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Comic Review: Star Wars: Rebellion (Vol. 1 & 2)
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Star Wars: Rebellion
My Brother, My Enemy (Star Wars: Rebellion, Vol. 1)
Script by Rob Williams
Art by Brandon Badeaux and Michel Lacombe
Colors by Wil Glass
Lettering by Michael Heisler

The Ahakista Gambit (Star Wars: Rebellion, Vol 2)
Story by Brandon Badeaux and Rob Williams
Art by Michel Lacombe
Colors by Will Glass
Lettering by Michael Heisler
Dark Horse

It may almost seem a lame attempt at this point, hence why I didn’t name it so above, but this review really does continue my previous “˜Countdown to Clone Wars’ series of reviews. I could even get away with it, because The Clone Wars television series airs for the first time on Cartoon Network on October 3. But for the sake of my sanity, let us just call this a review.

But my thanks must first go to the fine folks at Dark Horse, who have graciously provided us with review material. I had hoped to provide you, the reader, with a look into the world of Star Wars Expanded Universe material. Sadly, that remained relegated to the books for a long time. But with the amount of Star Wars comics out there I felt I had to try and find a way to show them off as well.

And so, the first of three reviews, I’m going to be looking at Star Wars Rebellion.

To be perfectly frank, I have no idea how this comic worked in single issues. I read through the 128-page trade paperback totally unable to spot where one issue may have finished and another started. That’s a good thing, by the way, at least to me. Nevertheless, as a trade paperback, the first volume of Star Wars Rebellion is really quite intriguing.

Entitled “My Brother, My Enemy,” the back cover describes the book as such: Jorin Sol, a Rebel strategist recently rescued from the Empire, quietly recovers from his ordeal in the medical bay of the Alliance command ship. When he awakes, he will become the greatest threat to the Rebellion since the Death Star! Meanwhile, Imperial Lieutenant Janek “Tank” Sunber has contacted Luke Skywalker in hopes of defecting to the Rebel alliance. Will Luke help his boyhood friend, or obey the orders of Princess Leia, who believes Tank is orchestrating a plot to capture the Rebellion’s greatest hero?

I could have summarized it for you, but I am not going to spoil it here. Needless to say, the story has legs. Though, throughout the entirety of the book I couldn’t help but feel I had missed a part of the story that had come before. Both Luke Skywalker, Tank Sunber, and Deena continually referred to things that seemed blatantly obvious to them, but a mystery to me.

That being said, I was still captivated by the story. It is very much a one-shot, a contained story within the 128 pages without a need to continue on reading any other issues. Written by Rob Williams, this story doesn’t add anything major to the story, but fills in some time following the destruction of the first Death Star and where we pick up with the Rebels at the beginning of Empire Strikes Back.

The second volume, “The Ahakista Gambit,” is even more of a one-shot, totally contained within itself with only a small linkage to the story that came before it. Once more I’ll read from the back of the book for expediency sake.

For years, Wyl Tarson, top lieutenant to the galactic crimelord Raze, secretly delivered valuable information to the Rebel Alliance – until his employer discovered the betrayal and implanted a bomb inside Wyl’s skull! Now, Wyl must infiltrate an Imperial stronghold on the planet Ahakista under the guise of working for the Rebellion, or Raze will detonate the bomb. Unwilling to compromise active Rebel agents, Wyl assembles a team of operatives too washed up or too crazy for the Alliance and leads them into a suicide mission that’s his only chance for survival!

This story flew a bit too fast for me, and seemed to skip over some plot points which, though not necessarily imperative to the well-being of the story, still would have been nice. Nevertheless, this story does me good as it doesn’t include any of the named Star Wars characters like Skywalker or Solo, and still kept me entertained the whole way through.

The art in both of these volumes is really top class as well, and I wonder why the names of Brandon Badeaux and Michel Lacombe are not better known. Luke Skywalker doesn’t necessarily look like Mark Hamill, but he does look like Luke Skywalker. Similar to how the artist behind the Buffy Season 8 comics hasn’t traced Sarah Michelle Gellar onto the page, but has still drawn Buffy, so does Badeaux and Lacome draw the Star Wars universe.

But even for characters not seen in the movies, they know how to draw. Some of the action scenes literally leap off the page at you, with no need for 3-D glasses.

One last thing I’ll note of these books, and something I don’t normally pick up on, are the colors. Wil Glass does a fantastic job of bringing these images to life. They are vibrant, without being fluorescent, and the mix of shadows and color is really tactfully done.

I would definitely recommend these books to any Star Wars fan, and also to any comic fan. I think that they do not require you to have Wookipedia committed to memory, but also reference enough that the hardcover fans will be happy. 4 out of 5 for “˜My Brother, My Enemy,’ and 3 out of 5 for “˜The Ahakista Gambit.’

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