REVIEW: Poe Dameron #5 – “Things Don’t Always Go as Planned”

Poe Dameron #5

Written By: Charles Soule
Artist(s): Phil Noto
Color Artist: Phil Noto
Cover: Phil Noto
Release Date: 8/17/16
Price: $3.99

Poe Dameron is hunting down Lor San Tekka in order to try and find out the location of Luke Skywalker. With him is his trustworthy team and faithful droid BB-8 as they go to all ends of the universe to track the man down.

Plot

Right now Poe and his team find themselves in Megalox Beta prison complex where they can get some additional information on Lor San Tekka if they can break Grakkus the Hutt out; however, they have to do it quick because they are competing with Agent Terex.

Story

Poe Dameron has been a really fun story through five issues and it has been written as a great companion series to the new Star Wars films. More importantly though, Poe is an adventurer and has been established as the “new Han” type of character, which makes him perfect to send on adventures and watch get into shenanigans. Soule has done a great job so far of finding cool places to go and interesting stories to expose readers to.

Poe Dameron #5

Aside from Poe, Soule has also done a great job with the story’s antagonist; Agent Terex. Terex has been that thorn in the side and he compliments Poe’s character really well. Terex is that manipulative officer who nobody can trust, which makes him a fun character to read because readers might not know what his true motives are. He’s a manipulative snake which creates some drastic outcomes that set up these wild situations Poe has to think his way out of.

Poe Dameron #5

The book also keeps itself light and fun as well, which readers saw through the BB-8 side plot this week. Star Wars is a huge franchise that appeals to a lot of people, and the comics should do the same, which is why it’s great to see Soule utilize the droids and have fun with them.

Art

The art behind Poe Dameron is working well so far, and is a cool style for this fifth issue. Phil Noto uses an interesting pencil style that adds a lot of detail to the characters and their faces without refining it. His style gives these Poe comics a semi-gritty feel that is appropriate for this scoundrel-esque team.

Poe Dameron #5

Noto’s coloring style also fits the personality of his penciling and it has this water color bleeding feel to it. A lot of the scenes he draws are focused on giving good detail to the characters and being a little looser with the colors. It’s a cool blend of pencil and color that come together well and work for this book.

Poe Dameron #5

The colors are all still perfectly accurate for each scene piece and character, but Noto doesn’t worry as much about refining the specific areas the colors are used for. He creates these great palettes that blend and mix but all look amazing and really give the book character.

Verdict

Poe Dameron is a really fun comic so far that is only adding to the Star Wars story and giving fans more appropriate content. The idea to have the story be about tracking down Lor San Tekka is clever and allows creative freedom in building up Poe as a character as well as how great of a pilot and fighter he truly is.