I've been a huge fan of John Ostrander since I first encountered his work in the mid-'80's, on DC's SUICIDE SQUAD. While my once-fanatical love of all things STAR WARS has waned considerably (Thanks, George Lucas!), my enjoyment of John Ostrander has not dimmed one bit. His STAR WARS work has been a real bright spot in the Dark Horse publishing schedule. So it is with a heavy heart that I must write that his latest creation, STAR WARS: AGENT OF THE EMPIRE, VOLUME 1- IRON ECLIPSE just didn't click with me.
AGENT OF THE EMPIRE tells the heavily James Bond inspired adventures of Jahan Cross, who is as close to a 00 agent as Emperor Palpatine cares to get. The book is a straight-up espionage adventure, more Bond than STAR WARS, as Cross attempts to find the secret behind an installation known as "Iron Eclipse". The ultimate reveal of Iron Eclipse's true purpose was underwhelming, but the wide-screen finale, complete with a typical last-minute Han Solo and Chewbacca rescue, made up for the book's flaws. I'm not really a big Espionage fan, so that might explain why I found AGENT OF THE EMPIRE so hard to get into. Dark Horse has already started serializing a new Jahan Cross adventure, and my love of Ostrander will probably get me to give that one a try when it's collected. Despite the occasional misstep, he's earned my loyalty for the decades of reading enjoyment he's given me.
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