Star Wars: Beckett #1

Marvel only published the 6-issue movie adaptation and a one-shot for the first Star Wars anthology movie, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.  For the second anthology movie, Solo: A Star Wars Story, they expanded the tie-in material with a longer 7-issue movie adaptation, a one-shot, and two 5-issue mini-series.  The offerings for the second anthology have proven to be more substantial not only in the number of titles and issues, but because the character Valance was re-introduced into modern continuity in the Han Solo - Imperial Cadet mini-series, and that character is currently featured in an ongoing Bounty Hunters title that started earlier this year.

Unfortunately, Marvel seems intent on having their ongoing Star Wars titles be contemporaries of each other.  This allows the characters to appear in each others books which has produced events like the Vader Down and Screaming Citadel crossovers.  These types of events have long become staples of the superhero universes, so Marvel applying that formula to their Star Wars line is expected.  But this has prevented Marvel from pursuing ongoing stories about interesting characters introduced in these anthology movies.  This is a shame, because the Beckett #1 one-shot shows a lot of potential and I would love to read more about Tobias Beckett and his crew prior to the events of the Solo movie, more-so than the resurrected bounty hunter Valance.

Han Solo's mentor in the movie, Tobias, is a scoundrel who leads a motley cast of characters who are in debt to the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate.  The Beckett #1 one-shot features Tobias and his crew, the human female Val and the Ardennian male Rio Durant.  The gang is on the planet Hovun IV to steal a cache of blank I.D. chips from Dvorad for their boss Dryden Vos.  The banter between the characters is fun and is reminiscent of their personalities established in the movie.  The heist does not go exactly as planned, but in the end, they are able to depart Hovun IV with the goods.  They travel aboard a stolen ship, the Rampart piloted by the stolen droid D-1G, to the space station Munt Ontdal to deliver the bounty to Dryden.  On the space station, Enfys Nest is their with her gang to take the chips from Beckett.  It turns out that Enfys tricked Tobias into believing the job was for Dryden, but it was for her.  Tobias is forced to destroy the Rampart and the chips to escape Enfys.

Star Wars: Beckett #1a - Marvel Comics, U.S. (August 2018)

Star Wars: Beckett #1b - Marvel Comics, U.S. (August 2018)

Star Wars: Beckett #1c - Marvel Comics, U.S. (August 2018)

The tapestry of underworld characters introduced in Solo is rich and worth exploring.  A title centered on Tobias Beckett and his crew as they carry out jobs for Dryden Vos is fertile ground.  We know there is more worth mining here from nuggets dropped in the movie like how did the members of his crew end up in debt to Crimson Dawn? or what led to Tobias killing Aurra Sing?  Clearly Tobias has had other interactions with Enfys Nest and knows enough about Qi'ra to warn Han about her.  Additionally, there is another crew member, Korso, who was cut from the finished film.  There is so much story potential here that I wish Marvel publish an ongoing title and explored these characters more.