The Good
This is Star Wars taken to a new level. There's a strange and fascinating feeling when reading one of Jason Aaron's STAR WARS issues. With this being the third issue, we already know he's managed to nicely capture the essence of the familiar characters. He has their voices down and it really feels like a natural progression following the events of Episode IV. What's different is you can tell the action has been amped up a little beyond what we see in the Star Wars films.
From the opening page, you can see how the stakes have been raised. We could never have had action like this in the original movies and it's such a sweet feeling seeing it here. At the same time, it doesn't feel like it's taking things too far or out of the realm for the characters and franchise. Seeing Chewbacca in action or Vader go up against a certain vehicle, it's all pretty glorious to see.
John Cassaday has been doing a great job on the book. I do feel he's really finding his groove here. Han and Leia really look great. In some ways, seeing some of the poor characters are getting shot on the first page was a little jarring. But it adds to the intensity of the action and story.
And I loved that last page.
The Bad
It might be a minor thing to some but one transition between scenes towards the end left me scratching my head a little. One character's fate seemed questionable but then we find out everything is fine. It ended up momentarily pulling me out of the story and I had to go back to make sure I didn't skip a page.
If the Rebels were attacking the Empire's "largest weapons factory in the galaxy," it seems like there would have been more defenses in place. Yes, our small band of heroes is highly skilled and extremely lucky but it almost felt too easy.
The Verdict
The Force is strong in Jason Aaron and John Cassaday. This STAR WARS series feels like a natural and upgraded continuation of the first Star Wars film we saw. Aaron is doing a fantastic job capturing the feel and voices. John Cassaday keeps getting better with each issue. The action is being amped up and it's becoming so easy to get excited for Star Wars all over again.