"War of the Bounty Hunters: Jabba the Hutt #1: Trust Issues" by Justina Ireland

"War of the Bounty Hunters: Jabba the Hutt #1: Trust Issues" written by Justina Ireland, illustrated by Ibraim Roberson & Edgar Delgado (present day) and Luca Pizzari & Giada Marchisio (flashbacks)

This one jumps back a good bit to "before and during 'War of the Bounty Hunters Alpha'". My bad for getting lost in the mountains of comics we're getting now. I'm certainly not complaining, I'm loving being oversaturated but a clear delineation of order of these comics and how they overlap would be phenomenal. I mean we're talking about essentially 6 series--"Star Wars," "Darth Vader," "Doctor Aphra," "Bounty Hunters," "War of the Bounty Hunters," and the specific bounty hunter one shots. Phew! I would say this is the most epic crossover event of all time in print media. Overall, it was a lot of fun and I loved meeting my new favorite bounty hunter!

This issue utilized flashbacks where in the past, Deva Lampop and Boba Fett meet for the first time as they are assigned a job by Jabba, and where in the present, Deva has been given the task of finding the wayward Boba Fett who has Han Solo in carbonite. Deva was a fascinating new character who it appears was created just for this collection of 4 bounty hunter one-shots. I'm really glad I get to see more of her!! She's incredibly confident and sneaky and gorgeous as heck (those are multicolored feathers coming out of her head in place of hair, so pretty--see below). There's gotta be a downside right? ...she eats her exes. Boba says it as a joke early in the issue, but later we find it to be all too true...yikes!

The opening crawl of this issue is really great with some deeply meaningful bits that I didn't get until writing this review. The crawl is as follows:

"Jabba the Hutt is one of the most ruthless and powerful crime bosses in the galaxy, and Boba Fett is Jabba's favorite bounty hunter.

But Boba's taking too long to deliver Han Solo to Tatooine. Jabba doesn't forgive failure, and he never forgets a betrayal.

Just ask Jabba's old favorite hunter, Deva."

What we see in this issue is not a blatant "not forgiving or forgetting" as in "I'm gonna murder you horribly." Instead it's a quieter and much more lethal "not forgiving or forgetting." Deva did something in the past that affected Jabba to the point that she eternally owes him a debt. He clearly says that her debt is in blood not in money. He keeps calling her up and saying "this will be your last job and you will be debt free." But it never works out like that. Deva must always be ready to drop everything all at once to do a job for Jabba. I want to know what it is SO bad and since, according to Wookieepedia, the "4-LOM & Zuckuss #1" one-shot features flashbacks of her, we might just get to see what went down. As to her character? You can tell she's weary and frustrated, but every time Jabba calls her up, she has all sorts of sassy retorts for him, and I am so here for that!

The job in the past involves Jarm Brock, a Zabrak male who Jabba thinks works for Bokku. Jabba tells Deva and Boba that the Hutt Council has infiltrated Mos Entha and disrupted his "operations" there, operations that turn out to be full-on slavery. He wants Deva and Boba Fett to kill Jarm and his enforcers. But once Deva and Boba arrive at Mos Entha, no one is there and Deva, looking through her binocs, sees Soikans, a species that apparently does not work with Hutts (and were introduced for the High Republic publishing program). With this new info, Jabba wants Jarm Brock alive so he can ask some questions... But Deva takes matters into her own hands and learns that he's working for Crimson Dawn!! She kills him anyway...by eating him (see below), poisons Boba, and returns to Jabba hoping her debt is paid...but of course it's not, which leads us to the present day timeline.

It was Deva who told Crimson Dawn where to find Han!!! She coerces Doc Ragon, the Besalisk who fixed the carbonite matrix Han was in, by way of booze and a very sexy dress (see below), to give her Han's location...which she then sells to Crimson Dawn...and so the story begins!

"Star Wars #16" is next on the list! Looking forward to continuing this journey!