Star Wars: Dark Times - Fire Carrier #5

The concluding chapter of "Fire Carrier" arrives with a cover by Douglas Wheatley that sets an urgent, unsettling mood: a shaggy, lion-maned alien looms in the foreground while an Imperial officer in grey uniform strides forward with weapon drawn, and a massive Star Destroyer-class vessel hangs ominously in the clouded sky above them. With writer Randy Stradley and artist Gabriel Guzman bringing this five-part arc to its close, the tension between Imperial reach and those trying to survive beneath it feels palpable. Dark Horse's Star Wars: Dark Times has always found the shadow side of the galaxy far, far away, and this 2013 finale looks like it delivers exactly that atmosphere.