As part of the 40th Anniversary celebrations for 1983 Star Wars trilogy climax Return of the Jedi, Marvel are releasing a short series of one-off issues focusing on different characters and situations related to the third movie.

The first one – Jabba’s Palace – was a fun, if tragic tale of why the Hutt was so displeased with his previous protocol droid, necessitating the use of C-3PO as his new translator.

In the Ewoks One-Shot, the lovable little tribespeople gathered around a campfire to tell each other stories. Three stories, as well as the framing tale, were featured – all without any speech – including a surprisingly scary story!

Next up was Lando – in which the titular ex-smuggler (with Chewie) looking to get the plans to Jabba’s Palace, as part of the plan to retrieve Han Solo from the Hutt’s clutches.

The fourth issue was titled Empire – and was a surprisingly ground level peek inside the Imperial Bunker on Endor, from the perspective of a green-behind-the-gills tech specialist – who had a legitimate grievance with the Empire.

Then there was The Rebellion, in which Mon Calamari meme machine Admiral Ackbar learned of a plot to assassinate one of the Rebellion’s most important figureheads: Mon Mothma.

Each issue has so far been great – and a fitting tribute to one of my favourite films. Sure, it’s flawed, but Return of the Jedi will always be special to me.

However, it pains me to say that there was inevitably going to be a weak link at some point – and here it is, with an issue focusing on one of the musicians in Jabba’s house band: Max Rebo.

Max Rebo’s band – or at least a member or two – get an order to kill Jabba, leading to in-fighting as they try and stay alive. However, salvation comes from an unlikely place for the musicians – as a certain situation with a smuggler and his rescuers kicks off in the palace. Can they survive as the chaos unfolds around them?

The attempts to shed more light on minor characters in and around the events of Return of the Jedi are far more successful and interesting in all of the other 40th anniversary one-shots, unfortunately – the deep intertwining of Max Rebo and his band members with already familiar scenes, playing out from a slightly different perspective, just feel lazily implemented.

Nothing particularly interesting or noteworthy happens here and certainly not to any characters that are in any way well sketched out; Rebo himself proves a somewhat sympathetic character but the comic goes out of its way to focus on a tribal disagreement between his band members instead.

I just found this to be a dreadfully dull issue that felt almost entirely pointless; the same couldn’t be said for any of the previous Return of the Jedi anniversary comics.

So it’s a real shame that this is the final issue; especially as each comic prior to this one has been a great tribute to the flawed, but still beloved, 1983 movie.

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