Trade paperback, $17.95 from Dark Horse
Written by Steve Perry
Art by Ron Randall and Tom Simmons
Colors by Dave Nestelle
Guri is a droid you may never have heard of, unless you're the sort of *Star Wars* fan who absorbs everything that emerges from that seemingly undying franchise. She is *La Femme Nikita* for the Lucasfilm set, a long and lithe blond "replica droid" so perfectly designed that even a master droid builder cannot fathom that she's not truly human. She kick-boxes her way across the Star Wars Galaxy in * Star Wars: Shadows of Empire: Evolution*; she is a lethal killer with blaster or hand, if need be. Guri is the sort of character that *Star Wars* just doesn't usually have.
The oddity of a character like Guri occurs to the reader about the time she emerges from a swamp like Martin Sheen in *Apocalypse Now,* expressionless unless you consider "determined" an expression. In *Star Wars* everyone always seems cut from the same ancient mold: Lucas insists he borrowed chiefly from Joseph Campbell's mythological lectures when he created the first *Star Wars,* but other than story structure, that's disingenuous. Luke, Leia, Han and Darth Vader are pure, unadulterated Hollywood of the oldest sort: Republic Serials and John Wayne westerns. The characters are big as life and very, very good or bad, depending. (Until they reform, of course; then they switch.)
But Guri, who was not created by Lucas, is an oddity. In the story of *Evolution*, she's unique because there is literally no other droid out there who can pass for a perfect human and can kill like a perfect assassin. But in the *Star Wars* universe, Guri is an oddity because she's so completely postmodern, born not of Republic Serials but Coppola and the French New Wave. She doubts her calling; she is full of angst. She broods as she kills, and the opportunity to brood presents itself surprisingly often.
* Star Wars: Shadows of Empire: Evolution* tells the story of Guri's odyssey to become a new person. Having been a power player in the Galaxy-wide Black Sun crime syndicate, now Guri is free and wants to stop killing. To this end she slaughters her way from one side of the galaxy to the other in search of the two experts who can reprogram her, a human scientist and an ironically-inclined surgeon droid named "Doc." We commune with her thoughts as she tells us that "sometimes, things get in the way, but if you really want something, nothing stays in the way for long." Not for Guri, anyway: she leaves gangs of thugs in her wake and bare-handedly kills towering, armed creatures.
But lots of things do get in the way: the niece of Xizor, the leader of the Black Sun, wants to bring her back into the fold, against her will if necessary. Bounty hunters want to hand her over to the highest bidder, and the New Republic still has questions to ask.
The New Republic is of course the current government, which seems to be led by three people, a wookie and two druids in an aging ship. These are the characters we recognize, Luke, Han and the rest: my heart sank as they appeared, because this was Guri's story. It was as if a successful parent had arrived to check out one's new business and instead changes the nature of the place just by being there. In the *Star Wars* novels and books, Luke *et al* find their way into adventures by going on diplomatic missions that result in getting shot at, and it's the same here. Along the way, since, their panel time is small, they exchange roughly the same witticisms and teasing each chapter, rarely playing any real part in Guri's desperate search for redemption.
Oh, I know. In *Star Wars*, I'm sure the story sells better if the old heroes play a visit. But here, it's a genuine distraction, especially because it left me wondering what, really, the Star Wars Universe is about, what the thesis is. It's easy to say what the *Alien* universe thesis is: "Humans are warm, fleshy, short-lived food for dangerous creatures." In *Star Trek*, it's "Humans will just get better and better, and what fun they will have."
In *Star Wars*, the thesis has always seemed to be that old notions of honor, pluck, destiny and hope are universal constants, that the best humans become rulers and nobles and heroes, and the best stories will play out among them. The characters are markers, nor people. In * Star Wars: Shadows of Empire: Evolution*, Steve Perry tells a very different story, about one woman who is not a heroine, but is fighting to become a new and better person. It's a personal story, as fit out with comic book trappings as it is, and *Star Wars* is not really bout personal stories. The appearance of Luke and Leia, ultimately, reminds the reader of this. And for once, that's not a good thing.