Star Wars: Age of Republic - Heroes

Click HERE to order Star Wars: Age of Republic - Heroes graphic novel on Amazon



Star Wars: Age of Republic - Heroes collects Age of Republic-Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Padme Amidala, and the short stories “The Weapon” and “501 Plus One” from Special 1. Writers were Jody Houser, Ethan Sacks, and Marc Guggenheim. Artists were Cory Smith and Wilton Santos with inks by Walden Wong and Marc Deering.



Villains are cool. They usually look cool and get some of the best lines; but villains are villains. If they win people suffer; lies are substituted for truth, slavery for freedom. A story needs heroes. The Age of the Republic was a time of heroes; tragic, often flawed heroes, but heroes nonetheless. Qui-Gon Jinn: mentor of mentors, his steadfast belief in prophecy and willingness to go against the Jedi Council would change the fate of the Galaxy. Obi-Wan Kenobi: bound by honor to serve the final wishes of his master, he finds himself in a role for which he may be unprepared. Anakin Skywalker: in the midst of the Clone Wars he finds his role as a general conflicting with the values he was taught as a Jedi. Padmé Amidala: her dedication to serving the Republic takes her to dangerous places; even on a mission of peace, the specter of death is not far away.



This is a collection of one-shots rather than a mini-series, so we’ll look at each issue in turn.

In the Qui-Gon issue we find the master troubled over the perception that the Jedi are simply a weapon of the Republic in the aftermath of rescuing the Wood Priestess Th’er from the Metal Clan on the planet Bri’n. Jinn also feels that the Council’s residency on Coruscant is part of the problem, echoing a sentiment he expressed in the recent novel Master & Apprentice. Qui-Gon lets the Force guide him to a lush, unpopulated planet; while meditating, he has a vision of cutting down some twisted, malevolent creatures that then transform into the bodies of slain Jedi. He is further horrified to find himself turning into one of these creatures. He leaves the planet convinced that a balance must be found through some other means than violence. Like the Darth Maul story from the Villains collection, this is an enjoyable story but nothing really exceptional. It feels like it hits on all of the familiar Qui-Gon story beats: disagreement with the council, the importance of balance, the Living Force, and prophetic visions.

The Obi-Wan Kenobi story finds Obi-Wan and Anakin relatively early in their master and apprenticeship. Obi-Wan is unsure of himself as a teacher, and his reluctance to commit fully to Anakin’s training leads the latter to think of himself as a burden to Kenobi. This is my favorite story of the bunch. It just feels like it packs a lot of feeling and story into a relatively small package. Obi-Wan is presented with some very understandable human flaws and Anakin is moody but not what I would call whiny. Obi-Wan has to finally understand that Anakin is not the same kind of Padawan that he was and he will not be the same kind of master that Qui-Gon was.

The Anakin story takes place during the Clone Wars. Anakin objects to Adm. Yularen’s plan to attack a Separatist droid factory due to the potential for casualties among the non-droid native workers. He takes it upon himself to go in solo and discovers the “workers” are actually slaves. It’s a nice little Anakin story that feels like it would have fit well in the Clone Wars series. It highlights some of Anakin’s more positive qualities and illustrates just how far he would eventually fall.

In Padmé’s story, she and two of her handmaidens travel to the planet Clabron to attempt to recruit them to the Republic’s cause. A Separatist assassin gets there first and the Clabronians learn that, in this war, neutral planets are inevitably pulled in one direction or the other. Fortunately, Padmé’s example of courage pushes them toward the Republic’s cause. This is another story that would have fit in well as an episode of the Clone Wars if it were fleshed out some more. The focus is squarely on Padmé and she don’t need no help from little Ani to get the job done in this one.

Finally, there are the short stories taken from Age of Republic-Special. The first features Mace Windu, and it may be my second favorite story in the collection. It’s basically Mace letting himself get captured so that he can put the smack down on this warlord who is using child soldiers. Then there is the story where, and I kid you not, Jar Jar Binks saves Captain Rex. You know what? I’m just going to leave it at that; because, at this point, you’re either like: “holy crap, I gotta see how that happens” or “I’m out”.

Age of Republic - Heroes is an appropriate counterpart to the Villains collection; some good, some really good, nothing terrible. Even the Jar Jar story is tolerable. I would say the only thing that really makes this a lesser collection is the lack of a consistent artist. Luke Ross provided the art for all of the Villains issues and it would have been nice if he had also been employed for the Hero stories as well. For the most part, the art in these issues in fine; however, I didn’t particularly care for the way Obi-Wan was drawn in his issue. With this and the Villains trade paperback, you will have all of the issues published under the Age of Republic banner. Overall, I think the series is a success. My biggest complaint is that the issues are too short (22-25 pages, even the Special was only 35). This is not a mini-series where you get several issues to tell a single story. Most of the stories here are good enough that I would have been willing to pay a little more to have them expanded to 35-40 pages each.

Qui-Gon takes place a few to several years before TPM.

Obi-Wan takes place a few years after TPM.

Anakin and Padme take place during the Clone Wars.

The Mace story takes place before TPM, as Qui-Gon has a cameo.

Comic Pack Wish List:

The Anakin story makes me think we need a realistic version of Adm. Yularen. Another good figure would be Guattako the Grim, the warlord that Mace battles.

Score:

I gave Villains a 4 instead of 3 because of the consistently good art. On the same basis, this one gets a 3 instead of a 4.



Click HERE to order Star Wars: Age of Republic - Heroes graphic novel on Amazon

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