We are on the official road to Star Wars, The Last Jedi, with the introduction of the mini comic series Captain Phasma. In many ways Captain Phasma , written by Kelly Thompson and art by Marco Checchetto, is a prequel to the upcoming movie. The comic starts with Captain Phasma being forced down a garbage shoot by Han Solo, Finn, and Chewbacca, who have infiltrated Starkiller to find Rey. Eventually, Captain Phasma frees herself and discovers that Lieutenant Sol Rivas is responsible for disengaging Starkiller’s defense system, resulting in the resistance attack. Upon learning this she begins to pursue him all throughout the falling base and into space.
The Good:
The comic provides a different prospective to the First Order, through the eyes of Captain Phasma. As we witness her dedication upon freeing herself from the garbage chute to finding the person responsible for causing the Starkiller base to be attacked. Once she has identified the man responsible, Sol Rivas, she begins to track him down. She is subjected to several explosions, earthquakes and resistance attacks all making it harder for her to catch up to him. Yet, she continues to follow him revealing that she has a sense of justice embedded in her that she feels she needs to kill him or bring him back to the First Order so he may pay for the crime he has committed. This is further backed when Rivas escapes to space and without hesitation she goes after him confirming how important it is for her to restore justice with him. All while she is pursuing him the comic has a unique way of documenting this as it appears as if Captain Phasma is writing it down as a mission report and it is being briefed to the reader. By doing this, the comic in many ways is giving the reader a first look into how the First Order sees how events have occurred. Given that we are being briefed, by what appears to be Captain Phasma, we begin to see her develop as a character, her struggles, and how she is over coming them.
The Bad:
The flaw of the comic is that it differs from the movie of what allowed the resistance to be able to attack the Starkiller base. In the movie it was clear that Han Solo, Finn, and Chewbacca set off explosions, which allowed for the defense to fall. In the comic it appears that Lieutenant Sol Rivas disabled the defense allowing for the resistance to attack. This creates a discrepancy with Star Wars that only creates confusion as to who is responsible for the destruction of the base.
The Verdict:
Captain Phasma, issue 1, is a comic that has me torn. In particular, the comic does an excellent job bringing Captain Phasma to life as a strong female character and granting a reader a view into the First Order’s perspective. Yet, the comic generates a problem as the comic makes it clear that Sol Rivas was responsible for the destruction of the Starkiller, while the movie, the Force Awakens, states it was Han Solo. Due to this the comic is complicated as elements of it are done very well while other parts are done poorly that lead to confusion. Ultimately, the comic achieves what it set out to do as it helps, along with other materials, to establish movement going into Star Wars, The Last Jedi.
