Review: Poe Dameron Vol. 5- The Spark and the Fire
Quick Summary
Pros: This book fills in a lot of missing information from the Star Wars movies. The book’s second half details some exciting adventures from Poe and Black Squadron. The artwork looks good through most of the book.
Cons: The book’s many flashbacks feel like history lessons rather than engaging stories of their own. The artwork in the Annual issue is poor.
Overall: This book divides its attention between detailing some behind-the-scenes action from the Star Wars movies and telling one last engaging adventure from Black Squadron. This creates a book with some stories that enhance the Star Wars Universe as a whole and some stories that are simply fun to read all on their own. However, it also creates a book that feels a bit boring at times. Overall, this is a collection that will directly appeal to big fans of the sequel trilogy and will also give one last bout of fun to fans of Poe’s comic adventures.
Story
Poe Dameron Vol. 5: The Spark and the Fire, by Charles Soule, is a significant paradigm shift for the Poe Dameron series. The first half of the book is almost entirely focused on showcasing Poe Dameron’s off-screen role in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, explaining things like his escape from Jakku and his role in the attack on Starkiller Base. This portion of the book helps enhance Poe’s presence in the movies but isn’t really all that exciting of a story to read on its own. However, the book’s second half contains a more straightforward adventure from Black Squadron, one that is every bit as exciting and fun as their adventures in the previous volumes. This mix of story types prevents the book from being as completely engaging as it could be but does allow it to appeal more directly to fans of the movies.
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The first half of The Spark and the Fire is primarily focused on filling in gaps of information surrounding The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. It shows how Poe got off Jakku, gives more context behind the battle on Takodana and the battle on Starkiller Base, and even explains Poe’s plan at the beginning of The Last Jedi. All of this helps explain aspects of the movie that weren’t necessary to learn about but help in making the overall story a little more cohesive. The last bit of information was particularly nice to see, as it made his plan there seem more logical and thought out rather than the joke it came across as.
However, this portion of the book is not nearly as entertaining as the rest of the series has been. These flashbacks are set around a framing device that heavily relies on narration in order to explain exactly what is going on. This narration is repetitive and doesn’t effectively convey the excitement that these stories would have otherwise. In the end, each of these flashbacks feels like a short history lesson, rather than engaging stories of their own.
Luckily, the second half of the book more effectively delivers on the entertainment front. This portion of the book refocuses on a current mission undertaken by Black Squadron and even has Poe join in the action. The Squadron’s exploits here are exciting and contain a number of thrilling close calls. They also spotlight some impressive skills and creative strategy from members of Black Squadron.
The Spark and the Fire also contains an equally exciting Annual issue, written by Jody Houser. This chapter has Black Squadron take on a dangerous mission to recover an artifact of critical importance to the Resistance. Their mission plays out as well as past missions have played out, however, it also includes a well-executed cameo from Han Solo. It doesn’t have him interact with the main cast but does highlight his dedication to the Resistance, even if he isn’t going so far as to work for them directly.
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Art
The artwork throughout most of The Spark and the Fire is visually pleasing and works well with the story. Angel Unzueta’s visuals work well with the flashback-style storytelling used in most of this collection. It allows full-page spreads to contain a ton of information while also showing how that information played out on a larger scale than normal. There are also locations in the book’s second half where Unzueta’s creativity gives the worlds a more wonderous atmosphere. There are a few places where characters’ faces enter the uncanny valley but these moments are minimal.
The biggest problem with the artwork here is that the Annual issue does not look nearly as good. Though the story in this chapter is interesting, misshapen faces and a general lack of detail prevent this adventure from being as appealing as it could have been. Luckily, this is only one chapter in a much larger book and does not take much away from the overall appeal of the art.
Continuity
Poe Dameron Vol. 5: The Spark and the Fire continues the story from Poe Dameron Vol. 4: Legend Found (Review). This volume is set immediately after Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi.
Poe’s comic book story ends with this volume. His story is set to continue in Star Wars: Episode IX.