Comic Book Review: Rebellion #15

Decades after his last confrontation with Celeste Morne, Darth Vader is once again determined to get his hands on the Muur Talisman. When Vader sends a platoon of Stormtroopers down to the planet Celeste is stranded on, they find, unfortunately, Celeste is alive and well. Using of the power of the Talisman, Morne turns the Stormtroopers into mindless Rakghoul minions.

After loosing contact, Vader assumes the worst. Seeing the opportunity of wounding the Rebellion by exposing them to the Rakghoul plaque. Vader tells Wil Tarson, a captive of the Empire, to plant information about an abandoned Imperial superweapon on Celeste’s moon into the Rebellion spy networks. With any luck, the Rebellion will send an army down to the surface, and have them killed by the Rakghouls.

The Rebels jump at the chance of finding an Imperial superweapon, and a commando group lead by Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia is launched. Apon arriving at the crash site of the afflicted Stormtrooper’s landing shuttles, the Rebels are attacked by an army of Rakghouls. The troops are either killed or evacuated back out in the Rebel’s landing ship, and in the fray, Luke and Leia are left behind on the moon.

This was a great issue! This is what Rebellion should have been from the beginning. Cool stories, original characters, great art.

Weaver drew this issue in his more inked, cartoony style, comparable to his art in KOTOR 21-24. When I saw some scans of the art on Dustin’s blog prior to the release of the issue, I was a little disappointed he didn’t decide to do the art like his pages in Knights of the Old Republic: Flashpoint, or one of his more realistic-style issues. But after seeing the art colored by Wil Glas, I can’t see him doing it any other way. The art is perfect for this issue. His portrayals of original trilogy characters are spot-on, and he perhaps draws the best Han Solo I’ve ever seen drawn in a Star Wars comic book. This issue proves yet again that Weaver is a highly talented, highly adverse artist who can create a painting-like cover for Legacy and then turn around and pencil and ink a comic book featuring OT characters.

The cover by Travis Cherest is, as always, great, but I wish it had been somthing more relevant to this issue. Karness appears only on the last page of the issue, and Celeste is seen very briefly in the beggining of this issue attacking the Stormtroopers. I would have rather seen some OT characters on the cover.

Great issue. It does make me wonder, and I say this a lot, how will they wrap this up in one more issue? Dark Horse’s writers continue to amaze me. I can’t wait to see what they do.

Comic Book Review: Dark Times #12

While Celeste Morne duels Darth Vader, Captain Heren and the crew of the Uhumele make they’re escape. While Muur Karness’ spirit attempts to convince Darth Vader to use the Talisman, Celeste finds a way control the Muur Talisman’s power. After Celeste the Clone Troopers accompanying Vader into Rakghouls and orders them to attack they’re former commander, Vader flees.

As the Uhumele’s crew approach they’re ship, Crys Taanzer falls under Talisman’s plague and turns into a rakghoul. Heren guns the rakghoul down as they escape aboard the Uhumele, leaving the planet and yet another devastating ordeal behind.

In the aftermath of the dramatic events of Dark Times #12, we are left with a very bored Celeste Morne controlling an army of Rakghouls and a very dead Crys Taanzer. I can’t really see Vader fleeing so easily. The death of Crys was just more un-needed tragedy in an already depressing comic book. In Parallels, we see the possibility of a reunion between Crys and her son, who was with  K’Kruhk during Parallels.

This issue’s art proves one of two things: either Dark Horse wanted to somehow give Dave Ross some pages in Vector, or Doug Wheatly is incapable of finishing comic book art by a deadline.  I really do hate it when the art switches back and forth between artists in a single issue. That aside, both artists do a superb pencilling. Wheatly draws the best Darth Vader I’ve ever seen in the comic books, and Ross’ panel of Vader wielding the Talisman amidst a sea of Rakghouls sent chills through me.

I’d say this was a good issue, and it is. I just wish Dark Times wasn’t so depressing. I guess they don’t call it that for nothing.

Clone Wars Toy Review

While I unfortunately did not get the opportunity to attend the Midnight Madness toy release for the new Clone Wars toys, yesterday I headed off to Target with hopes of finding the toys and a wallet full of cash. Target has completely re-done the Star Wars section, giving it more shelf space and two end caps full of Clone Wars goodness. The Legacy Collection looks promising, but the only thing I’m collecting this year are the movie figures. Hey, it’s a movie year. We don’t get many of those. And from the figures I saw, the Legacy Collection was a bunch of re-packaged Saga Legends figures.

While I’m sure I’ll end up buying them all, I had limited funds last night, and I was out to pick up some main characters. So Obi-Wan and Anakin were musts. Of course, we can’t not get one of those awesome animated clones. And because I like figures in even numbers, I picked up a Trade Federation battle droid. All these figures are great, my favorite being the Obi Wan with removable helmet. While at first I didn’t like the Jedi’s mix of partial Clone armor and jedi robes, it’s really started to grow on me. The Clone looks great, and the action-feature missile launched actually looks pretty cool on the figure. 

 Hasbro ingeniously made these figures for the adults and the kids at the same time, with the action features being removable accessories. We all remember some of those horrible leg-squeezing action features the Revenge of the Sith figures had. So, hats of to Hasbro for the idea of removable action accessories, which allow for the older audience to have a movie-acurate, fully-articulated figure.

These are some of the coolest figures I’ve seen in a while. It seems a movie year brings out the best in Hasbro.

Comic Book Review: Rebellion #14

Bannister Station is exploding. The rebels commandeer a Lamba-class shuttle and save Deena Shan from the burning wreckage of a fuel tank that fell down to the planet bellow the refueling station. Imperial reinforcements arrive to try and re-capture the Rebels. Dagger Squadron, flying experimental B-wings, arrive just in time to take on a legion of Tie-fighters, allowing the commandeered Lamba-class shuttle to make a getaway.

Back on the Rebel One, our heroes recover from the suicide mission that should have meant certain death. We finally see Han Solo, who complains about not being asked to join the rescue team. Dagger Squadron prepares for a mission to Ansion, and we see the beginning of something that may lead to Deena Shan becoming a romantic interest for Luke Skywalker.

Overall, this was a pretty good issue. A mix of fist-fights and starfighter dogfights make this issue’s action more interesting a diverse than the last issue’s frantic brawls. We finally get to see Dagger Squadron in action. Colin Wilson does an excellent job illustrating the B-wing vs. Tie-fighter battle, which is the highlight of this issue. The cover for this issue is pretty good, leagues better than the last one.  

As I said in the short synopsis, we finally get to see Han Solo, who was been doing who-knows-what during My Brother, My Enemy, the Akhista Gambit and now Small Victories. The mission to Ansion is either a set up for the next Vector story line or a way to get rid of Dagger Squadron for the next story, I’m not sure which.

This was a decent issue with good art, and it ended the way Small Victories had to end. I’m not sure I’d go as far as saying it redeemed the entire, four-part series for me. Overall the arc has disappointed me greatly, and I’m glad Rebellion will be moving on to Vector.

Comic Book Review: Rebellion #13

Things aren’t looking good for the Rebel strike team on Banister Station. Luke and Leia have been captured and taken prisoner by the Imperials. Deena Shan, tasked with taking down the station by herself, runs into Captain Rishyk. Deena escapes, and ends up throwing a single detonator into one of Banister’s large fuel tanks, starting a chain reaction that blows the tank and catches the station on fire.

The Rebels escape captivity and start a frantic battle with the stormtroopers and officers holding them. Back aboard Rebel One, Dagger Squadron plans a rescue mission to retrieve the Rebel strike team from Bannister Staion. 

This issue was rather uneventful. Deena battles Imperials and drops a detonator, then the rest of the Rebels escape and start fighting. This is going to leave a whole lot to wrap up in one issue. Colin Wilson’s art, in my opinion, usually translates better into cover art. He has a very dark, inked style, which is either really, really cool are really, really bad when he draws interior art.

Why I say “usually” about Wilson’s covers is because the cover for this issue is horrendous. I’ve liked the other covers for Small Victories, but really, what happened? Deena Shan is looking like a man. I could understand why someone would want to emphasize the characters by having no background; but the characters are so badly drawn on this cover, I wouldn’t really want to emphasize them.

As a singular issue, Rebellion #13 was not a very good issue. Hopefuly Small Victories can redeem itself in issue #14.

Book Review: Invincible

“I name you the Sword of the Jedi. Always you shall be in the front rank, a burning brand to your enemies, a brilliant fire to your friends….”.

 The epic battle between light and dark ensues in Invincible by Troy Denning, as Jaina Solo begins her hunt to find and kill Darth Caedus. Caedus begins his ploy to unite both the Galactic Alliance and the Imperial Remnant under his command as he directs the Remnant fleets to attack Nickel One, a Verpine asteroid base under the protection of Boba Fett and the Mandalorians. As Fett and the Mandalorians enter the fray, Jaina finishes her training with Fett and leaves Nickel One for the Jedi’s secret base in the Transitory Mists to plan out how she’ll kill Jacen with the Jedi Council.

The council agrees that it’s time to stop Caedus. In an attempt to learn Cadeous’ location, Ben, Jania and Leia go undercover on Corascant to meet Captain Shevu. After telling Ben that Cadeous is on Nickel One, the three are ambushed by Galactic Alliance Guard troops. Ben and Shevu are captured, and Leia and Jaina escape back to the Jedi base to plan how Jaina will kill Caedus. A mission is planned in which Jaina will be inserted into Nickel One’s captured command center using a drop suit. Once inside the base, Jaina will hunt down Caedus and, with her new set of skills, kill him.

After being successfully inserted into the captured Verpine command center, Jaina accidentally runs into Boba Fett’s granddaughter Mirta and a squad of mandalorians on a mission to kill the Imperial moffs. When the Mandalorians attack, Caedus shows up to defend the Moffs, and the Mandalorians are killed. Jaina engages Caedus in a lightsaber duel while Luke, high above Nickel One in a starfighter, projects an image of himself ove Jaina’s body. During the duel, when Luke’s projection falters and reveals that Jaina is the attacker, Caedus hesitates for a moment, leaving himself wide open to a lightsaber strike by his sister which severs an arm.

Caedus retreats, and Jaina escapes Nick One. On Corascant, Ben and Shevu are tortured for the location of the hidden Jedi base. Tahiri, now Caedus’ apprentice, accidentally kills Shevu while trying to presure Ben into giving her the information. Ben takes the ensueing confusion as an advantage and escapes the GAG base. With the help of the Hapans, Ben travels back to the secret Jedi base in the Transitory Mists only to find that Caedus has found the base using a blood mark implanted on Jaina.

As the epic battle between Caedus’ fleet and the Jedi begins, Jaina infiltrates the Anakin Solo on a mission to kill Caedus and rescue the captured Prince Isolder. After finding Isolder dead, Jaina engages her brother in a final duel to the death, in which Caedus is finally killed. Without a commander, Caedus’ fleet is defeated by the Jedi and forced into retreat.

In the following days of Caedus’ death, a treaty is proposed between the Galactic Alliance, Imperial Remnant and  Confederation to unite in one single government, a treaty that is agreed apon by all factions. Admiral Dalaa is appointed the chief of state. Han and Leia adopt Caedus’ daughter, Allana, who will undergo Jedi training at the Jedi Academy.

This being the final book in the Legacy of the Force series, this was how it had to end: with the death of Jacen and the end of the war. That being said, I did not enjoy this book. The story seemed to take the plot aspects from other LOTF books, tweak them slightly, then replay them. Denning kills off characters that don’t need to be killed, just for the sake of trying to make a chapter even darker than it already was.

I expected more resolve earlier in the book. I didn’t get it. Instead, three fourths of the book focus on Jaina’s first failed attempt to kill Jacen. Then, in the last part of the book, we get a rushed battle between Caedus and the Jedi, and then twenty pages afterwards talking about how depressed Jaina is. Personally, I would have liked to see more of the government reform taking place between the factions of the war.

Denning also has the habit of creating a plot point and then abandoning it for half the book. After Ben and Shevu get captured, we don’t hear from them for chapters. Random things like Jacen’s ability to use the shatterpoint force technique are brought up as important for short periods and then abandoned. After reading Jaina’s fight scenes, I really can’t sense any of the Mandalorian training in her, making the last book in the series, Revelation, look rather obsolete.

Some good aspects of the book include the first chapter, in which Boba Fett, Jaina and the Mandalorians defend Nickel One from stormtrooper landing parties. Even though the overall story might not be that great, Denning always writes a superb fight scene, as demonstrated in the near none-stop action of Invincible.

Reading this book seemed more like a chore than a pleasure to me. I thoroughly did not enjoy this book, but for people who have been following the series, well, there’s no turning back now.

Comic Book Review: Dark Times #11

2008’s groundbreaking Star Wars comic book crossover Vector continues in Dark Times #11, Vector part 5. Aboard the Uhumele, the contents of the mysterious cargo crate are revealed, and Captain Heren gets the crew into yet another bad situation, this time involving stormtroopers, Celeste Morne and Darth Vader.

When Heren decides it’s time Bomo learned what was in the crate, we are told the story of the mysterious Jedi Box, which was found under a kilometer of ice on Jebble and fought over by antique collectors for centuries. Now, with the artifact aboard the Uhumele, Heren has set up a meeting on Aridus with someone wishing to buy the artifact.

When the buyer turns out to be Fane Peturri, a historian in league with Darth Vader, things take a turn for the worse. After being taken prisoner, the crew watches Darth Vader and Fane Peturri open the box to find Celeste Morne, a Jedi Knight who has been in stasis for more than four thousand years. After awakening, Celeste learns how long she’s been in stasis and is told  the Sith have taken over the Republic. Learning that Vader is a Sith, Celeste attacks Vader in a lightsaber duel, vowing to kill him.

Dark Times #11 was a great issue. Not only does it have an interesting story with great art, but it goes back an explains some missing story points of Dark Time’s second arc, Parallels. We now know why the mysterious box is so important. Doug Wheatly does a fantastic job pencilling this issue, and I enjoy seeing his renditions of Celeste, Zayne and Gryph (Gryph and Zayne appear in a hologram talking about the box).

Overall, this was a really, really good issue. I’m interested in how they’re going to tie this all up in just one more issue.

Comic Book Review: Knights of the Old Republic #28

Knights of the Old Republic’s chapter of Vector ends in Knights of the Old Republic, issue #28, Vector part 4. In an attempt to escape Karness Muur’s dark influence, Celeste Morne locks herself inside Lord Dreypa’s Oubliette, a device which will imprison Karness’ spirit and disable the Talisman while holding Celeste in stasis. Before closing the Oubliette, Celeste tells Zayne to travel to the Sanctum of the Exalted and ask the artifact researchers there to help remove the Muur Talisman from her.

After locking Celeste inside the Sith stasis tube, Zayne is rescued from Jebble by Jareal, Alec, Shel and Rohlan and taken aboard the Williwaw. As they reach orbit, the Mandalorian fleet arrives at Jebble and, heading Zayne’s warning about the spread of the Rakghoul plaque, bombard the planet from orbit.

Aboard the Williwaw, Zayne plans on traveling to the Sanctum of the Exalted to confront the jedi Covenant. Unknown to him, Celeste Morne is still alive inside the Oubliette, which has sunk to the bottom of Jebble’s oceans after the Mandalorian’s planetary bombardment.

While Knights of the Old Republic #28 was a little less epic than I had hoped it would be, it was an overall good issue. The story ended how it had to end: with Celeste getting inside of the Oubliette so that she can live on to Dark Times. I absolutely loved Scott Hepburn’s pencils in this issue, especially seeing his renditions of Rohlan, Jareal, Alec and Shel. Michael Atiyeh, as always, does a fantastic job coloring.

Overall, this was a pretty good issue with good art, and a very fitting end to Knights of the Old Republic’s slice of Vector.

Book Review: Sacrifice

Mara Jade goes back to her assassin roots and Boba Fett returns to the ruins of Mandalore in Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice, Karen Travis’ explosive fifth book in the groundbreaking series. As the battlefront continues to rage between the Galactic Alliance fleets and the Correlian Confederation, the political war continues between Jacen, Admiral Niathal and Cal Omas flares up on Corascant. After Cal Omas meets secretly with Correlian Chief of State Durr Gejjen and plans to assassinate Jacen and Niathal, Jacen arrests Omas for treason and places himself and Admiral Niathel as joint chiefs of state.

On Mandalore, Boba Fett finds himself the leader of a planet still in ruins after the Zuuzhan Vong war. Still dieing from his cell degeneration, Fett and his daughter Mirta go on a hunt for Jaing, a Null-clase clone trooper who reportedly survived the fast aging disorder bred into clones. After finding Jaing on Kuat, the clone says that he might be able to help Fett, and that he’d deliver the serum to Mandalore if he found some.

Back on Mandalore, things are looking up for the economy after the finding of a large, nearly priceless deposit of Beskar, a strong Mandalorian-exclusive iron. Mandalmotors, a ship company operating out of the planet, has developed a new nearly invincible fighter craft using Beskar for shielding. Mandalorian people are returning to they’re home planet in the thousands. Mandalor’s economy is looking up, after being in the dark for so many years after the Mandalorian War.

Jaing finds the serum, and Boba Fett is saved after being on the brink of death. Soon afterwards, Fett fins out that his presumably dead former wife is very much alive and encased in carbonite, no doubt setting the story for Travis’ next book.

 After the inaction of the Jedi Order, Mara decides to take it upon herself to kill Lumiya. After her first attempt to kill her his thwarted by the Sith meditation sphere Ben found on Ziost, Mara comes to the shocking realization that Lumiya is connected to Jacen inside of the Galactic Alliance Guard. After Jacen makes a quick visit to Tenel Ka on Hapes, Mara engages him in a starfighter dogfight that leads to them landing and dueling it out in the hill tunnels of Kavan. After fighting valiantly, Jacen tricks Mara with a force illusion and kills her with a poison dart.

As everyone reels from the shock of Mara’s death, Luke falls into a state of depression and ends up beheading Lumiya in one final duel. Jacen realizes that Mara was his sacrifice to the sith, and that he is now a true Dark Lord, Darth Cadeous.

This book was a good read, though a little disappointing after Karen’s great work in Bloodlines. Though there were a few good fights, this book was mostly political squabbling between the GA’s higher ups. The fight between Mara and Jacen was amazingly described, but Luke’s duel with Lumiya seemed rather rushed and almost too easy. The parts with Boba Fett on Mandalore were fun to read but lacked action.

Am I happy with the decision kill Mara Jade? No. While it seems logical in a few ways, I could think of a few other people that would have been a better sacrifice. I don’t think I would have been as sad if the sacrifice had been Tenel Ka, who seems to be a better candidate in my mind.

Travis again brings her trademark knowledge and creativity to the Mandalorians, and offers throwbacks to her Republic Commando books that readers of that series will smile at. Overall? Good book, good read. Highly recommended.

Interview with artist Brian Ching

The Jedi Blogger (TJB): Why did you decide to get into the comic business?

Brian Ching (BC): I was in my second year at college as a bio major and really had no idea what I wanted to do in life.  I knew I liked to draw and during some of my classes I would sometimes doodle comic book characters.  I signed up for some art classes and had so much fun I knew this is what I wanted to do. 

TJB: What comic book artists inspired you?

BC: I’d always collected comics since I was pretty young but during my high school years I stopped.  I guess you get more interested in other things.  But after high school I started collecting again because the artwork was so great, the guy that got me hooked again was Jim Lee.  At that time he was working on Punisher War Journal and later on X-men.  That showed me you didn’t have to be limited to any genre or style. Today, I’m inspired by so many artists but the few that really stand out are Bryan Hitch, Travis Charest, and Adam Hughes.  I think these three artists have had such a huge impact on the way comics are drawn today. 

TJB: Where you a Star Wars fan before you signed on with Dark Horse?

BC: I thought I was… you know everyone thinks they are a Star Wars fan until they meet a STAR WARS FAN,  someone who knows every little intricate detail about the Star Wars history.  Then I realized I was just a casual fan of the movies. 

TJB: How did you get the job working with Star Wars comics?

BC: I was working for a place called Top Cow, I think this was about 5-6 years ago.  I was finishing up an issue and I got an offer to do some work with Dark Horse and Star Wars.  I could only fit covers into my schedule at that point so that’s what they offered.  A couple of months later I was done with my commitments at Top Cow and working on the Star Wars comics full time.

TJB: You have been involved with Star Wars comics since the early days of the Empire series. What has been your favorite project to work with?

I have two favorite projects.  The first was Obsession.  Obsession was important for two reasons—I was able to read the script for EP III well before it was released in the theaters.  And the other reason is that it was a turning point in the way I worked.  We decided (along with my editor) to go with a no inks approach to the artwork.  Obsession was where I started to experiment with this approach.  At the time the book was coming out I was extremely disappointed with how it looked, so scratchy and rough.  You could see all the sketch lines which to me was very distracting and I wasn’t happy.  Doug Wheatley suggested I scan the pages myself ( and do the clean up digitally in Photoshop) and take control of how the lineart looked.  Up until that point I was FedExing all my pages into the Dark Horse office and they would scan and send the pages out to the colorists.  I took Doug’s advice and picked up a scanner.  I could see the difference immediately.  When your pages are inked they are at the discretion of the inker—meaning that there are nuances in the facial expressions, rendering, etc that sometimes get lost. It’s impossible for an inker to get inside your head so in some ways you are at his mercy.  With pencils only it was all up to me.  So regardless of whether or not it sucked it was my doing, which is a nice thing to have.

My second favorite project to work on has been KOTOR.  I was involved from the beginning and was able to design nearly everything in the first 6 issues.  It was such a gratifying experience—I still consider the book to be my baby.

TJB: What was it like drawing the comic book adaptation of The Force Unleashed?

BC: Fun!  The graphic novel is so action packed and there are so many cool new characters and things to see.  Everything was already designed by the video game’s artists but it was just a lot of fun for me to go off on that.

TJB: As Knights of the Old Republic’s initiator, how much creative freedom were you given while designing the world of KOTOR in it’s first arc, Commencement? Did you use the original video game as reference while designing the locations and characters?

BC: I was given quite a bit of freedom to design things as I liked.  We discussed early on that we would use the video game designs as inspiration and go from there.  I know some readers are disappointed that we didn’t follow the original TOTJ comics more closely.  I can understand the frustration but I just think that series was done in the early 80’s and that it had a somewhat dated quality.  No offense to any of the original artists because I’m sure in 20 years the next batch of Star Wars artists will be saying the same thing about my work.
 
I figured as long as I kept things looking like they belonged in the Star Wars universe we were okay.  It has to look like it has medieval influence, Asian influence, and a touch of the future.  All of it needs to look a little worn down.  These were the principals I tried to stick to.

TJB: You haven’t penciled an issue of Knights of the Old Republic in a while. Do you have any plans to return to the series? Are you happy with the way other artists have portrayed KOTOR?BC: I’d love to return and do a bunch more issues.  I’m doing covers right now and hope that things work out with scheduling that Dark Horse will let me do more stuff.

Obviously, Dustin is the stand-out artist.  He’s just phenomenal and seems to get better with every single thing he does.  I designed the Last Resort but he has done such a great job interpreting it that I look to his version as the definitive one.  If it were up to me I wish I could have done every single issue but unfortunately I don’t have that Mark Bagley or John Romita speed.

TJB: Who has been your favorite character to work with in the Star Wars universe?

BC: That’s a tough one.  I’ve been fortunate enough to draw the younger Obi-Wan, the Ewan Macgregor version.  He’s easily one of  my favorites.  But I also really enjoy drawing Zayne and Gryph.

TJB: What advice would you have for aspiring artists wanting to break into the business?

BC: Just to work on your craft.  Make sure you understand anatomy, perspective, and lighting.  Even if you don’t make it into the comic business (which is extremely difficult) you’ll still have the drawing ability to make it in another industry.

TJB: What projects, if you can tell us about them, do you have coming up? Do you plan to continue working with Star Wars comics?

BC: Nothing I can say right now.  I don’t want to jinx any of it!  There are still a few things I’d like to do in the Star Wars world so I hope they’ll keep me around for a little while longer!
 

Thank you again to Brian ching for the great interview! To check out some of Brian’s art, head over to his blog at http://brianching.blogspot.com/