Poe Dameron: Book I: Part 2: Black Squadron
What is it ? : A black armoured First Order Officer on a speeder bike enters the caves along with Jet Troopers and Flame Troopers on their own speeder bikes, discovering the doors to the settlement and blowing their way in.
He is surprised by the giant egg and settlement, and when confronted by members of the Creche with blasters, he promises to repair the doors, and comments on the egg being fabulous, to which the leader of the Creche tells him that it's egg of their saviour.
Earlier on the Carrion Spike, the ship that once belonged to Tarkin, Agent Terex receives a briefing from Phasma. He shows off how well informed he is, revealing he knows a lot about Poe, and knows about Starkiller base.
Now in the cavern, Terex demands to know where Poe is, as his men have detected the tracker, damaged but still functional, so he calls the Creche a bunch of Liars.
Black Squadron above the planets surface is ordered by Poe to give him some leverage, so they buzz the First Order Landing Platform to try to force an engagement, but the First Order pilots don't rise to the bait, so instead Black Squadron strafes the landing pad on the platform, forcing the First Order to defend itself.
Terex threatens the Egg, saying he doesn't want to ruin everyones salvation, but he has a job to do, so Poe reveals himself. He tells Terex that Black Squadron have destroyed the Tie Fighters and are taking the Platform, so Terex doesn't have any support left, but it turns out they damaged the platform too much and it crashes blocking the exit tunnel.
So Terex orders his flame troopers to roast the egg unless Poe tells him everything he knows. In orbit, Terex's cruiser launches dozens more Tie Fighters putting the balance back in favour of Terex, and he suggests to Poe that they should talk. . . .
High Points : Terex has the potential to be a really interesting villain, he's working with the First Order, and is an agent of their intelligence bureau, however he has a long history and has motivations of his own. His superpower seems to be knowledge, he's got all the First Orders dirty secrets, which doesn't exactly make them happy, but he's useful to them. I can see this character being far more interesting that just another General or Captain, perhaps trading information rather than just threatening and bullying.`
And we're getting the era fleshed out a little more, at least for equipment, we saw last issue the First Order Landing Platforms, and this issue we see a new light cruiser, which looks a bit like a star destroyer, but with an off set command tower, this is the sort of stuff I wanted to see in the comic.
Low Points : But for all that groundwork, he ends up threatening an egg with flamethrowers, so he's just coming across as a standard villain, but we'll see how it plays out, but once again he has the potential to be another Thrawn like villain who is intelligent and threatening rather than brutal and threatening.
The First Order seem a little quick, Poe has a tracker planted on his ship, and Terex has arrived before Poe has even landed. It makes it seem as if Terex was already here, but we've no information to support that yet, although I suppose it's possible that Poe spend a considerable amount of time looking for the entrance to the caves, so perhaps Terex and his forces had time to travel and arrive while that was happening. However, if that's the case, it would be nice to have had it at least hinted at.
So, Poe is confronted by First Order Jet Troopers. So they're obviously not a new division, so why do Poe and Finn both remark "They fly now!" in Rise of Skywalker, when Finn worked in the First Order so probably should have encountered Jet Troopers, and Poe had actually encountered them before?
The tracking bug is so robust that even after being smashed it keeps functioning? Surely breaking something is one of the easiest things in the world to do, especially when you've got an Astromech droid who can just fry the electronics, this just looks like an unforced error on the behalf of Poe. It would probably have been better for the First Order to just know this was where the tracker was when it ceased functioning, rather than it continuing to function in a degraded fashion. Unless of course Poe is going to be really stupid and continue carrying it around, and be tracked in later issues.
So, Black Squadron give Poe air superiority by taking out the Tie's and the Landing Platform, giving him the advantage he asked for. But forgot to scan for a large cruiser contained dozens more Tie Fighters sitting in orbit. And on the matter of that Cruiser, why introduce that Terex flies around in Tarkins old ship, the Carrion Spike, if he just uses a normal cruiser later in the very same issue. It just seems to be a case of, look he's connected to that cool character you remember from the first movie.
So what do you really think ? : Not a bad issue, not as interesting as the first, but it seems to still be introducing story elements rather than building on those which already exist. So the arc of this series appears currently to be Poe looking for Lor San Tekka, and Terex trying to not only stop him, but find him first. It's got a lot of potential for a race type story, with the two of them following clues. Usually Poe getting the next clue, but potentially Terex getting one and being ahead with Poe having to follow him. 31 issues seems a little long for that story, but it's got a lot of potential to tell us a different type of story than we've seen before. But then again, perhaps I'm totally wrong in my speculation.
Final Words : I really want to like Terex, but his design (including a John Waters style moustache) conflicts with his behaviour. We're shown that he's cunning, but then he just shows himself to be exactly like every other First Order officer. But this is his first appearance, so we'll see where it goes with him.
Score : 8/10
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