At this point it should be pretty clear that the female alien is going to be a new major character. I wanted to do a slight misdirect and play the opening scene initially as if Azarek was a new hero character in the series, only to reveal the clichéd “pretty barfly” to be the REAL new hero character.

I’m not really sure it worked though. In the original version, with the extended fight between Azarek and the bounty hunters in the alley, that gave Azarek a bit more time to shine before getting to the bar. As it is, you only get him for two pages before the female alien shows up, so you don’t really get that time with Azarek to really fool you into thinking he’s going to be a lead. Not a huge deal, but that was the intent.

I like the booze gag at the end, which serves two purposes. It ends the action scene with a lighter bit of humor but it’s also meant to establish a bit of character. Azarek would probably gravitate towards something strong to drink and he even describes it as such, so for the female alien to find it weak helps to establish a bit of her bad-assery. Or maybe it really IS weak and Azarek just isn’t as tough as he thinks he is!