GONK goes inside this week’s Star Wars comics: Knight Errant – Deluge #3, and the The Clone Wars digest, Strange Allies.
The truth comes out in Knight Errant – Deluge #3. Kerra Holt, now part of Devil Squadron, makes the hard call and returns to try to save the people of Aquilaris from Zodoh the Hutt’s Stormbringers, which threaten to drown the newly liberated world. Meanwhile, Devil Squadron’s leader, Jenn Devaad, has her own mission: protecting her squadron from the Hutt and the Republic from the Sith. These priorities don’t line up well, and Kerra and Jenn find themselves on opposite sides as the dark side of Grace Command’s mission is revealed.
The story starts off with a little starfighter action at the beginning, as the Devils take on Zodoh’s fighters and fleet, then moves to the ground as Kerra tries to rally the workers of Aquilaris to find safety from the coming flood, and confronts her old friend, Joad, who is still suffering from addiction to the ‘deluge’ drug. Jenn returns to the planet, but not to help Kerra – she’s had to make a deal with Zodoh for the fate of her fellow pilots. The two square off at the docks, and Kerra’s not above using a little Force battery to get her point across. This issue is fairly dialogue heavy as Kerra tries to figure out what’s going on, and find a way to save her people when there’s no time and no resources.
John Jackson Miller puts Kerra Holt into new territory here: dealing with a people who don’t want to be saved. While we know that drugs exist in the Star Wars galaxy (Wanna buy some deathsticks?), this is really the first time we’ve seen their dangerous effects – a large population unwilling to take action to save their own lives from imminent disaster because their moods have been altered by drug addiction. And that’s just the start of the problem. Kerra’s lost her allies in the skies, so she’s back to being alone. The art team of Iban Coello, Sergio Abad, and Michael Atiyeh, continue their smooth, slightly manga-ish style with their cockpit views and space battles in the beginning, and Devaad’s confrontation with Zodoh aboard the Voracious. I enjoyed seeing a Hutt use rocket packs to keep him mobile – way cooler than a hoversled. They also catch Joad’s story and emotion well, and there’s a great panel of Kerra giving into her frustration, causing objects to quiver in the Force. That’s just a little creepy, almost, especially for the Jedi, who are meant to be in control. Now we know what happens when they start losing that control. Still, it seems that Kerra’s look has changed a little bit from the previous issue – not sure what it is, but it’s not just her change from having a good day turned into aggravation. While this issue is light on action, it is heavy on tension as the situation changes quickly for Kerra Holt. Miller’s deft weaving of story keeps this issue interesting and well-paced.
Joe Quinones pulls some inspiration from Art Nouveau for the cover for the framing, Jenn Devaad, and Zodoh the Hutt, though couldn’t quite get Kerra Holt to fit in the style in her portion. Still, a nice cover.
This issue also has a sneak preview set of pages of Mass Effect: Invasion, starting this October.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Strange Allies
I haven’t been getting The Clone Wars digests (that $7.99 cost scares me off a bit), but I was pretty jazzed by Strange Allies. Using his characters from the young reader series The Clone Wars: Secret Missions, Ryder Windham pulls off an entertaining story that fits the comic digest format well. Masterless Chiss padawan Nuru Kungurama gets sent with Breakout Squad to protect a shipment of war materiel from pirates, and brings Gizz, his swoop thug ally, along for the ride. Things turn out a bit more complicated as Dooku sends an assassin to kill off their Hutt contact. With Kit Fisto’s help in defeating the Neimodian pirate, the cargo gets delivered and Gizz finds them a new job, giving a lift to some orphans for a cute Twi’lek woman. Gizz learns some lessons about babysitting and things go awry and it’s up to Nuru and Gizz to save the kids and put a stop to some sinister plans.
Not being familiar with the clones of Breakout Squad, I felt that this story was a little light on their participation, since Nuru and Gizz form the center of attention. Pairing the polite and competent Chiss padawan with the crude and probably illiterate brawler works well, and we see something that we don’t often see in Star Wars: normal guys trying to chat up the ladies. Seeing Gizz as a freelance Republic hero is kind of interesting as well, knowing that he’ll end up a swoop gang leader for Jabba in the Shadows of the Empire era. The story does spend a few pages rehashing Nuru’s background as a Jedi, mostly as exposition for those like me who missed the Secret Missions series – a few hints to his exploits are fine, but this felt a little overkill. The opening act introduces a freighter crew that gets hit by the pirate, and I wish we got to learn more about them as well.
The artwork by Ben Dewey fits the story well, and Mae Hao’s colors provide some good cartoony vibrancy, fitting with the style of The Clone Wars. If I were getting into the digests or Secret Missions, this might be a good step in – besides introducing the heroes (and their re-programmed battle droid, Cleaver, who wants to learn the Force), there’s a good handful of regular TCW cast: Yoda, Kit Fisto, Palpatine, Dooku, as well as appearances by Dexter Jettster and his waitress Hermione, and Savage Opress. Still, it’s Nuru Kungurama and Gizz that have the adventure and make the story a fun read for all ages. A lot of the prequel era gets told from the point of view of people on top of society, Jedi and politicians, and it is nice to have a character like Gizz to play a role similar to Han Solo: a guy on the margins of society just trying to have his own life and avoid run-ins with the law, but getting caught up in something bigger than just himself. Yet Gizz isn’t the witty scoundrel, he’s the bull in the china shop, and Nuru is a good partner for him.
By the way, the 2011 Free Comic Day Issue “Opress Unleashed” is a short prequel that leads into this story.