"Starbuck" Part 4 Battlestar Galactica: Starbuck #4 (Dynamite) Written by Tony Lee Illustrated by Eman Casallos Cover by Sean Chen 2014

Athena is held captive by the treacherous Osiris.

Story Summary

As Adama's plan to rescue Athena from Diana's clutches unfolds, Athena is putting her own escape attempt into action. They all meet in the middle, Athena is rescued, and Osiris and Diana's plot with the Cylons is ended, finally resulting in their deaths.

As the story wraps, Starbuck is cleared of the murder charge, and he and Apollo receive promotions, Starbuck to Lieutenant and Apollo to Captain. Meanwhile, having lost their Colonial connection with the fall of Osiris and Diana, the Cylon Imperious Leader makes a deal with the man named Baltar.

Didja Know?

Battlestar Galactica: Starbuck was a four-issue mini-series published by Dynamite Entertainment. 

This issue presents a somewhat different path to Baltar's alliance with the Cylons than the one seen in "There Will Be Blood", but not entirely unreconcilable. It might be that Baltar had the Carillon tylium operation running for the Cylons as presented in "There Will Be Blood" and the Cylon commandant came to him with the Imperious Leader's peace plan as also seen there, due to the increasing unreliabilty of Osiris as an agent as seen here in the Starbuck mini-series. Then, Baltar's request to the Imperious Leader for two yahrens to convince the Colonies of the peace plan, as seen here, occurs after he's had some time to plan it out.

Didja Notice?  

On page 1, Athena identifies the door pad of her cell on the ice moon of Thrace as a Grayson model. Presumably, Grayson is a Colonial company. It would have been cool if it was a Graystone model instead!

On the last panel of page 1, Athena removes a small wall panel in her cell in order to gain access to the components of the door's electronic lock panel. It seems unlikely that any room designed as a prisoner holding cell would have removable wall panels for any reason!

Lucifer makes a cameo appearance on page 8. He tells Diana that the Cylons are unconcerned about the likely loss of her and her father because they already have a replacement lined up. The replacement is, of course, Baltar, as we see at the end of the story.

On page 11, Adama implies that Zac used to be afraid of spiders when he was a kid. Generally, the term "crawlon" has been used in place of "spider" in the BSG universe.

After Councilor Osiris is exposed for his treachery, President Adar remarks, "I really do seem to have a terrible judge of character." We see another example of this in his appointment of Baltar to Osiris' vacated seat on the Quorum.

The large seal of the Office of the President on page 18 is nearly identical to the emblem of the Galactica in BSG2000.
Colonial Presidential seal	BSG2000 Galactica emblem (by Frylock86 on the Battlestar Wiki)

Apollo and Starbuck are promoted to Captain and Lieutenant respectively on page 18. And Adama is referred to as Commander even though he was called Colonel in "Starbuck" Part 2. Was Adama also promoted at the ceremony in an earlier, unseen moment?

Ironically, President Adar ends the ceremony with a chant of "Long live the Colonies!" As we know, the Colonies will survive only another two yahrens until destroyed by the Cylon attack orchestrated by Baltar in "Annihilation".

Page 20 reveals the Memorial to the Colonial Warrior on Caprica, a statue of said warrior with a list of names of those who have died in that capacity.

Hanging on the wall in the background at the memorial site on page 20, panel 3, is a picture of what appears to be an alien gray, typical of the type often reported in alien abduction cases in our own world.

In panel 4 of page 20, Jolly seems to be giving a "peace" or "V for Victory" sign as he, Boomer, and Zac join Apollo and Starbuck.

Apparently the Rising Star was already a well-known pleasure ship at this time. On page 20, our gang of Colonial Warriors are implied to be headed there to celebrate.