The stakes are slowly laid out.
Creative Staff:
Story: Charles Soule
Art: Marco Castiello, Jethro Morales
Colors: Jim Campbell
Letterer: VC’s Travis Lanham
What They Say:
Jedi Master Porter Engle has journeyed with his sister, Barash, to a planet far on the Republic frontier in response to a desperate request for aid. They are certain they will succeed. No one in the galaxy fights like Jedi Porter Engle. No warrior can stand against him. No one even comes close. They are certain…until they see what awaits them.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
My inability to keep up with or connect with the novel side of the High Republic era frustrates me but what’s helped is that I’m thoroughly enjoying all of the comics coming out for it. This series has one of the architects of it telling a four-issue tale with Charles Soule, who has been my favorite of the Star Wars comic writers for several years now. This series feels like a continued maturation of storytelling within the universe and I’m definitely glad for it. Soule works with artist Marco Castiello here and I’ve enjoyed a lot of their work over the years but this also has a look that’s a lot more distinctive than the usual Star Wars book to very good effect. It delivers an engaging look and style with the characters and technology and the color design from Jim Campbell lets it show through really well and highlights some of Castiello’s strengths well.
Since it is just a four-issue series, you know things have to move through fairly quickly to achieve its goals. But the book still feels like it’s moving at a steady pace in a good way as we only arrived on Ganservor at the end of the first issue after getting to know our two leads. Here, we see them introduced to the envoy for this world, Seleen, as she breaks out the basics of the city-state of Firevale being under siege by another city-state. Firevale is key to the world regarding energy production and it’s used to get what they need for food and technology elsewhere, so you can see an easy enough reason behind the siege. That’s just the big picture idea, however, and the Jedi know that it’s going to take some on-the-ground time with both sides involved in the dispute to really figure out what’s going on here.
Naturally, the two Jedi head there with a relief convoy to provide food and medical care and that gets them to meet those laying siege to the city, learning from them that not only does Firevale demand so much for the energy they provide, but that they also kidnapped their princess. That’s a new wrinkle that, once they get to the other side, adds more confusion because apparently the princess married a prince in Firevale and fled her own city-state for all sorts of reasons. It’s the kind of small feudal-style politics and grievance issues that come up for the Jedi to deal with as calmly as possible, but it always escalates, such as mercenaries being called in to push the siege through in order to get access to all that Firevale offers.
In Summary:
This issue introduces us to the main storyline that our two Jedi have to face but what allows it work is that we had a whole issue devoted to just understanding them before they even made it to this world. And their journey even clues us to some of the problems faced here, such as off-world communication and economic engagement. All of this has pushed events in the direction we understand here, though wrinkles are introduced along the way. I really like seeing more of Porter and Barash when they were younger and how their Masters wanted to separate them because of how close the two are. Seeing more of how things work with padawans and the nature of becoming too close to anyone is both a good and bad thing that has to be looked at more individually than on a flat statement approach. It’s a strong second issue that has me once again eager for more.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: January 25th, 2023
MSRP: $3.99
