The Storms of Crait comic by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker

"The Storms of Crait" written by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker, illustrated by Mike Mayhew and VC's Clayton Cowles

     First off, I love Ben Acker and Ben Blacker. They are writing the Join the Resistance junior readers which if my read of the first one is any indication will be a wonderful continuing series. They also wrote "Bump," a short story in From A Certain Point of View about TD-110, the stormtrooper who waves on C-3PO and R2-D2 on Tatooine--a fantastic story. They are humorous and heartfelt authors with interesting twists up their sleeves and fascinating new characters. All of the above held true in this one-off issue and I was pleasantly surprised that the pair was able to pull off a perfect Han.

     "The Storms of Crait" is a one-off issue placed after the Star Wars comic series' Ashes of Jedha story arc and before the Lando short run series. This puts it after A New Hope with the Rebels on the hunt for a new base of operations.

     And it starts out hot with TIE-Fighters on the tail of the Rebels--fantastic visuals these. Then after a meeting where Mon Mothma and Leia disagree on the next move for the Rebels (Mon doesn't believe a base is feasible or possible to find), we're on Crait.

     Leia has scouted out an old mining operation overseen by Trusk Berinato, a Q'Itane who bends over backwards to please Leia. Mon doesn't trust the Q'Itane in the least, but Leia reminds Mon that her father saw the good in him and it paid off. Mon agrees to allow the meeting with Trusk.

     All seems to be going splendidly and then the twist comes! Totally unexpected change of events with exciting connections to the Star Wars comic series. Super stoked about that! I'm not going to go into what the twist was, you'll have to read this issue to find out.

     Several new planets are mentioned:

          -Baraan-Fa

          -Sabanash has unstable wetlands

          -The moon of Ooloponi is extremely hot

          -Upper Etrega is where Trusk hails from

     There's a moment where Han and Leia almost kiss!! I have been super excited by the ongoing development of their almost relationship in the long-run Star Wars comic series. So cool to see how what finally occurs in Empire Strikes Back developed over time.

     Once they all return to the fleet, Mon comments on Leia's sense of people being one of her best qualities, and then Leia has a quip for the ages that is no doubt aimed at Luke and Han, "They don't always seem like it, but I picked some winners." HAHA

     This was definitely a worthy read and a nice addition to canon. We get sequel connections with the skim speeders from The Last Jedi and of course Crait itself. We get prequel connections with pit droids being at the beck and call of Trusk. They could have taken the canon connections further though and made reference to the fact that Crait was also mentioned in Leia: Princess of Alderaan when teenage Leia stumbles upon her father in a Rebel base on said planet. This one-off made it seem like Leia had never been to Crait before and that is simply not true. Oh well, guess I can only hope for so much.