In Star Wars: The High Republic #5 from Marvel Comics, writer Cavan Scott utilizes one of my least favorite narrative devices by opening with a flash-forward to a more action-oriented part of the story instead of just letting the tale unfold organically. It’s a trope I’ve seen used fairly often in pop culture, and I tend to feel it undermines both the author’s and reader’s confidence in the strength of the material to develop at its own pace in chronological order.
That said, the remaider of this issue is thankfully by and large up to par with the high level of quality I’ve come to expect from Marvel’s Star Wars: The High Republic title, and Scott has done an otherwise terrific job of bringing yet another warring faction into this ever-expanding conflict set some two hundred years before the events of the Skywalker Saga.
Unnecessary flash-forward aside, the main story of The High Republic #5 opens with Myarga the Hutt having landed on Sedri Minor, where the Jedi Knights serving at the nearby Starlight Beacon space station have uncovered an infestation of the sentient dark-side plant monsters called the Drengir underneath the planet’s surface. Myarga has brought along with her an army of mercenaries and a couple giant, menacing Gamorrean-guard-mounted Rancors, all of which threaten to extinguish the Jedi present unless they take leave of Sedri Minor on the Hutt’s orders. This is all part of the Hutt Cartel’s protection racket, but little does Myarga know how much she and the planet’s residents need the Jedi’s help in fighting off the Drengir. Meanwhile, Sskeer reveals himself to be not quite as free of the Drengir’s telepathic grasp as we readers might have thought based off the end of the last issue.
It’s a credit to Cavan Scott and artist Ario Anindito how emotionally invested I’ve become in Sskeer’s path here, considering I found myself devastated by the news that it might be impossible to free the Trandoshan Jedi from the Drengir’s grasp without killing him– though I am admittedly a little bothered by the fact that Phil Noto’s cover art gave away the very last page of this installment. I do love that the Hutts are turning out to be such a big part of this story, and I really appreciate all the reassuring moments that continue to connect the High Republic era to the Star Wars galaxy we know and love, including appearances by members of the Rodian, Gran, and Aqualish species from the original trilogy. We also check in with newly minted Jedi Master Vernestra Rwoh and her Padawan Imri Cantaros as they deal with their own Drengir attack on Starlight Beacon, which again reinforces how action-heavy this issue turned out to be and how ultimately superfluous and disposable that two-page intro is. I wonder if they just needed to fill some space.
Star Wars: The High Republic #5 is available now wherever comic books are sold.