“The Raid”
Creative Staff:
Story: Cavan Scott
Art: Nico Leon
Colors: Dono Sanchez-Almara
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
What They Say:
Has Yoda turned his back on the galaxy? Why has the legendary Jedi Master abandoned his usual place on Coruscant to settle on a backwater world on the Galactic frontier? What lesson does he hope to teach? And who will come to his aid when disaster strikes?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With some Yoda-focused storytelling in the past from Marvel that was interesting, the opening issue helped to ease some of my concerns about it, especially since it has Cavan Scott on board to write it. I’ve enjoyed a lot of their comics work over the years, but they’ve also been a key player in the High Republic novel side, providing a different approach to writing in this universe than strictly comics. The opening issue put a number of things into play and it was good to see how it separated Yoda from Coruscant for a chunk of it. Joining him on this project is artist Nico Leon working with colorist Dono Sanchez-Almara and they’ve got a good look here for it. It still feels very much Star Wars overall for the Marvel brand of it but there are some neat moments and layouts for how events unfold and the color design breathes some really good life into it as a whole.
With the second installment, things are moving forward a bit more and the two-track approach is working well. The Coruscant side has Yoda returning there for a few days to help out with things as requested but he’s spending all of his time on Turrak these days. But he comes when called and messages in regularly, though the outer rim is patchy in regards to this. We see during one of the meetings how he’s showing some of what he’s learning there but others are wondering if he’s finally lost it in some way. And when he returns to Turrak, those that are left on Coruscant are really starting to debate what to do about him and his commitments. It’s an interesting angle to play with, especially when dealing with someone that is long-lived and you can imagine his attentions turn in different ways for periods of time even while retaining his main commitments.
On Turrak, the events there are continuing as Yoda has guided the Scalvi in a very light way in how to protect themselves. He’s not fighting for them but teaching them to take ownership of their defenses while also learning about them. There are some tensions that exist here, especially with how some of them feel about Bree and his tinkering, but also Yoda and the way he doesn’t stand with them in an actual fight. That’s almost reinforced more when a Crulkon attack surprises everyone and the Scalvi fight back well, only to discover that Yoda was kidnapped. It’s quite good to see how they take up (discovered) arms and opt to try and rescue Yoda, though we know that Yoda would never really need rescuing like this. It’s a good moment to see how the Scalvi are stepping up but we also get the first hints of some of the bigger issues at play with what the Crulkon are hiding from everyone.
In Summary:
While Yoda is a character I like a whole lot for a lot of reasons, stories with him continue to be hard to do effectively because we really only see him when he’s in this older form. And there’s just such a position of stature about him that the reverence by others places him in a particular position because of it. It’s enjoyable to see him on this outer rim world helping out while also occupying himself with new things to him as a challenge, but the story is more about this world itself and what he’s able to help nudge into something more. Scott’s script is solid throughout and even while there’s a lot of familiarity to it to long-time Star Wars readers and science fiction fans themselves, it delivers exactly what it needs to in a good way, especially with solid artwork and fantastic color design.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: December 28th, 2022
MSRP: $3.99
