The Je’daii realize their mistake by putting the captured invader Xesh with a mad Force user in exile: prison break! Reviewing the second issue of Dawn of the Jedi: Prisoner of Bogan, out this week!
Our Je’daii protagonists start off issue #2 of Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi – Prisoner of Bogan (DarkHorse.com profile) with one goal: figure out how to work the Forcesaber that their prisoner Xesh, Force Hound and the sole survivor of the Rakatan scout ship crash, had carried. Guess what: it’s Force powered! Well, sort of…
It turns out that it only works off of anger and other dark side energy, which some of the Je’daii are loathe to pursue. But the science must get done. Meanwhile, Xesh and his new buddy, Daegen Lok, have escaped in a ship from the dark moon, Bogan, with Lok eager to use Xesh’s knowlege to make his own Forcesabers and fulfill a vision for a shadow army. Eventually the Je’daii learn that their two prisoners are missing, and realize that they’ve handed Lok the keys to power… and Ranger Hawk, Lok’s old compatriot, reveals that he shared that vision of a shadow army with sabers. Also, Tasha Ryo unlocks an ancient Holocron and another Force hound is on Xesh’s trail: for revenge. Turns out Trill and Xesh were BFFs back in the day.
Lots going on in this issue, having to track quite a few characters in different areas. It does mean that there’s not a lot of action, and a bit of flashbacks for Trill and Xesh. It is the second issue of this story, so you’d expect this to have a bit more “building” up the plot towards the eventual climax. The scope of the storyline is pretty ambitious, and it means spending only a little bit of time with some of the characters. A few characters seem to get the “hey, this is my one page to show what I’m up to” treatment, which I’m sure will tie together in the end, but I think possibly more focus could have been spent on fewer characters (the Je’daii investigating their two escapees on Bogan felt a little rushed). I did like the backstory for Trill as she uses her hate for Xesh to pinpoint his location, both the story and art were fantastic. Some of the other good panels are of Hawk’s facial expressions – really capturing mood well. Overall, not super exciting on its own, but as part of a larger narrative, it works well
The real strength is in the dialogue – not only do we get what is driving the story along, we get some great expressions that could be more the slang of the day – “dock your ego”, “time to burn sky” – good stuff – I really enjoy getting a flavor of the timeframe – good job to Jon Ostrander and Jan Duursema.