Story: Michael A. Stackpole
Script: Jan Strnad
Pencils: John Nadeau
Inks: Jordi Ensign
Colors: Dave Nestelle and Perry McNamee
Lettering: Vickie Williams
Cover Art: Mark Harrison
TPB Cover Art: John K. Snyder III
Battleground: Tatooine is the third installment in the XWRS series, and I think it's a pretty good addition. Looking at it, I can't really find a complaint. Yet, for some indefinable reason, I would not rank this one as highly as The Phantom Affair.
Maybe it's because of the artwork. Again, I can find nothing overtly wrong in it. Nobody looks blatantly wrong, although Tycho's hair still does tend a little more towards blond than brown. It's obviously not by Biukovic, but I have no complaints with it either.
The story actually helps you understand the novel The Bacta War better. That book alludes to this comic mini-series here and there. In The Bacta War, they mention Huff Darklighter having seen the Rogues before and having loads of weapons lying around. Battleground shows you how all that came to pass, and you even see the speeder get wrecked that Gavin mentions in The Bacta War.
Other things that are introduced here that are seen in the novels are Ryloth, the Twi'lek Koh'shak, Sixtus Quinn, and Kapp Dendo. This all ties in nicely with The Bacta War, and was well done. Besides all the tie-ins, there were two other things going on throughout the story that especially interested me. These are the developing relationship between Tycho and Winter, and the repartee between Wedge and Winter.
Tycho and Winter were first introduced in The Rebel Opposition. In that comic, we saw that the two of them were thinking of each other briefly when they were apart. They pick up where they left off here, with him being her escort at Huff's party. The whole time, she tries to keep it on a strictly business level, never letting on that she's interested. Of course, her true feelings are revealed at the end, putting them on the path for a beautiful relationship.
I also mentioned liking the repartee of Wedge and Winter. Of course, this never would have been possible without Huff making that thoughtless remark about Wedge turning tail and running at the Battle of Yavin while Biggs stayed and died. Wedge took it to heart, seeing as it echoed what he's been kicking himself over for years.
So, when Winter orders him to go on without her, he refuses. They lose the competition, and she holds it against him for the rest of the time. Their looks back and forth at various times after the competition are great. You can tell that he does not regret saving her one bit, and I think part of her problem is that she doesn't want to admit he's right. That comes in to play when Sixtus says that he wants to fight with them because they have more honor than the Imperials, mostly demonstrated through Wedge saving Winter.
About the one thing that didn't really thrill me story-wise was the whole Bib Fortuna thing. I guess that's mainly because I've never really been interested in any of the aliens from Jabba's Palace, and figured that they'd all died when his sail barge blew up. Plus Fortuna never could make up his mind which language he'd like to speak in, Basic or the other one, which I figure was either Twi'leki or Huttese. See how much I care? I mean, I didn't have a problem with how they did the whole thing with him and Firith Olan, but it just didn't do anything for me, either.
With that minor subjective complaint aside, I have to say there was nothing wrong with Battleground: Tatooine. It's mainly for reasons even I don't understand that I don't think of this one as highly as others. Objectively, it's a good read and really enhances one's understanding of The Bacta War.
Reviewed April 2, 2000 by Kelly M. Grosskreutz.
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Last modified May 23, 2001