Today saw the simultaneous release of the final three issues of Phase II of Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures from Dark Horse Comics, wrapping up this storyline for Jedi Padawan-turned-pirate Sav Malagán.
I do have a lot of questions about why the release schedule for this phase of The High Republic Adventures has been so erratic, and why these last few issues were all dumped unceremoniously all at the same time, but I suspect the answers have something to do with the art taking longer to generate than anticipated– even the cover images I downloaded for this review have different artists listed than the ones who actually completed the issues (with Harvey Tolibao splitting illustration duties with Toni Bruno in the end). Regardless, I want to judge these comics for the final product that they are rather than any behind-the-scenes trials and tribulations they faced in finally arriving on the comic-store rack. Issue #6 starts out where #5 left off previously, with our lead character having gone undercover with a rival pirate gang in an effort to find her mentor, pirate queen Maz Kanata, who had been kidnapped by the Dank Graks. Sav finds herself embroiled in the Battle of Jedha, but soon realizes she’s simply been waylaid by a supposed ally while the villainous Arkik Von takes Maz’s place as the ruler of her castle on Takodana. So issues #7 and 8 mostly deal with Malagán and the rest of Kanata’s crew returning to that planet to face off against the Dank Graks and reclaim the castle from Arkik’s malevolent forces.
There isn’t too much more to the story than that, which once again leads me to wonder why Dark Horse struggled so much in getting this comic out to the world (perhaps there were some late-stage changes in the story at the behest of Lucasfilm that held up the publishing pipeline). But either way, I will say that I do tend to enjoy looking at Toni Bruno’s art more than I do Harvey Tolibao’s. With the latter’s drawings, I have trouble finding the focal point in each extremely busy image, while Bruno’s illustrations are crisp and clear with well-defined action and characters. That said, I found these final three issues to be entertaining overall, with writer Daniel José Older’s often-irreverent take on Star Wars remaining intact. I especially liked how Sav won over pirate hunter Raf Thatchburn by putting her trust and faith in him, ultimately leading the previously hard-nosed inspector to enlist in piracy himself. The conclusion of #8 promises that this is “just the beginning” for Sav Malagán and company, so I suspect we’ll see at least a few of these characters popping up in The High Republic Phase III when that begins this fall, though that will take place a good amount of time later and we may have to say goodbye to some of the shorter-lived members of Maz’s crew. But hey, at least we know Therm Scissorpunch survives thanks to his appearance in Solo: A Star Wars Story– and let’s not forget good old Dexter Jettster. Now that Phase II has officially seen the last of its remaining releases, we can look forward to more stories from Lucasfilm Publishing’s Star Wars: The High Republic this fall.
Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures #6 through 8 are available now wherever comic books are sold.