Writer: Charles Soule

Artist: Jan Bazaldua, Rachelle Rosenberg, VC’s Clayton Cowles, Rain Beredo, Carlo Pagulayan, and Jason Paz

Price: $3.99

Release Date: February 3, 2021

Reviewer: StoryBabbler

The conclusion of Operation Starlight, as the Rebel Alliance, tries to establish a new code for their communications with Lando and Lobot’s help. However, Lando finds his loyalties tested as he’s forced to choose between his old friend and the rebels.

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Review

In this arc, we saw Lando and Lobot step up for the Rebellion in helping secure the means for creating new codes for their fleet. They infiltrated an Imperial museum, stole an antique droid, and lost a couple of people along the way. But now the Rebellion is close to costing Lando more than money – his friend. Last we saw, the antique droid, a Talky, needed Lobot as a medium to process the new codes but at the expense of Lobot’s health while Starlight Squadron tries to survive an Imperial ambush. The situation grew worse as Kes Dameron, Poe Dameron’s father, holds Lando at blaster point to keep him from stopping the Talky to contact his wife Shara Bey, leader of Starlight Squadron.

There are several callbacks to the film Rogue One in this comic as if this comic were made to be a homage to the story. The Rebellion’s leadership is certainly making hard and questionable decisions here as they put Lobot’s life on the line to save their squadrons. This may turn some fans off as Leia and the Rebellion continue to push the line of how far they’re willing to go to beat the Empire. There’s even a silly moment where Lando plays an “Oh, look it’s…” move on Kes, which just feels like forced comedy and just makes Kes look like a fool.

All while Starlight Squadron does what it can to escape the ambush by Commander Zahra, the new villain for this series, and Grand Moff Tarkin’s vengeful protégé. Zahra plays it smart and tries to capture Starlight Squadron, but they pull a last-ditch maneuver to save their skins. By the end, most of the players walk away with some wins and losses, and it feels like the comic is setting up a potential dark path for Leia and the Rebellion to dip into in future issues. While Lando works out an exit strategy.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Star Wars #11 concludes the Operation Starlight arc with some callbacks to Rogue One and some strained friendships as we see more of the Rebel Alliance’s dark side here, especially what they’re willing to do to survive and get an edge over the Galactic Empire.