Review by Ian Keogh
Following three pages explaining the set-up, Cam Kennedy opens Death, Lies and Treachery with a phenomenal action sequence showing bounty hunter Boba Fett at his implacable best. Kennedy’s signature blue and green colour combination is instantly recognisable, and his designs are wonderful. In Kennedy’s universe there are no gleaming, polished silver spacecraft, just well used ships and armour displaying their value in dents, smears and scratches, and the general grubby atmosphere ensures these worlds aren’t such a distance from ours. He’s also great with characters. He’s limited in how individual an interpretation he can apply to those cemented in the Star Wars universe, but those he designs himself ooze personality, especially the compromised magician Magwit over the first episode and the brilliant scurvy cut-throats used throughout.
John Wagner’s first plot has Groda the Hutt set his sights on a bride, and with money no object he considers the best way to impress a prospective father in law is to remove a thorn from his side. Groda offers Boba Fett 200,000 credits to deal with the well protected pirate, Bar-Kooda. Wagner relishes Bar-Kooda’s dialogue, providing a tone you’ll hear in your head, and from that opening assignment continues to follow Groda’s tribulations as he schemes and plots. Wagner does the same, setting up hilariously slapstick action sequences that bring out the best in Kennedy time and again.
Not all Star Wars fans appreciate Wagner’s semi-humorous approach to Boba Fett’s adventures, in which he’s the straight man in a world of eccentricity and madness. Some would prefer Fett avoided any humour, and if you’re among them Death, Lies and Treachery won’t be to your taste. If you love Wagner’s science fiction work on 2000AD, you’ll find exactly the same tone here in a bunch of first rate stories that live up to the title. It’s a gem. So much so that you might want to consider the hardcover edition that Dark Horse released to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Star Wars in 2007.
