“The Guardian Protocols”
Creative Staff:
Story: Charles Soule
Art: Ibraim Roberson
Colors: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: VC’s Travis Lanham
What They Say:
WHO LIVED? WHO DIED? ANSWERS TO THE GREATEST CATASTROPHE OF THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE JEDI! Little has been revealed about the year following the fall of STARLIGHT BEACON and the ultimate triumph of THE NIHIL… until now!THE JEDI COUNCIL, reeling from its losses, has recalled its JEDI KNIGHTS from across the galaxy and instituted the emergency measures.MASTER YODA has a plan to save the Order and the galaxy, but he must touch the dark side to achieve it… and the consequences will be grave indeed.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
My relationship with the High Republic era continues to be complicated simply because I’m only really engaging with the comics still, outside of one of the early novels. Thankfully, Charles Soule is writing this series and he’s been one of the better comics writers and heavily involved on the novel side so it tends to dig a bit deeper than some other books. And this one is working to seed the next phase of this era in some familiar ways. For this issue, we get Ibraim Roberson the art duties with Fer Sifuentes-Sujo handling the color design and it delivers well with so much covered. We get to pop to a number of planets and focus on Coruscant a lot where there are a lot of Jedi and other characters from across various era-related properties popping up here. And it all feels cohesive and solid with some good detail even as it has to cover far more ground than it should in such a short period.
The book reminds us of events from a year ago with what happened with the destruction of Starlight Beacon and then we get several sequences over the next six months following from there. This can get confusing depending on how well you know things but it works just to catch up on the general concepts as a montage almost. The recall of all Jedi to Coruscant is highly unusual but necessary in the view of the council because of the scale of the threat they face. But they can’t claim that it’s war, or that the Republic is at war, but there are Guiding Protocols that can be put into place in order to prepare for whatever may come. Amusingly, a lot of it is very similar to what happens during the Clone Wars so you can see why the Jedi would be predisposed toward it. Even down to things like the shift in focus from ornate lightsabers to more utilitarian ones that would become a lot more common in the decades to come after this.
There are plenty of things for the more voracious readers to connect with and characters as well, but the one that dominates the back half is Azlin Rell. Yoda brings him to the council as we learn how he had left the Order some time ago and has ended up corrupted by the dark side but is not Sith. It’s a complicated distinction bt Rell was exposed to the Nameless and Yoda has been spending the past several months helping him navigate this to find his way back to the light. And with him he believes that they can find out more about the Nameless and where they’re from as that’s the true threat, not the Nihil that the Republic can focus on. It’s an interesting path with flashbacks and exposition for Rell and a betrayal as well along the way, though it’s a complicated betrayal at that as Yoda can understand it to a degree. There’s a lot of uncertainty about a character like Rell and I’m curious to see if they can pull it off or not here.
In Summary:
I’m very curious to see where this series is going to go in exploring what events fall out from the destruction of the Starlight Beacon. You can see familiar threads to the Clone Wars era easily enough but there are different things at work here that will impact it. Just the scale alone and the way that the enemy is so much more known. Soule’s script is solidly done with a lot of dialogue and exposition to help fill in some of the blanks but also enough space in the back half to allow it to breathe. Roberson’s artwork captures things well and it has the familiar cohesive look that most of the Star Wars books do and that makes for an engaging reading experience.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: October 4th, 2023
MSRP: $5.99
