I’ve written before about Dark Horse’s Star Wars comic omnibus collections. They’re
pretty great. They’re designed to collect novel length stories and smaller
stories that otherwise wouldn’t be collected anywhere else. I really like them because
they’re huge and quite affordable. This volume is over 400 pages long. For the most
part, these omnibus volumes include numerous issues all tied to a theme or a
series or a time period. This one, obviously, is set during the Clone Wars.
Particularly the beginning of the Clone Wars shortly after the events of Attack of the Clones.
A very large number of issues are included in this
volume. Unfortunately, I will not list all of the creators involved because I’m
lazy. However I’m pleased to announced that Dark Horse meticulously listed all
creators at the beginning of each story. For this collection that meant almost
every new issue. Most of the comics in this volume are short stories of approximately
two issues in length (all the Jedi
one-shots are double sized issues). Here are the contents of Clone Wars: The Republic Goes to War:
Star Wars: Republic
49: “Sacrifice”
Star Wars: Republic
50: “The Defense of Kamino”
Jedi: Mace Windu
Star Wars: Republic
51: “The New Face of War, Part 1”
Star Wars: Republic
52: “The New Face of War, Part 2”
Star Wars: Republic
53: “Blast Radius”
Jedi: Shaak Ti
Star Wars: Republic
67: “Forever Young”
Star Wars: Republic
54: “Double Blind”
Jedi: Aayla Secura
Jedi: Count Dooku
Star Wars: Republic
61: “Dead Ends”
Star Wars: Republic
63: “Striking from the Shadows”
Star Wars:
Republic Issues 49 and 50:
Issue 49 gives the reader a glimpse at the Republic’s
intelligence gathering at the time shortly after the start of the war. You
see the effort that people go through in order to acquire information that can
be helpful during the campaign. It’s a simple story and there aren’t any real
surprises, though that’s not for lack of trying. It’s just that double
crosses tend to be expected in stories that deal with espionage. If nothing
else, we get to see a couple of fan favourite Jedi kicking some ass while the
story told presents a different perspective on the war, a perspective we don’t get to see in the movies.
Issue 50 is an oversized anniversary issue that is made
up of three stories by three separate creative teams. The story follows nicely
from the previous issue as the Jedi use the information acquired in issue 49 to
meet the Separatist army at their target on Kamino. They’re attacking the
cloning facilities which is a good target as it would cripple the Republic army.
Overall the stories aren’t very memorable but they go down smooth when reading. The
best thing about this issue is the format as it presents the same battle from
three different perspectives. It’s a nice touch for an anniversary issue.
Jedi: Mace
Windu:
This issue focuses on the Jedi Master Windu, naturally.
He meets up with another Jedi master who had a lot of influence on the Order as
he’s trained most apprentices in lightsaber duelling. Windu is concerned with
Master Sora Bulq’s position in the war and where he gives his support. The
story deals with the idea that the Jedi were not united in their support of the
Republic and its war. This issue allows for writer John Ostrander to provide
us with various points of view as the characters, all of them Jedi, discuss
the consequences of the Jedi’s actions. It’s interesting to read about the
thought process of important characters like Windu. He admits that the Republic
is corrupt but he believes in it more than he does in the Separatists. He’s on
a mission of goodwill amongst other Jedi but Ostrander and Jan Duursema make
sure to include a few lightsaber sparing sessions to spice things up visually.
It helps but its not enough. The story gets a little bogged down by near-endless discussions
of loyalty, morally, and duty which ring a little hollow amidst all of the Jedi
on Jedi action.
Star Wars:
Republic Issues 51-53:
These three issues are easily the worst of the bunch.
They involved a killer plague gas, a bunch of Gungans, a lame as hell bounty
hunter that looks and sounds like he was ripped out of the worst Marvel comics of the 90s. Poor writing, only passable art, terrible plot, and characters
that would be improved by being written as resemble cardboard cut-outs.
Just skip these issues. I don’t even want to keep writing about it.
Jedi: Shaak Ti:
A fan favourite character, this issue is all about Master (now general) Ti. She leads
a battle and is faced with many difficult decisions. At the end of the issue she
is troubled with the realization of the impact the war has had on her and on
everyone else around her. She questions how a person is supposed to stay true
to themselves when travelling the many difficult paths presented to them during
this time of conflict. The galaxy is in chaos and even the wisdom of the Jedi is
being tested. This issue almost makes up for the trash that preceded it in this
volume.
Star Wars:
Republic Issue 67:
Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Master Tohno are on a mission to
destroy a droid manufacturing base. Anakin and Obi-Wan's mission is to create a
distraction with their clone troops to allow for Master Tohno's infiltration of
the base. She must operate alone because there is a droid army amassed in a
defensive position guarding the base. Anakin has a hard time letting Master
Tohno take on what is essentially a suicide mission. He has to learn the
difficult lesson that in war every decision you make has two sides, that of
the big picture of the military conflict and the individual cost of battle.
Star Wars:
Republic Issue 54 and Jedi: Aayla
Secura:
These issues tell a single story. During the Clone Wars,
most Jedi masters became generals of the Republic’s army. One of them, Quinlan
Vos, has been spending most of his time in the shadows of the galaxy. He rubs
elbows with criminals and dark users of the Force. He’s assigned a job by the
Jedi Council to spy on the Separatists. As a double agent, the Council is
beginning to think that he might have turned traitor. Aayla Secura also gets
sent on a mission in Separatist territory and she gets ambushed by bounty
hunter Aurra Sing. Though there is plenty of action and many appearances by
Quinlan Vos, the one-shot issue also teaches a lesson between masters and
padawans. The learning never ends and you must be open to take in the lessons that the world
will have to teach you.
Jedi: Count
Dooku:
Like the Jedi
one-shot that precedes it, this one also splits the story between its title
character and Quinlan Vos. Vos is now part of Dooku’s inner circle and while he’s
trying to accomplish his missions for Dooku without arising any suspicions with
the Sith commander, Dooku is spending most of his time testing Vos and trying
to figure out his real allegiance. I find this story hard to swallow as surely
someone of Dooku’s skill wouldn’t be tricked by someone like Vos. Still, I like
Dooku so much I can’t really hate a comic in which he plays such a large role.
Star Wars:
Republic Issue 61:
This is an issue of political intrigue. Senator Bail
Organa comes to the realization that the soldiers and Jedi aren’t the only ones
fighting a war. There is a worrisome change taking place in the Senate. He’s a
soldier of another kind. He fights for the Republic as valiantly as the Jedi
Council. He only uses different weapons. The Senate is one of the most
important battlegrounds of the Clone Wars and Organa, Padmé Amidala, and Mon
Mothma are some of its key political warriors.
Star Wars:
Republic Issue 63:
More than a little suspicious that Vos isn’t really
seduced by the Dark Side of the Force, Dooku tells him that there is another
Sith and that this other Sith has infiltrated the Senate. Dooku sends Vos on a
fake mission to assassinate the other Sith, but it’s just another trick to see
where Vos’s loyalties truly lie.
Thanks to the big chunk of issues collected in this volume, Dark Horse presents a pretty clear picture of the kind of
stories that were being told in one of their ongoing series and the one-shot
issues being published around the same time. While most of these stories are
relatively short you can clearly see some of the threads that skip from one
issue to the next. The story of Quinlan Vos is the best example. The sad thing
is that I don’t give a damn about him. He’s a Jedi who dabbles in the dark side
of the Force and as a spy is given the mission to infiltrate the Separatists. Because of this he
spends a lot of time with shady characters and those are often poorly interpreted as "kewl" characters in these comics. It's pretty tiresome. This kind of story also had the effect producing comics that are filled with other characters questioning if he has or
hasn’t gone to the dark side. It’s annoying as hell and I just couldn’t care
less. It’s the kind of story that’s been told with dozens of characters in the Star Wars EU before and I fail to comprehend what makes this character special.
Tired plots make for some difficult reading here
and there, this is still a solid dose of Star
Wars comics. Three creators in particular make it quite memorable. John
Ostrander, Jan Duursema, and Brad Anderson. Unlike many other Star Wars writers, Ostrander doesn’t
content himself with shoestring plots with the goal of including yet another
lightsaber duel or blaster shots smeared all over the page. Instead, he makes
the effort to imbue the issues he works on with an actual story, often with
morals and earned character development. In this volume he’s either developing
the implications of the Clone Wars and the impact it has on the people who are
part of it or he's telling issues based on characters and he studies what makes
them tick.
Duursema holds up her end of the work by providing some of
the best Star Wars art in comics. She’s
the premiere artist to come out of the Dark Horse era of Star Wars comics. Her art style is pretty realistic and she's good
with facial features as well. Her action choreography is pretty skilled if
occasionally repetitive. I think that last criticism is as much the result of
the sheer number of Star Wars issues she's drawn since the year 2000 than any
lack of imagination on her part. I really liked her covers for the Jedi series one-shots. They pretty
great.
Anderson also deserves mention as he’s the unsung hero of
this collection. His colouring links all of the issues together regardless of
the artist on each issue and regardless of the series the collected
issues where originally published in. He uses a similar palette of colours for every issue
he works on. It’s like a house style of colouring. It doesn’t feel repetitive
or restrained. It conforms the varying art styles together just enough to make
them work well together despite their differences. Even when he's not the colourist on a given
story his influence and palette are pretty clearly the source of the other
colourists work.
This is a good collection of comics. It's not great, if only
because the quality of each issue varies pretty wildly. I’m thinking
specifically of issues 51-53. Those are stinkers. Yet some of the other stories
are quite good, not only advancing the overall plot of the Clone Wars but by
providing smaller, character driven stories.
If you’re a fan of this era of Star Wars I can’t see why you wouldn’t enjoy this omnibus. You
might even see a few curious resemblance between these comics and the Clone Wars TV series. I enjoy the
serialized nature of the comic book medium and as it provides a nice variety of
characters and stories. My last criticism is that there are dozens and dozens
of Jedi characters. There are just too many of them. Jedi aren’t the kind of
character you expect to be disposable yet there are plenty of stories in this
collection alone where Jedi are killed off to make villains appear more
threatening or powerful or to give the story higher stakes. It really numbs you
to some of the stories after a while. Again, if you’re a fan of the Clone Wars
period of Star Wars history, you’re
probably already familiar with this feeling and it shouldn’t spoil things for
you. If you’re debating whether or not to pick up this volume if you spot it in
stores, just do that the Jedi do and trust your feelings when reading the title.
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