POE DAMERON #6
Writer: Charles Soule
Penciler: Phil Noto
Colorist: Phil Noto
Inker: Phil Noto
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Price: $3.99
Release Date: September 7, 2016
Plot: It’s Poe vs. Terex in a race to brake Grakkus the Hutt out of jail in Poe Dameron #6. With his team’s back against the wall, Poe is against the odds once again in what seems like an impossible mission. His quest to find Lor San Tekka and track down where Luke Skywalker is hiding continues, and all relies on this single mission.
Story: Poe Dameron has been a really fun story that continues to send the pilot on small but dangerous adventures to some of the most unique places in the Star Wars Universe in an attempt to find Luke Skywalker. Issue #5 set up a small arc with a cliffhanger that left Poe and his team with their back’s (quite literally) against the wall in a prison of some of the galaxy’s toughest criminals. Issue #6 concludes this story and shows how the entire scenario plays out for the heroes.
The sixth issue in this book was, once again, a lot of fun and Charles Soule continues to do great work with this character and story. Poe has been set up as the new Han Solo-esque character and Soule really grasps that concept with his writing on this story. He keeps things fun and relaxed without straying from the seriousness of the main plot and it all comes together for a great blend of storytelling. The fate of each character is put into the hands of BB-8 this issue. When the droids get sent on a mission it’s a really fun part of the story that captures the feel of all Star Wars movies or television shows.
The opening half of the story relies solely on BB-8 to carry out this mission and that doesn’t allow for a ton of dialogue, but Soule does a good job of making the scenes fun and using in Poe’s commentary to describe BB-8’s actions. This is a good writing technique in comics that, when executed correctly, makes Poe Dameron a lot of fun. In the above panel Poe refers to BB-8 as the team’s “secret weapon,” which works perfectly with the scene. Readers truly get to witness BB-8 being a part of the team, taking out enemy droids 5 times his size.
At this point Soule knows how to write Poe very well, to the extent that it’s pretty effortless to imagine Oscar Isaac delivering these lines of dialogue. The writing captures the tone of the character perfectly while telling a story that shows off the beauty behind Star Wars and just how infinite the galaxy, and the adventures within it can be.
Art: Phil Noto continues to do a knockout job with all of the art elements on Poe Dameron; not only is the artist able to draw the characters exactly how they appear on screen, but he colors everything beautifully to create some very distinct scenes. Even in the space battle scene posted above, Noto adds a nice blue tint to most of the ships that really help echo the deep space feel which helps the stars in the background to pop a little more as well.
Here he displays the team’s shields against the gravity with a purple tint covering and outlining their entire body. While this might seem like a simple addition, it really adds a lot to the scene and what it’s attempting to communicate to the readers. Noto’s ability to clearly depict what is happening within the story along with his realistic take on the characters are coupled with Soule’s writing making this a well-rounded comic.
Writing droids like BB-8 doesn’t allow for too much speech, but a good writer like Soule knows how to play around with the format in collaboration with his artist. This is where the art can help tell the story and make panels with no dialogue more fun to scan across than usual. While it could have been Soule or Noto’s idea, Noto has fun with the scenes by inserting references to things like martial arts (seen above) and other well known gestures and scenes from pop culture. Noto also keeps the art boxes pretty well flowing in Poe Dameron as well which can be also be seen in the above photo. Little single panels like BB-8 looking at the enemy droid is a fresh way to give readers the full sequence instead of moving back and forth.
Verdict: Poe Dameron continues to be a very enjoyable read each issue. Soule is a great writer who is nailing the dialogue for Poe, and has the story sending the character to very cool places. The book is a really fun adventure each week and it’s exciting that the book can explore any corner of the Star Wars Universe that it wishes.