Chewbacca finds a new partner.
Gerry Duggan and Phil Noto may well have tackled the toughest assignment of any of Marvel’s Star Wars comics to date. How exactly does one weave a story with Chewbacca – a character who only speaks in guttural growls and roars – as its central protagonist? Even the challenge of rendering a character who’s approximately 300% fur is nothing to sneeze at. But the creators persevere and deliver a fun, if not particularly flashy, new addition to Marvel’s growing Star Wars universe.
Thankfully, Duggan didn’t opt to give Chewie narrative captions or thought bubbles to make his adventure easier to follow. Even the idea is too bizarre to contemplate. Instead, Duggan devotes most of this first issue to introducing a new protagonist – a young girl named Zarro. Zarro doesn’t understand Chewie any better than the reader does, which results in a comical game of sign language as both characters try to make themselves understood. And while this chapter is mainly devoted to setting up the conflict and introducing Zarro and her plight, the idea that Duggan will be tapping into Chewie’s tragic past as a slave of the Empire is enough to give the book some spark. Plus, there’s ample room for Chewie to play the bad-ass loner, which is never a bad thing.
So much storytelling responsibility falls on the shoulders of Noto and letterer Joe Caramagna here. While certainly vocal, Chewbacca is essentially a visual character here. Caramagna does a typically great job of representing Chewie’s distinctive voice in lettered form and differentiating his “dialogue” from the rest of the cast. Noto’s character designs are a little weird (with Zorra especially looking more like a refugee from Earth than a normal denizen of the Star Wars universe), but otherwise his art impresses. The environments in this issue range from cold mine shafts to gritty city streets to dank, seedy bars, and Noto’s phenomenal color work brings each one to life. And thanks to his impeccable body language, Noto never fails to convey what Chewie is feeling even when it’s not clear what exactly he’s saying.
The first issue of this new mini-series doesn’t stand out as much as some of Marvel’s Star Wars projects, but there’s still a lot to like. Rather than try to get into Chewie’s head, the creators take advantage of his peculiar speech and the unlikely pairing with a new teen heroine. Even better, this issue promises a deeper and more dramatic storyline to come.
