I enjoyed Star Wars 108. It felt more like a final issue than "All Together Now!" in issue 107 did. "All Together Now!" was a sadly rushed wrap up to all of Mary Jo Duffy's on-going storylines.
"Forever Crimson", sequel to the late Archie Goodwin's "The Crimson Forever" in issue 50, was a look back rather than a wrap up, particularly to the Goodwin era. Goodwin was the writer from issue 11-45, as well as 47, 50, 97 and the RotJ adaptation. He also had a respectable run on the Star Wars newspaper strip.
Set right after the defeat of the Tof Invaders in 107, the story begins with a recap of the life of Valance the Hunter (issues 16, 27, 29) told by a junk scavenger salvaging the acid lake where Valance and Darth Vader had their fateful encounter. The scavengers just by happenstance scavenge the remains of Valance's cyborg shell. Through various means of technobabble the still preserved human brain, which is the only human part of him left now, is activated. Valance hears the story of the twin crimson gems that are the MacGuffin of both this issue and issue 50 and seeks them out hoping that they can restore his humanity.
Of course, Domina Tagge of the House of Tagge (issues 35-37 and 50, although her three brothers made several appearances before that, going all the way back to the first movie and the "I find your lack of faith disturbing" scene) is up to her old tricks and is after the gems once again herself.
Meanwhile, Han and Chewie, while trying to make a little money on the side, inadvertently get involved with the various parties seeking out either Dominia or the gems, including Jaxxon the seven foot green rabbit and Amaiza Foxtrain (issues 7-10, 16).
We pick up with Leia and Luke interacting with some of the book's various supporting characters from the later issues such as Leia's Zeltron retinue and Plif the Hoojib, when Han arrives in the Falcon with Jax and Amaiza and they all go off to retrieve the gems before Dominia can find them.
As happens with these things, all interested parties arrived at roughly the same time and hilarity ensued, with Valance arriving and simultaneously regaining his humanity and saving the galaxy from the Crimson Plague.
The only distressing thing was they left the fate of my girlfriend Dani the Zeltron up in the air. I hope she's all right.
Of course, they couldn't play tribute to all of the books old stories, with the biggest omission probably being any mention of Shira Brie, aka the Sith Lady Lumiya. Of course, Lumiya was dealt with rather severely in the previous issue and would make her return later in the novels, so I'm not that worried about it.
However, it would be fun to see characters like Kiro, "Captain" Drebble, Admiral Giel or Flint and Barney again.
It was a fun little look back at the original extended universe, and I would happily fork over another $4.99 for an issue 109.
