Yesterday saw the release of the first issue in Dark Horse Comics’ new miniseries Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures – Saber for Hire by writer Cavan Scott and artist Rachael Stott, and below are my brief recap and thoughts on this installment.
Back in the fall of 2021, Scott and Slott gave us the first solo adventure miniseries starring the stoic former Jedi Padawan turned monster hunter Ty Yorrick in Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures – The Monster of Temple Peak (then published by IDW). Now Yorrick is back, along with her “squire”– who really wants to be called her Padwan, in turn– Drewen Qweebjillan. But Saber for Hire #1 opens on the remote planet of Abtin, where Chancellor Linah Soh’s son Kitrep has taken an extended sabbatical with his boyfriend Jom Lariin. So removed from civilization are they that they’re not even aware of the Stormwall separating their current side of the galaxy from the Republic. When they learn of the Nihil’s occupation of the “Occlusion Zone” during a trip into a local village to barter, they ultimately decide to stay out of things and keep to themselves, but that may not remain an option after a Frigosian spy spots Kip and reports his presence on Abtin to the Nihil.
That’s the inciting incident of Saber for Hire, but as of yet, the Kip storyline has not intersected with the “A” plot featuring Ty Yorrick, who we catch up with as she is still hunting monsters with Drewen. We see them wrap up one of these missions and return to their unnamed ship, where the droid KL-03 briefs them on the other tasks at hand. As Ty is operating in the Occlusion Zone, she must fight her way through scav droids as she travels between planets, but the damage this causes to her ship doesn’t bother her, as the monster-hunting business is booming without a major Jedi presence on this side of the galaxy, and she boasts confidently that “things have never been better.” But Drewen continues to pester her to be trained as a Padawan, and as they approach their next assignment on a planet called Temerance, they soon discover that it may be more difficult to avoid the Nihil than Yorrick had hoped.
With more-than-capable writer Cavan Scott (of Marvel Comics’ main Star Wars: The High Republic title) and enormously skilled artist Rachael Stott (along with colorist Nicola Righi) at the helm, The High Republic Adventures – Saber for Hire is off to a really solid start. The dialogue is engaging, the action is well-choreographed and kinetic, and most of all I’m just happy to see Ty Yorrick and her plucky sidekick Drewen back in action again. The really wonderful thing about a long-term project like The High Republic and its wide array of characters is that we as readers can get to know these personalities over the course of years and welcome their return whenever they happen to pop back up at later points in the timeline. That’s certainly the case with this monster-hunting pair, and as the cover to issue #1 (not to mention the foreboding abduction of Force-sensitive children from a village on Temerance) promises, we will likely see them turn “hero” before the end of this story. I’ll quite happily go along for that ride over the next few months.
Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures – Saber for Hire #1 is available now wherever comic books are sold.