“Song of the Drengir”
Creative Staff:
Story: Cavan Scott
Art: Ario Anindito, Mark Morales
Colors: Annalisa Leoni
Letterer: VC’s Ariana Maher
What They Say:
THE JEDI TURNED AGAINST EACH OTHER?! AVAR KRISS and her band of brave JEDI helpless in the clutches of a traitor in their midst. STARLIGHT BEACON under attack from an insidious foe. Danger from an age-old enemy. Who is really pulling the strings on the distant planet of SEDRI? Plus: The secret history of the terrifying DRENGIR revealed.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With so much work to do to establish this time period if the comic is your first experience with it, Cavan Scott has been doing a solid job with it. I’m still not feeling as grounded in it as I probably feel I should be, but that’ll come when I eventually get to the novel and dig into that. The artwork team of Anindito and Morales is working well with colorist Annalisa Leoni as there’s a distinctive feel to things while still feeling a part of the larger Star Wars universe. I like the detail we get with all of the creatures with the Drengir and just how Sskeer looks with the scales and the like.
A decent chunk of this book is focused on what Sskeer is going through as he’s being co-opted by the Drengir and has captured the other Jedi that he’s managed to bring into the underground. It’s classic stuff with them hung upsidedown and covered in the vines, all while Sskeer goes on about what he’s doing and his arm repairing itself with the vine as well. Keeve does her best to try and get through to him and her memories of their past makes clear why she’s trying to earnestly to do so as he was a good master to her during her padawan time. But the back and forth is useful for digging into a few more clues about the Drengir and its long history in the galaxy, including the time it worked alongside the Sith, which really did not go well for them.
While this plays out, there’s some stuff going on back at the Starlight Beacon as well where the archivist is digging into the Hutt husk that they have to try and understand it more. There’s weird things going on with it and how it was infected, but they’re sure that it’s not something that can spread since the Hutt is dead. But as we see by the end, the infestation was just another way to bring the Hutt husks to life. This doesn’t seem to be a zombie thing or anything but rather the Drengir just using the resources in front of it to work the lifeform to its own advantage and to begin causing trouble from there. This makes for a good last page with the Hutt cartel that’s there but something about it just didn’t click for me with the issue as a whole, as something just felt a slight bit off.
In Summary:
I’m continuing to enjoy the High Republic series but this installment just felt a bit lighter this time around than in other ones. I like its focus on Sskeer since he’s slowly being taken over and struggling for control but also because it gives us a little more of his time in the past with Keeve. The events on the Starlight Beacon are intriguing as well but as things play out it just makes me wish that we had more time to develop things here than we’ve had so that it would feel more well-rounded at this point. It’s a solid issue but not a game changer.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: April 7th, 2021
MSRP: $3.99
