Ricky Church reviews Star Wars Adventures: Forces of Destiny – Leia…
Branching out from the animated series that began last fall, IDW begins its miniseries of Star Wars: Forces of Destiny with a comic about the galaxy’s favourite princess and rebel leader, Leia. Set slightly before The Empire Strikes Back, the comic sees Leia on Hoth trying to keep the Rebellion intact while learning a couple of important lessons, one of which is how to ride a Tauntaun.
Leia is a fun comic that embraces the heroine of the Original Trilogy. She’s witty and insightful as writers Elsa Charrettier and Pierrick Colinet capture her voice fairly well. They examine Leia’s role as a morale booster and figurehead of the Rebellion, trying to keep everyone’s spirits up as they adapt to the not-so-great climate of Hoth. Its an interesting place to see her, especially with the more comedic element of the story of having trouble taming an unruly tauntaun.
Along with writing, Charrettier also provided the art of the story. Her artwork is very animated as Leia tries to learn how to ride her tauntaun or tumbles down into a cave or gets into a confrontation with a Wampa. One aspect of the issue that elevates it is how Charrettier doesn’t use panels all throughout the issue, instead creating some nice splash pages where the movement relies on a lot of good tracking as the reader follows the narration and the action down.
The first Forces of Destiny comic is very much in the style of the animated series, something that’s a bit less serious than the in-canon Marvel Star Wars line and more kid-friendly. It still delivers an entertaining story that is in keeping with the characters from the franchise and is a nice spotlight on Leia. Fans of the character, Star Wars and Forces of Destiny should enjoy this series.
Rating: 8/10
Ricky Church
