Star Wars: Blood Ties #1
Writer: Tom Taylor
Artist: Chris Scalf
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
I ran a preview of this book last week and happily, I wasn’t disappointed with this issue! It was a fast read though- seriously, I probably read it in less than 10 minutes, but that’s ok because the last thing I wanted was tons of word balloons crowding Chris Scalf’s gorgeous painted art.
The story is pretty simple: Jango Fett training his clone/son Boba Fett to be a bad ass. The first page is of an adult Boba being surrounded by a bunch of thugs with guns trained on him…oh, and there’s a hungry looking rancor in the background which I’m sure will come into play later on. Boba’s inner monologue is that he has no fear, and the scene segues into a past memory. This memory is of a kid Boba getting a “flying lesson” from Jango; only this lesson is inside of a dark, spooky cave, and Boba is playing the role of prey for a gigantic dragon beast called a Balyeg. Basically Jango sprayed his son with the scent of the Balyeg’s favorite food in order to attract the beast to Boba; it’d be like if you were out fishing with your dad in the Pacific and he dumped a bucket of blood on you and tossed you in the ocean with sharks so you’d learn how to swim. Yeah, what a dick! Well, the beast arrives and comes charging after a young Fett, which forces him to employ some serious countermeasures with his jet pack, dodging the beast. He gets away of course, and Jango explains to him that he now should know no fear since he just stood face to face with the galaxy’s most ferocious creature, and lived.
Back in The Slave, Jango gets a call from Count Dooku who hires him to assassinate a man who poses a threat to the cloning operation going on on Kamino; the very cloning operation we see in Episode II: Attack of the Clones, I assume. The target always wears a helmet, keeping his face hidden from the public eye at all times. Jango tracks him down and charges Boba with setting up shop on a roof outside, across from the man’s living unit. The lesson this time is patience. So Boba waits a long time, keeping the sight of his sniper rifle trained on the entrance to the home of his prey. Once the man arrives, Boba instantly cuts loose with a shot, but misses. So Jango drops in to finish the job, but discovers a startling secret about the man when he removes his helmet after some fierce hand to hand combat. Drama ensues!
Overall, I thought this issue was very well done. It’s weird hearing Boba refer to Jango as “Dad,” when he’s really just a clone of Jango, not his biological son. I would like to know why Jango, of all the clones he could have picked to raise as his child, chose Boba to be his “son.” What’s so special about him that separates Boba from the other clones, and how was Jango able to spot the differences (if this was explained in some EU story, please tell me in the comments below- there’s so much Star Wars stuff out there that it’s easy to miss some things)?
That said, I do like the relationship between the two, strangely enough. Boba idolizes Jango, and that’s respectable. I’ll be honest; when we learned back in 2002 when Episode II premiered that Boba Fett was merely a clone and not his own man, I was pissed off. Boba is my favorite Star Wars character, and I felt that plot line really cheapened his character. However, this version of Fett is slowly growing on me, and this issue has actually helped me appreciate his kid self a little bit more.
Obviously die hard Star Wars fans will dig this series. As for the casual fan? I think they’ll like it too, mainly because of Scalf’s art. Seriously, that shit is insane! If you already read this issue and enjoyed it, I recommend reading Tom Taylor’s other Star Wars comic, Invasion, and Chris Scalf’s Star Wars: Purge: The Hidden Blade one-shot. Both are pretty good!
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Andy Liegl
andy@comicattack.net
Who do you think is more of a badass, Jango Fett or (grown up) Boba Fett?
Boba Fett, hands down.
Didn’t Boba call Jango “dad” in Episode II ?
Yeah, because Jango is the dad, Boba is his son. So the question is, Jango Fett, or Boba Fett when he’s a grown up in the original trilogy.
Also, for some reason I thought Boba WAS his actual son.
By the way, why is Boba Fett considered to be so cool and bad ass by the fans? He doesn’t actually do a damn thing in the movies. Vader captures Han Solo and freezes him in carbonite – Fett just does the delivery. He doesn’t capture anyone, kill anyone, or really have many lines. And then he dies like a little bitch.
LMAO! @ Kristin! “dies like a little bitch” is what I thought for a while. The thing about Boba I think is the mystery behind the character before we found out about his origin in the movies. Also he was pretty cool in several of the Star Wars novels and the early Dark Horse Star Wars comics.
@Kristin Part of his fan base originated from the Holiday Special which aired before Empire Strikes Back in 1978, which was his first appearance. Old school fans fell in love with him then, and newer fans like him because of how badass he is in the EU. He actually didn’t die in the Sarlaac- Dengar, one of the other bounty hunters you see on the bridge of the Executor in ESB pulls him out. He and Boba team up for awhile doing cool shit. Also, Boba is just flat out deadly. He wears wookie pelts as trophies and seems to be well versed in lots of various weaponry. In short, he’s the man.
And yeah, it’s Boba in the movies, not Jango…it’s just that somehow (which I don’t know as I state in the review), Boba has managed to break away from the clone mentality and become more of an individual. But technically, he’s Jango’s clone, not his son.
Well the reason I asked the question is because I started debating it with myself after I read the comic. I’m not a huge Star Wars fan and don’t know much about it, other than from what I’ve seen in all the movies. I didn’t know much of a back story on Jango or what type of awesome missions Boba had so I wasn’t sure who was more of a badass.
The loop I got stuck debating is that Boba was Jango’s clone so wouldn’t that make them almost equivalent? The only other thing I could think of is that Jango probably taught Boba everything he knows and Boba then learned some more. History does have a way of repeating itself though so if Boba is a clone wouldn’t that then make him a repetitive version of Jango? Do you see my dilemma now? I thought about this for a whole day and then got frustrated.
Yep, I totally see your dilemma, and I raised the question in the review…why did Jango select Boba to raise as his son? Is there something special about him I missed somewhere? I don’t read enough of the EU for an answer, and was hoping somebody out there could shed light on it for us.
This art is absolutely astonishing. This cat should win many awards for it. As far as Jang or Boba. I don’t know sqaut about them other than what was shown in the flicks. Jango getting beheaded by Mace was cool and Boba…wait, he did die like a little b*tch didn’t he? LOL
@Andy- My Star Wars knowledge is lacking, so I could be wrong. But from what I can remember, Jango didn’t choose Boba to raise. The clones were created using some form of accelerated growth hormones, so that the army could be built fast. Jango offered up himself to be cloned and in return he wanted a clone that grew up at a normal speed. So Boba was just a random clone chosen to grow up semi-normally.
Admittedly, I have never read anything Star Wars related, so this is based off of the movies. If there was further explanation in some form of text, I retract my statement.
Arnab is right actually. That’s pretty much what was stated in Episode II as Obi Wan was being escorted around Kamino.
And Boba actually escaped the Sarlacc Pit in the Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy novels if I’m not mistaken.
Ah, ok I remember that now.
And Speech, I’m pretty sure something about it was in Tales from Jabba’s Palace first.
What is all this nonsense you all are talking about that is not the original trilogy? That is the only canon for me.
And in that story, Boba dies like a bitch.
I think Lucas realized Boba went out like a bitch as well so he let the authors of the novels bring him back so the fans could still enjoy him. Just one of the mistakes he was actually able to correct through creative writing. Now if only we could erase all of Episode 1, most of 2, and about half of 3, some credibility could be restored to the SW franchise!