Star Wars: Captain Phasma 1 review

Originally I only had two comics on my pull list this week. I chose to pick this up on a whim for several reasons. One – I’m getting more and more excited for The Last Jedi. Two – Captain Phasma doesn’t have that much of a role in The Force Awakens, which kind of felt like a waste of talent. Three – it’s written by Kelly Thompson, who tends to write very enjoyable comics. So after all that, I figured why not?

Star Wars: Captain Phasma 1 takes place near the end of The Force Awakens, when Starkiller Base is about to explode. It begins the exact moment Phasma escapes the trash compactor via explosion. It’s a fairly quick read, with most of the storytelling told either through the visuals or Phasma’s log recording. The basic story is that in the movie, she’s the one who disabled the shields to allow the Resistance to attack the base … of course with a gun pointed at her head. In the comic, she deletes the records, but then finds that another officer viewed the information before she could, so she’s pursuing the officer to make sure nobody else finds out. And the comic ends with the pursuit leaving Starkiller base, while also introducing a BB unit that we’ll see in The last Jedi.

The art by Marco Checchatto is fantastic. It’s an interesting mix where the backgrounds almost look like an anime at times, along with all the lights, the high level of detail and heavy use of smoke and debris. There’s a great sense of progression with the planet slowly tearing itself apart as well. Phasma’s armour reflects light realistically. Because almost every character in this comic is wearing a helmet, there aren’t many facial expressions to go by. It’s a busy enough action scene that there isn’t much room for body language, but the comic feels appropriately intense for the situation at hand. Andres Mossa’s colouring is also great. There’s a great variety in the coloured lights and the shading around them, with plenty of red and orange from the explosions, and a touch of green with the trees and Captain Phasma’s rifle scope.

It’s hard to evaluate how good this miniseries will be based on this issue alone. This is a straight action scene taking place at the end of the Starkiller Base’s existence. There isn’t much room for either character development or humour. That said, the contradictions between Phasma’s narration and what’s actually happening are interesting. It gives Phasma a clear motivation – take out the officer before word gets out that she disabled the shields. If that sounds interesting, this is definitely worth a look. Whether it’s worth buying or not may depend on how good the next issue is.

7/10