Poe-nitentiary Blues: Poe Dameron #5 Review


I’m going to start doing my comic book reviews in two parts from now on: a brief spoiler-free paragraph with my general opinion, followed by a more spoilery, more detailed analysis. This way, you can get a feel of my opinion of the comic even if you haven’t read it yet.

So, my spoiler-free take on Poe Dameron #5 is that while it does do a decent enough job of continuing the narrative of the last issue and setting up the next one, it has no real memorable or even very interesting elements of its own to define it. So, overall, I was not very impressed.

Spoilers from this point onwards.

Poe Dameron #4 left us with an interesting promise for the next issue. Not just a jailbreak, but a jailbreak race between Poe and Anti-Poe (Agent Terex).  Rather disappointingly, and weirdly enough, Poe is once again relegated to doing nothing in his own comic. While Terex dashes about the place, making deals with Grakkus’ enemies to double cross the Hutt, or perhaps even pull off a triple cross, Poe… sits with the rest of his squad outside Grakkus’ mansion.

It wouldn’t be that bad if the dialogue between him and the rest of his team was interesting, but it’s comprised of little more than repeated plot points and still unfulfilled promises of how awesome Poe is.

I'm sure Hutts used to wear pants, but then Poe charmed them all off. 
He contacts BB-8 up at the station and gives him and the rest of their droids (henceforth known as Black Squadron: Robo Force) some unknown instructions, resulting in a fun little interlude.

Overly weaponized astromechs seem to be the trend lately. Not that I'm complaining.
And that’s pretty much all there is to this issue. Terex’s plan results in the compound getting surrounded by an angry mob, but that just leads into the cliffhanger for the next issue. 

The art and coloring is the same as ever, with Phil Noto once again showing off his penchant for drawing nicely detailed and recognizable faces, but unfortunately his action scenes remain somewhat static.


Once again, Poe Dameron is let down by how unmemorable it is, which is a real shame, since a comic about the charming, roguish Rebel Resistance pilot should be anything but that.

You know there a problem when the Hutt is making the most sense.

Aranwe Quirke is a totally real, definitely not made up name. No, you may not see the birth certificate.