Star Wars: X-Wing Rogue Squadron: Masquerade [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

The plot is a bit lame but my hopes were not set on that anyway so I had alot of fun with it. It was good to see old faces, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Liea (who does not look much like the Liea I remember form the films) as well as the usual X Wing crowd. Another reason I liked this one is the character of Winter is more then just a useful babysitter for the Solo kids as is common in the extended universe. For the hard core Star Wars fans I am sure this one will be enjoyable and worth aquiring.

The story is pretty much that Sate Pestage is fast falling out of power with the Imperial Cabal, and so he organizes a secret meeting with Leia on Axxila to negotiate terms of surrender. Meanwhile, Winter, masquerading as Leia, travels to Eiattu with Han and some of the Rogues for a meeting of some sort. Pirates, acting under Leonia Tavira, kidnap Winter thinking they've got the real Princess, and take her to Tavira's secret headquarters on - you guessed it - Axxila. Thus begins the search and rescue mission for Winter, since the Rebels need it to seem that she's really Leia.

The story is fun. Tycho and Winter get back together, there is lots of classic dialogue, some fun space battles, and old friends as well as old enemies are reintroduced. Plourr finally returns to Eiattu, Isard is portrayed well, and all around most of that is developed nicely. However, as I've said, the artwork leaves something to be desired. In addition, all of the animosity towards Colonel Fel that was so apparent in the previous issue seems to have just disappeared. Now he's just one of the guys, getting along with everyone. There is some conversation with Han about what it's like changing sides, but I would have liked to have seen more tension there. There is quite a bit of fantastic dialogue in this issue. One more issue I have is the "Uglies." An Ugly is a concept introduced in the novels - it's a starfighter scraped together of various pieces of other starfighters, and is commonly used by pirates. I like that the concept caught on in the comic, except that every single Ugly in this comic is a "die-wing," with no variation between individual ships, which kind of defies the purpose. Oh well.

While this is not the best Rogue Squadron has to offer, it's not bad either. Recommended.

The comic opens with a space battle that uses muted orange and brown for its explosions, rather than a more potent coloring with reds and brighter yellows. The overall effect is still visually interesting and fun to see. Visually everything is clean and sharp. The rounded characters start to get anowing after a while. Further, I tried reading this to my son, and he kept asking me who was who. I did always have an answer that I was 100% sure of. When everyone looks round and full and sharply drawn I guess it can become confusing. Reminds me of the problem I have with the character renderings in Union. Everyone looked to much alike.

Because Johnson and Hall drew the main characters differently then they have been rendered in previous comics, if takes a bit to get into the flow of who is who. Fel is the guy with the beard and goatee. We still have Wedge, Tycho, Hobbie, Wes, Nrin, Ibtisam, Feylis, Avan Beruss, Plourr, and Xarcee Huwla. Han, Leia, Chewy, Winter, Ackbar, Pestage, Isarde, and Leonia Tavira.

Still this is better than some of the X-Wing comics and a worthwhile read.