The story continues in Fire Carrier #3 exactly as you would have expected upon reading “Fire Carrier #2.” Our group of Jedi refugees continues its plight from the genocidal acts of the Galactic Empire following Order 66. Jedi Master K’Kruhk and company are witnesses to Imperial atrocities and pursued by hostile patrols. Imperial officials calculate their next move, Vader personally distances himself from the officials involved, and Sang continues his stay as an Imperial captive.
What’s perhaps the most disappointing thing is that it takes no particular liberties with the plot at hand. It’s still a WWII Holocaust story. The problem isn’t really uncanny interchangeability of the sci-fi and World War genres. It’s more that this is a story we’ve heard so many times before that it’s almost diluted by the Star Wars setting. It feels like the story is constantly trying to remind us that we’re reading Star Wars stuff. We already know that, though. We don’t need the story to tell us that. Why are we making the story more generic and less accessible? It doesn’t seem like a winning combination.
On a deep psychological level, we identify better with characters that are more like us, both in the physical and emotional senses. We find ourselves identifying with the humanity of Darth Vader and the Imperial forces, yet the alien species of the protagonists continue to distance us from the core narrative, doing little more than adding needless complication of no consequence that makes the story more inaccessible to the reader. Jedi Master K’Kruhk is a Whiphid, yet his unusual race contributes nothing to his character. He could just as easily be replaced by a human or just about any other vaguely humanoid race at no real cost as a character. It feels like the only reason he, or anyone in this story, is an alien is simply to remind us that we’re reading a Star Wars book, almost as a novelty of some sort. This lack of cultural empathy for the non-human characters takes away from the story by (probably unintentionally) trivializing the most interesting things about the alien characters.
That’s enough about the characters, though. The only thing that really puts me off with these kinds of stories is how implausibly stupid the soldiers are. I don’t mean the “Stormtrooper Tactical Academy” kind of stupid, but the “complete lack of personal awareness” kind of stupid. In this issue, the Jedi protagonist brings down a large ship using the Force, pulling the ship into a sharp dive. We cut to the pilot, who is panicking about how there’s something wrong with “the controls.”
Look, dude. You’re a pilot in the Imperial Navy. This is immediately after your allies and comrades helped you execute Order 66. You’re in pursuit of Jedi refugees who bore witness to your multiple iterations of mass genocide. Dealing with Force adepts is something that is probably covered on his basic debriefing before any missions involving their extermination. You’d think that this guy would be able to piece together that he was attacked by a Force user of some sort. I understand that the format of a serial comic provides some limitations to the methods of narration, but it’s simply implausible that he’d be that stupid.
Look at it this way. Let’s say a Humvee with US Marines is travelling down a road in Afghanistan. An IED explodes violently and destroys one of the vehicle’s wheels, spinning it out of control. The driver’s first reaction isn’t going to be “I don’t know what’s wrong! I’ve lost control!” It’s going to be something along the lines of “Oh balls, we just hit an IED!” It just doesn’t make sense that mook soldiers can so consistently forget their training and objectives at the drop of a hat. See what I mean? I know it’s “just Star Wars” or whatever, but that’s a poor defense for flawed plots.
In any case, there are no real surprises in this issue. Fire Carrier #3 is not bad, by any stretch. If you’re already invested in “Fire Carrier” series or Star Wars: Dark Times in general, the $2.99 cover price isn’t bad, but you were probably going to get this anyway. That said, I don’t know if I can currently recommend the “Fire Carrier” arc to someone who isn’t already a fan of any of its tangential arcs. Maybe they’ll do something crazy with this in the final two issues, but right now I’m just not seeing it. It just failed to do anything particularly new so far, and I don’t think it’s established enough narrative framework to do anything particularly crazy any time soon.
Doc Watson is a frequent writer for the Red Shirt Crew and is holds the title of “Resident Star Wars Nerd” on the crew. He thinks the Jedi in the prequels and the EU are kind of lame, so he may be a bit biased. Feel free to validate his internet existence by following his Twitter account at @DocWatsonMD
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