Star Wars comics: Age of Resistance Captain Phasma No. 1: Fallen guns (REVIEW)

By Meg Dowell | Jul 13, 2019

Star Wars: Age of Resistance brings Captain Phasma back into the spotlight. You already knew she was ruthless. Here’s your chance to see her in action once more.

Captain Phasma was the first female villain Star Wars fans ever got to see live-action onscreen. (The Clone Wars and Rebels were a bit more diverse in that regard.) She’s a stormtrooper — and her armor looks REALLY COOL. She’s also a survivor, reappearing after many fans believed she wouldn’t.

Though it may seem like her story has ended, comics are a great medium for expanding upon fallen characters’ impacts on the galaxy.

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Though this more recent and ongoing run of comic one-shots has received some criticism for not really adding much to the overall Star Wars saga, so far they’re a fun ride, at the very least. Especially if one of them happens to feature your favorite character.

Age of Resistance: Captain Phasma brings our antihero back to life (sort of) as it briefly chronicles a battle between the First Order and its opposers.

If nothing else, it’s good to see our captain back in the fight again, if only briefly.

Don’t want spoilers for Age of Resistance: Captain Phasma? Turn back now.

Unfortunately, we don’t get to see Phasma “in action” much in The Force Awakens or The Last Jedi — the film that, sadly, appears to be Gwendoline Christie’s final performance as the chrome-clad warrior.

Some have speculated that Phasma isn’t actually dead — after all, she survived Starkiller Base (and much more, if you read Delilah S. Dawson’s novel about her). And as much as I would personally love to see my favorite baddie rise again, it’s not likely.

Her death can pretty much be confirmed thanks to a TLJ deleted scene presumably showing the final confrontation between Finn and Phasma, which ends with the captain suffering a direct hit at uncomfortably close range. Ouch.

And if that clip doesn’t do it for you, John Boyega said at a Star Wars Celebration Chicago panel in 2019 that Finn’s nemesis is no more. In the movies, anyway. I’m not crying, you’re cry … oh, it’s just me crying. Got it.

The expanded universe exists for a reason! Thanks to comics and other media, storytellers can bring even the deadest of dead characters “back” even for only a short time, such as a one-shot that was far too short. Let’s break it down.

Before she developed a personal vendetta against FN-2187, Captain Phasma contributed to many victories throughout her military career. Her successful leadership caught the eye of at least one trooper desperate to define herself apart from the rest.

KM-8713 — a stormtrooper with no true name — desperately wants to be a leader. Following in Phasma’s footsteps isn’t just her dream. She’ll do anything to lead just like her captain. Or so she says.

After Phasma promotes her, recognizing her leadership potential, KM-8713 discovers Phasma’s leadership style isn’t exactly what she had in mind.

After she watches the captain lead her own troops to their deaths, KM threatens to label Phasma as a traitor — the very thing, that deleted scene taught us, she does not want to be known for.

So of course she leaves KM to die, giving us a line that will surely go down in Star Wars comic history: “I do not lead from the front. I lead, as all great leaders do, from behind a disposable shield of patriotic idiots.” Brilliant.

We finally have some good Phasma quotes — despite being an amazing character, she got a pretty small share of the dialogue in the films, which is understandable, but STILL. My personal favorite: “You cannot see your goal if you’re looking over your shoulder.” Which is great advice, unless you’re talking about, oh you know, death.

Which, in anything that involves Phasma, is usually the case.

These “Age of” one-shots are short, fast-paced, and basically serve to reinforce character traits that didn’t need reinforcing. We already knew Phasma deemed herself a survivor, that she would stop at nothing to preserve her own life. We didn’t NEED this story.

But we got it, and it didn’t disappoint. It does remind us that Finn wasn’t the only stormtrooper with identity issues. And if you ever secretly wondered if Phasma possibly could have been redeemed at any point in the sequel trilogy, this story makes that guess (NOPE) pretty easy.

Will we get more Phasma in the future? We’ll just have to wait and see.

My suggestion: If you’re going to read any of the one-shots in this run, go into them willing to have a good time. Not all Star Wars stories have to have a major impact on the overarching story to be considered “good.”

Star Wars is fun! It’s supposed to be fun. Enjoy it. Or skip these comics and stick with what you already love. There’s a lot out there to be explored. How deep you dive is up to you.

light. Related Story. Have we seen the last of Captain Phasma after The Last Jedi?

More Age of Resistance one-shots are on the way! Which issue are you looking forward to picking up?

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