Star Wars #49 is the penultimate issue in the five-year run of this series and concludes the first story arc after the Battle of Hoth, in which former Commander Zahra, Tarkin’s protégé, was involved. Out for revenge. Zahara has lured Leia and Luke into a trap with the help of the Alderaan Fleet, the last survivors of the planet Alderaan.
In two pages, Soule cleverly brings readers closer to Zahra’s story, even though it could have had its own story arc. The exchange between Leia and Zahra is very wordy, but it moves the story forward and ultimately brings Zahra’s story to an end of her own making. Luke also gets a chance to shine, showing off his Jedi skills by jumping out of the escape pod and traveling through space like Leia did in The Last Jedi, making it back to the ship to rescue Leia. Luke also showed off his fighting skills in a beautiful Morales action sequence that is fluid and exudes finesse and the honed fighting prowess he has developed since his confrontation with Vader on Cloud City.
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The final pages bring the series to the point where Leia, Luke, Lando, Chewie and the droids are willing to risk everything to get Han out of Jabba’s palace. In the final pages, Soule shows how much Leia has grown, not only as a person, but as a leader of the rebellion. While it seems that what was happening from the last page to the beginning of Return of the Jedi is a story to be told another time; the ending – since it sounds like the last issue was a flashback – rounds out the series in a satisfying way.
