Annual - Poe Dameron - 001 - Marvel Comics

Poe Dameron has never been one to follow the rules. So when he disobeys a direct order from General Leia Organa and gets stranded in First Order space…with no ship and little oxygen…how will he survive?

Review & Summary

As much as I really want to like Poe Dameron, it's so hard to ignore the Solo-esque similarities that are so blatantly obvious. This comic doesn't do much to quell that nagging issue, in fact, they make it worse with a few simple lines delivered by a certain Princess..err... I mean General. It's not terrible, but it's not the greatest either.

We begin with a very angry looking General Organa and Poe attempting to explain his mistakes in a section titled "Before". Leia explains how Poe turned a simple reconnaissance mission into a riot and some exploding transports. Leia feels like Poe's recklessness will eventually get him killed. It's important to note that she refers to him as "one of the best pilots in the Resistance," but he is cocky and foolish and she "knows the type," Poe is more concerned with the term "one of" the best pilots.

Now that we saw the "Before", we're fast-forwarded to "Now" with an unconscious Poe being awoken by his little buddy, Beebee-Ate. As Beebee-Ate beeps at Poe about how bad the situation is, Poe is convinced that "it can't be that bad," but as he gathers his bearing Poe realizes he is floating through space among the wreckage of his ship and an old Imperial minefield. Hey, the bright-side is that "I'm sure General Organa will be thrilled we can chart this dark little corner of the galaxy." He's pretty much stranded with not much oxygen and three blaster bolts remaining.

Beebee-Ate has a plan to anchor Poe and pull him with his thrusters, but his rotors are enough to pull him. Beebee-Ate does give Poe that funny little torch thumbs-up, which gave me a little smirk. If this seems unexciting, that's because it is. Poe finally gets the idea to blast a mine to give him some momentum, which it does and sends him past his target. Luckily, Beebee-Ate shoots out his anchors and pulls them to the side of the wreckage. Beebee-Ate gets them inside and guess what? There's life support function! That half of the transport is luckily still intact, however, it now seems to be under First Order occupation.

Back to the "Before" and another very angry looking General Organa as Poe still tries to rationalize his behavior, which isn't working. This time General Organa says, "Poe, you're THE best pilot the Resistance has," but she goes on to say again that he acted on his own instead of following orders. She makes it known AGAIN that she "knows the type" (like we need to keep comparing Poe to Han Solo). Cue up the "Now" again and we see Poe encountering a First Order Stormtrooper whom Beebee-Ate makes quick work of.

Now with a blaster in hand, Poe and Beebee-Ate head to the Cargo Bay computers to see what's going on here. They find out that the First Order is using civilian transports to smuggle from the Outer Rim to peaceful planets. When he asks Beebee-Ate who gave these orders, we only get a "no, that's..that's impossible." They locate an escape pod, but first they got some work to do. They find some explosives in a crate and suddenly, "Freeze!". Poe is confronted by a Stormtrooper who, once again, gets taken out by Beebee-Ate.

They finish loading the explosives and as they're getting ready to leave in the escape pod, they suddenly being pursued by a squadron of First Order Stormtroopers. Poe tells Beebee-Ate that the pod won't make it unless someone provides cover fire. Poe shuts the door and tells his buddy that the Resistance is bigger than one person. Beebee-Ate basically says he won't leave him, but Poe orders him and off he goes. Poe takes one shot at the troopers and they suddenly turn and run.

Poe, thinking he is the baddest dude in the galaxy, smiles and says, "Yeah that's right. You better run," (can't get anymore cliché if you tried) and suddenly a huge explosion goes off. Surprise, Surprise! Black Squadron is reporting for duty! Time jump now to "Later" where Poe is sitting with a now smiling General Organa. He thanks her for the rescue and she thanks him for stopping the First Order and finding the old Imperial minefield. She compliments him on finally following orders and Beebee-Ate told her that Poe actually put him and the intel before Poe's own life. She's happy he's learning, but wait! The intel recovered shows who is smuggling the explosives and it's revealed Terex is alive!

Okay, so if you don't know who Terex is, you'd have to go back and read the previous Poe Dameron comics. This issue is basically just a little side story from the main series and it almost seems obvious as to why this wasn't included in the main series. It's also a different writer, which is fine, but this was absolutely so boring and unnecessary in my opinion. The only point of this entire issue was to show that Poe learns to follow orders a bit better and put the cause before his own life, oh an Terex is alive.

I really want to like Poe Dameron as a character and I think Oscar Issac did his job in bringing the character to life, but this issue made me actually go backwards on that case. The comparing Poe to Han TWICE by Leia was just too much. It is NOT a good thing that this new character is just a Han copy minus being a smuggler. I sort of give this issue a pass since it is an annual and not necessarily a part of the main Poe Dameron Series, but I must reiterate how boring it was. If you're a fan of the Poe series, than it is definitely worth a read and it does add a bit to the character that we see at the beginning of The Force Awakens when he sends Beebee-Ate off while he stayed behind. Maybe that scenario would've played out different had he not learned to put the cause before himself. Overall, definitely not one of my favorites at all, but I can see why people want to like Poe Dameron so much.

 

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What Worked

• BB-8's torch thumbs-up
• General Organa typical facial expressions
• The back and forth between Poe & BB-8
• Black Squadron coming to the rescue

What Didn’t Work

• No excitement!
• Half the issue was floating in space
• The unnecessary verbal comparisons between Poe & Han
• The cliché scenes ("you better run!")
• BB-8 overused as a weapon

Variant Cover Gallery

 

External Links:

• Marvel.com Product Page
• Wookieepedia Episode Summary