This was pure Boba Fett. Unlike the tale in Tales
of the Bounty Hunters, this realized his character all the way through.
The art was pretty good, the stories were well drafted, and the action
kept flowing. Fett says little, and what he says is full of menace.
I'd take more stories like this one.
The graphic novel consists of three parts. In the first
part, Boba Fett captures a magician, and kills another target. He
then gets hired by Gorga the Hutt to capture Bar Kooda, an alien pirate,
who has a head like a whale, who is stealing business from the father of
the Hutt woman he loves. Fett uses the magician to trick Bar Kooda
into teleporting to the ship's hold, where Fett is waiting. He is
then easy to capture, after a neat firefight, and gets served at a banquet
Gorga uses to get Anachro's father to agree to their marriage.
In the second part, Anachro is kidnapped, and Bar Kooda's brother,
Ry Kooda, finds out that Fett killed his brother. Fett is hired to
find and rescue Anachro, which he does, after killing and bribing several
people, and following a tracer to find the kidnappers. Everyone is
scared of Boba Fett, and it is funny to see the reactions of all the people
to just the mention of his name. It is also funny to see Anachro
tied to a rope, and Fett dropping her to safety. This would be the
title scene for the one-shot comic: When the fat lady swings!
Ry Kooda shoots down Anachro's father's ship, but her father
thinks that Gorga is involved. Ry Kooda then stands in Fett's way
when he is bringing Anachro to safety. Here, again, a nice firefight
ensues, and Fett comes close to losing it. But that's the thing about
Fett. He never loses. He may come close, but he never loses.
He shoots a concussion grenade into the ceiling of the cavern, collapsing
it on Ry Kooda. Gorga and Anachro's father make up, and live in an
uneasy peace.
In the third installment, Anachro is pregnant. The huttlet
grows way too quickly, but I can forgive that. Unfortunately, Gorga
has hired Fett to kill her father, and that might lead to her having a
miscarriage.
Fett doesn't want the mess of killing Anachro's father, so he
infiltrates the palace, and shows him how easily his defences could be
penetrated, and demands a high fee for this information, saying that the
potential assassin could be bought.
But Fett never gets the money, because Ry Kooda survived, and
has now killed Anachro's father. Anachro thinks Gorga did it, and
Gorga thinks Fett did it. But Fett knows the real murderer, mostly
because Anachro's father was partially eaten. Ugh!
Gorga and Anachro both travel to her father's palace, separately,
because Anachro is very angry at Gorga. There, they almost succumb
to Ry Kooda, but Fett saves the day. Not for the money, but because
Ry Kooda was a very big threat to him.
The book was very fun. The action was all stylized.
The colours were mainly green/ blue for outside scenes, and red/ yellow
for indoors. It made for an interesting mix. We get to see
Boba Fett in action, where he makes no compromises, and no mistakes.
It is a welcome story, but it makes one wonder what happened between Empire
and Jedi, when Fett has suddenly turned into a
klutz.
by Warren Dunn, all rights reserved.
