The High Republic comics return in the shape of two connected story arcs: “Children of the Storm” and “The Hunted”. Weirdly the story then takes a break for a full cast audio drama before continuing next year, which is fine for me (a quick look on this blog will show I’m not averse to an audio drama!) but might be slightly alienating to a lot of the audience… Ah well, either way, let’s take a look at the first chunk of Phase III comics, shall we?
The story kicks off with Keeve Trennis and her Jedi allies Ceret and Terec helping out a planet called Ballum which has come under the control of Skarabda of the Hutt Cartel. The somewhat simple mission goes awry though as not only does a titular “Child of the Storm” (basically Force-sensitive pet-projects created by Nihil scientist Baron Boolan) called Brother Lycos appear but former Tempest Runner Lourna Dee also appears as she has began working for the Hutts. In the midst of the chaos though Lourna betrays the Hutts and Skarabda fights off the Nihil, forcing him to fight alongside the Jedi. Keeve defeats Lycos but misses Lourna, who escapes on an old stolen Jedi craft, but before she goes she drops a less than subtle hint that Keeve’s old master Sskeer is still alive and on the other side of the Stormwall. With the help of the Hutts tech Keeve, Ceret and Terec catch up to and board the craft and defeat Lourna, but instead of returning with her to Coruscant Keeve decides to head into the occlusion zone to find Sskeer.
Spoilers! …. They find him.
The four of them arrive on the planet Kindosorn and there they find it isn’t just Sskeer who survived the fall of Starlight Beacon as weird blob Jedi OrbaLin and small Latero Jedi Goonral Monshi are also alive, though the latter is badly injured due being attacked by Sskeer who has seemingly been driven mad due to his condition cutting him off from the Force. While Terec and Ceret take OrbaLin and Monshi back to the shuttle Keeve and Lourna head to a temple where they find Sskeer, only to be attacked by the mad and now Force-less Trandoshan, though it’s soon revealed he seems to be protecting a Force sensitive girl. Meanwhile another Child of the Storm appears with a Nameless in tow and they get the better of the four Jedi on their way to the shuttle (including killing Monshi) only to be defeated by Tey Sirrek, from the Phase II comics… yep, another character survived the couple of centuries between Phases II and I&III but coincidentally didn’t show up until after Phase II was released. I get creating characters and liking them and all but this is getting a little silly… Also it’s revealed that Tey and Jedi Vildar Mac got into a romantic relationship after the Phase II comics ended which seems a bit out of nowhere (there was zero romantic tension during their comic stories) and didn’t really add anything, though Tey can now use the Sith artefact called the “Hand of Siberus” without negative effects thanks to his training, so that’s something!
He has a large grey beard now, that means Tey can be brought back!
Keeve, Lourna, Sskeer and the mysterious child reunite with everyone and the latter shows even more Force abilities before the Child of the Storm who brought the Nameless returns and creates enough confusion to escape and kidnap the child for their Baron. Luckily though Lourna placed a tracker on the Child so it was swiftly off to Baron Boolan’s secret base! While there they see several of Boolan’s creations which are then let loose on the arriving heroes, including another technologically enhanced Nameless which attacks Lourna as she finds and oddly protects the Child but she’s saved by Keeve, who manages to fight her own fears and kill the Nameless. Lourna then admits she has placed bombs all over the facility and as they all make their escape Terec is seemingly killed and Sskeer decides to escape with Boolan after the Baron reveals he can restore the Jedi’s connection to the Force…
As per usual for the series the artwork is top notch and the cast is good fun, but there despite ten issues and a lot of location swapping it doesn’t really feel like much happens, even the Keeve / Sskeer storyline goes backwards right towards the end to give us a bit drama that felt like we’d already seen resolved all over again. A shame, but there you go.
Overall Thoughts:
Safe to say: Nothing good!
“Children of the Storm” and “The Hunted”, which really may as well have just had one title across both, was fun from a character and artwork perspective but rather weak from a narrative one, often spinning its wheels as Phase III rolls out much slower than I and II, even repeating storylines and twists just a few issues apart. Good fun, as pretty much all High Republic stuff is, but I doubt I’ll be in a hurry to read it again.
Just when all hope seems lost a homing signal appears and leads everyone to the next Baron Boolan base and Keeve finds her master about to undergo some crazy treatment but once again she manages to get through to her former Master about right and wrong the Sskeer knocks Boolan unconscious. Meanwhile Ceret finds Terec alive, the latter saying he took the opportunity to cut the mental link between the two of them as he wanted some private time once and a while (that’s that brief storyline resolved!) What will everyone do with the captured Boolan? Well we have to wait for the audio drama to find out!
Thought I may as well include the final panel. Why not?
Hogan Reviews 