Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – Allegiance #3

By Ethan Sacks, Luke Ross, Lee Loughridge & VC’s Clayton Cowles

Allegiance continues the mini-series that looks at the buildup to the final installment in the Skywalker saga nicely, matching beat for beat the look and feel of a classic Star Wars story. The two arcs – one focused on Leia and her band of resistance fighters on Mon Cala and the other on Finn and Poe, attacked by a band of ruthless bounty hunters on their way to recover lost ordnance – both come to a head in this one as things escalate with the involvement of the First Order, who are still tracking for Resistance fighters.

By pairing up Rose and Rey Allegiance creates a dynamic that we never really saw in The Last Jedi and gives some background to where the two characters stand with each other when in trouble. Ethan Sacks handles their mannerisms and character traits well and thanks to Luke Ross’ pencils you feel like this could quite easily be turned into a Star Wars film – there’s a nice, almost cinematic touch to the characters in particular that makes them feel lifelike and very much like the actors that they resemble. Lee Loughridge brings the Star Wars universe to life with a traditional colour palette whilst evoking memories that capture the diverse nature of the many worlds in the franchise.

The storyline is the weakest element of the issue, feeling a bit too predictable without much in the way of anything new to offer for the Star Wars universe, at this point Allegiance just feels like a stop gap, which although, to be fair, is exactly what it’s set out to do, as a build-up to The Rise of Skywalker it’s hard not to be left wanting more. But the series does a good job at showcasing the inter-film struggles of the Resistance and no doubt with these events in mind, fans will get an even greater understanding of the bridge between the two films which has a substantial time jump in place unlike the minimal, split-second gap between The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi.

VC’s Clayton Cowles as ever, does a reliable job when it comes to lettering. He makes alien, untranslatable language feel properly alien and gives a kinetic energy to Rey’s fight scenes that along with Ross and Loughridge’s art, almost feel in parts like a callback to the Attack of the Clones arena fight scene. The creative team does a good job at really making Allegiance feel like a Star Wars book, and at the end of the day, that’s all you could want from a tie-in series, which does what you’d expect it to do, nothing more and nothing less, and matches the consistency found in the first two issues.