Star Wars Adventures: The High Republic

Like Alec Worley's Smuggler's Run, Daniel Jose Older's story here really proves that having the "Adventures" masthead on the top of your book and gearing your story towards a younger audience doesn't mean you can't still tell a truly great story. Though it's plot of young Jedi getting involved in a pirate raid isn't terribly complex that doesn't mean it isn't a great read as what it lacks in complexity it more than makes up for with some really excellent characterization and unlike previous High Republic entries it doesn't get too caught up with world building. Usually, I hate to directly compare two comics when I review them as a story normally deserves to be considered on its own merits first, without being put into the context of the other contemporaneous books. However, as the High Republic is a massive cross over event across different mediums and Older's Adventures is coming out at the exact same time as another High Republic book, the eponymous comic written by Cavan Scott and only a month after the novel, Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule comparisons really just can't be escaped.

So far my first impressions of the High Republic event haven't been very great so I approached this book with a certain amount of trepidation however Older’s High Republic Adventures ends up looking significantly better in the comparison, and it's not just because the bar is so low. Where as Scott’s High Republic basically throws you straight into the deep-end assuming that you’ve read the kickoff book to the High Republic era, Charles Soule’s Light of the Jedi, and then just goes from there which results in a plot lacking the necessary context to draw you in, and while Soule himself spends nearly a third of his novel describing in excruciating detail an event which in the end of this doesn't actually have terribly much to with the threat faced by the Jedi, Older focuses on delivering a solid, self contained story which makes for a much better read.

Without being repetitive or loading the reader down with pages and pages of exposition, Older concisely quickly explains what is going on in the galaxy by playing out a similar event as the one that started Soule's novel which immediately grounds the characters in that greater context of the event while not forgetting to give us time to understand our protagonists and their emotional states. By focusing on the characters involved and not making a big deal out of the debris or the pirates beyond their immediate threats Older successfully sidesteps the flaws that have plagued the other entries of the event and delivered the readers a fun Star Wars adventure in a unexplored era, which is everything the event promised.It’s honestly impressive, and I almost wish that Older had the main book, and Cavan Scott and Soule were given the side stories as he really seems to get how to use the plot elements much better than either of the other two writers.

Okay, so the book must be a perfect ten right? Unfortunately not, and the problem is the art. Tolibao’s art is heavily lined, which isn't always a terrible thing as I'd say the same thing about Frank Quietly's work as well, but here it's taken to an extreme making even the young jedi look wrinkled and strange...while Yoda seems surprisingly less lined than normal. On top of that the back grounds are suspiciously un-detailed, making it look like the action is taking place in big empty areas...when it's supposed to be the most heavily populated city on the planet. In the end it's a shame this wasn't given to someone else, as while the art isn't so terrible so as to make the book unreadable it stops the book from being a true instant classic.

I thought it was an alright read. Probably on par with the Marvel series. It doesn't really go into detail about the goings on in the novels, but it doesn't have to. As a story about a padawan meeting a force sensitive during an emergency situation it works. The art was definitely a little busy, to the point of several pages/panels lacking much in the way of visual clarity but it wasn't so bad that their required more than a bit of back reading. Also the issue suffered from something that occurs quite frequently in Star Wars comics, and prose media. When you toss around so many made up words for people, planets, and things it can require quite a bit of context to know what they're talking about. The Marvel series does suffer from it more so when you take Keeve Trennis swearing into account.

I dunno. I don't put a lot of thought into Star Wars media when I don't have to. Considering I have no idea what occurred in the novels, I thought this was a palatable enough read.

[QUOTE=Personamanx;5372820]I thought it was an alright read. Probably on par with the Marvel series. It doesn't really go into detail about the goings on in the novels, but it doesn't have to. As a story about a padawan meeting a force sensitive during an emergency situation it works. The art was definitely a little busy, to the point of several pages/panels lacking much in the way of visual clarity but it wasn't so bad that their required more than a bit of back reading. Also the issue suffered from something that occurs quite frequently in Star Wars comics, and prose media. When you toss around so many made up words for people, planets, and things it can require quite a bit of context to know what they're talking about. The Marvel series does suffer from it more so when you take Keeve Trennis swearing into account.

I dunno. I don't put a lot of thought into Star Wars media when I don't have to. Considering I have no idea what occurred in the novels, I thought this was a palatable enough read.[/QUOTE]
I think that's why this book worked so well for me because it largely stood on its own and just focused on telling a good Star Wars story. It's part of the High Republic event, but it isn't really worried about the event itself which is usually the way to go...especially when the event its tied to isn't particularly good.