barnes Art: Paolo Villanelli Colors: Andres Mossa Letters: Joe Caramagna
Story: 7.8 Art: 8.2 Overall: 8 Recommendation: Buy

Marvel Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

Review: Lando #2

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lando002When Disney acquired the rights to Star Wars, fans knew that there was change underway for the related comics.  As been previously published by Dark Horse, there was going to be change underway as Disney associated Marvel picked up the rights to the sci-fi space opera franchise.  While some change was to be expected, the degree of change maybe was not.  First of all, it was declared that all new Star Wars content from that point forward would become canon, something which fans had always been cautious about under Lucas as a kind of shell game with his different classifications of Star Wars continuity.  It was bittersweet as some beloved Expanded Universe content was lost, but at least fans knew that they could fully invest in what was to come.  There would be no more Ewoks movie or Droids cartoons to confuse what belonged in the continuity and what not.  While this was an interesting enough change in itself, the next interesting change was the focus.  While there was to be a main series featuring the regular heroes, other characters were also getting their own spin-off series, though the choices might have seemed strange.  Darth Vader, Princess Leia and then Lando, one of whom was the villain, and the other two, who while liked, were often not the most liked.

While the idea of a Lando miniseries might have seemed weird at first, the impression lasted only into the first pages of the new series.  It was an unconventional choice, but it worked, and for the reasons that good stories often work, as stories need either strong characters or a strong concept, but work best with both, and the series proved that it could handle both.  The plot was simple enough, Lando was owing the wrong people a favor and the payoff meant simply to steal a ship from a shipyard.  The problem which was unknown beforehand was that the ship was the Emperor’s personal and that the thievery would set off immediate repercussions.  This issue deals with those repercussions, as it plays out mostly as a space chase sequence reminiscent almost of the pursuit off of Hoth in Empire Strikes Back.

Once again this series proves to have a winning formula.  The medium of comics is perhaps not the best suited for the grand scale of Star Wars, but this compensates well for it.  The space chase sequence is well executed despite the two dimensional nature of the medium, but it is made up for with a neat twist and excellent artwork.  On the whole this series is an unexpected success, with moments in the first two issues that surprise and keep the reader guessing where it is going.  The Marvel Star Wars team finds itself another hero in Lando, and proves that there are still lots of good stories to be told in a galaxy far far away.

Story:  Charles Soule Art: Alex Maleev
Story: 8.8 Art: 8.8 Overall: 8.8  Recommendation: Buy

Review: Lando #1

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landoThere might have been those that though that the idea for a Lando based series might be kind of weird.  After all the character was not very much involved in the Star Wars movie, hovering somewhere between a secondary character and a main one.  He acted mostly as a villain in Episode V, but after redeeming himself at the end of the movie he went on to help to save Han at Jabba’s Palace before being the one to blow up the Death Star.  Although he ended up playing a big enough role in the movies, he also never really became much of a fan favorite.  He was liked well enough, just he never really got the same following as someone like Wedge Antilles or Boba Fett from among the secondary characters in the Star Wars universe.

As with the other comic series set in the new canonical Star Wars universe, the new series is set at some point between episodes IV and V.  Lando is a ne’er-do-well, a thief trying to find out his next score in order to settle his old debts.  It takes him into the hands of an Imperial governor, where he uses both seduction and charm in order to retrieve an item of some value.  It becomes not the solution but rather the source of his problems, as his debtor decides that the payment is not enough, rather that Lando owes him one more job.  It is an easy enough score, to free a ship from an Imperial shipyard, the only problem becomes how it is defended and who it belongs to.  Along the way he recruits some allies as well as his companion Lobot as they attempt to steal something which they probably should not.

There are those that might think that his stories alone might not be enough to lead a series though would probably be mistaken.  There are still a lot of fertile ground for stories in the Star wars universe, even if the old expanded universe is gone, replaced with stories that stick a bit closer to the script.  What makes this story work so well though is the story, as it is not so much focused on the Star Wars universe, but rather acts as good story which would work in any sci-fi setting, only here the players are already defined.  It is also nice how this first issue manages to expand on the role of Lobot, especially the loyalty which he and Lando have for one another.  As with the Princess Leia series which didn’t seem like it would work, but ended up being pretty good, this series starts out on the right foot and looks like a promising and entertaining series.

Story:  Charles Soule Art: Alex Maleev
Story: 8.5 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.5  Recommendation: Buy