This era of Star Wars has ended as the Rebels bring to fruition their plan to defeat the Empire. Spoilers Star Wars #75 follows.
Lo and behold, this is the end of the series that began in January 2015, Star Wars has come to an end almost five years later. How does the series end though? The current story “Rebels and Rogues” has been generally pretty great, so it seemed to be heading to an excellent end. However, while the issue is enjoyable, it’s a bit of a lackluster ending for the storyline and the series. The sum is very much less than the parts in this issue.
All of the individual aspects of this issue are great. Fun, witty banter between characters? Check. Intimidating villain? Yup. Possible self-sacrifice? Yes. Wacky space fantasy concepts? Definitely. All of the is very enjoyable to read. The problem is, they don’t come together in a complete sense. They all feel very individualistic, which helped early on in the story, but not here. Nothing quite feels organic enough to fully come together.
The ending is also incredibly lackluster for how well the story had been building for seven issues. The planned things that happen just kind of, happen, with no real impact. This is really surprising given that the story beats are present, there is just no real-time dedicated to making them feel like they meaning anything. Especially when the Rebels just get to Hoth, it literally means nothing, just a way to show that they’re at Hoth now.
A lot of the problems with this issue start with the writing, but the art doesn’t really do anything to pull the script up. Noto’s art looks generally solid throughout, but he lacks his normal judgment for pacing. As mentioned, a lot of the plot just…happens in this issue. This no real impact when something happens, especially during the climax, it’s simply something that does. One or two panels are devoted to plot points when they need at least 3 to settle in. In addition, wide shots are utilized in a way that makes everything feel distant, rather than engrossing the reader.