Angel Falling
Written by Jeffrey Kaufman
Pencils by Kevin West
Inks by Mark McKenna, Bob Wiacek, Jack Purcell, and Kevin Yates
Colors by Tom Chu and Pete Pantazis
Letters by John Hunt
Cover by Jeffrey Kaufman, Dave Stewart, and Stan Johnson
Variant Cover by Billy Tucci and Felix Serrano
Zenescope Entertainment
Release Date: August 28, 2013
Cover Price: $9.99

How would you react if you woke up as a half-naked woman in an alley just as two guys are about to assault you? And when you suddenly find yourself beating them down with almost no effort, what then? Well, that’s exactly how Angel Falling starts off. Not knowing who she is or why she’s there, she begins to search for answers alongside a new-found companion who is more than he seems, too.

Calling himself 5, the young man calls her by the name Angel but refuses to speak more on the subject. Or any subject for that matter, he is extremely tight-lipped about everything. What he does show her, however, is that he has perfect reactions and is exceptionally skilled at hand-to-hand combat. We learn that he has eidetic kinesthesia, also known as perfect physical memory. This allows him to mimic and retain every physical action he sees. His statement of “failure means death” is repeated often throughout the comic.

Kickstarters abound! I seem to always preface my articles about them with some form of astonishment at how they seem to connect writers and artists to their fans in a much more intimate way – well not this time. This time, I work under the assumption that you know of Blake Northcott, be it through Facebook, Twitter, or what have you. This young lady is taking the comic-loving world by storm! And you are being given a chance here to help her success continue with a Kickstarter for her next book, Assault Or Attrition.

Now, if you aren’t familiar with this Canadian beauty and her nerd-tastic stories, then you are missing out. Her last book, Arena Mode, was a Mark Millar-endorsed project. Not only that, it was the most-funded project in Kickstarter’s ‘Publishing: Fiction’ category for 2013. And this new Kickstarter could easily surpass even that, since she has loads of artists from Marvel, DC, and Image Comics working on the interior art for her upcoming book! We are talking about Mark McKenna, Dave Johnson, Dan Panosian, and many others!

Star Wars: Purge
Trade Paperback | Kindle Edition
Written by Haden Blackman, Alexander Freed, John Ostrander
Art by Michael Atiyeh, Marco Castiello, Andrea Chella, Jim Hall, Alex Lei, Mark McKenna, Ronda Pattison, Chris Scalf, Douglas Wheatley
Cover by Adam Hughes
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: July 10, 2013
Cover Price: $17.99

The collected trade paperback of Star Wars: Purge draws together the standalone and miniseries issues released by Dark Horse that follow skirmishes involving Darth Vader as he continues his obsessive purge of the Jedi, following the rise of the Empire across the universe. While Palpatine endures as Emperor, the focus of the Sith become in strengthening the New Order, but Vader soon learns that to purge the galaxy of the Jedi, he must purge his very being of all traces of what once was Anakin Skywalker.

The first chapter, the self-titled “Purge,” was the first comic to be distributed to depict Vader on his Jedi Purge mission. A group of surviving Jedi, having evaded Order 66, collectively meet in an abandoned mine on Kessel, to discuss their options having now faced the fall of their friends and the rise of the empowered Sith. But the gathering’s organizer has something more devious planned, having heard of Vader’s obsession for locating Obi-Wan Kenobi, she puts out word he is with them to meet”¦ and Vader is coming to them.

Star Wars: The Old Republic, Volume Three – The Lost Suns
Written by Alexander Freed
Pencils by Dave Daza, George Freeman, Dave Ross
Inks by Mark McKenna
Colors by Michael Atiyeh
Cover Art by Benjamin Carré
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: March 21, 2012
Cover Price: $18.99

Continuing an era begun in Knights Of The Old Republic, Volume Three of the graphic novel series based upon The Old Republic (the latest Star Wars MMORPG) takes a glimpse of several individuals caught up in what seems to be the tail end of the new war between the Jedi and the Republic against the Sith and their Empire. The Lost Suns delivers a unique glimpse of the Star Wars galaxy of the era, through the eyes of a wonderfully individual team serving as our heroes and protagonists.

Theron Shan is the primary character we follow through this collected edition, essentially a spy or secret agent, fulfilling a role echoing that of Jahan Cross from another Dark Horse Star Wars series, Agent Of The Empire. This time, however, Theron has an ancestry that rivals that of the Skywalkers – his mother is Satelle Shan, current Grand Master of the Jedi Order; and descended from some of the greatest Jedi of all time: Revan and Bastila Shan.

There is just one problem: he is blind to the Force. Despite his ancestry, Shan is unable to access or use the Force. Caught up in the detriment of the war against the Sith Emperor, Satelle Shan passed care of her infant son to another Jedi Master called Ngani Zho, who was deemed too old for the war. In spite of the boy’s inability to touch the Force, Zho trained Theron in the ways of the Jedi, until they separated during his teenage years.

Star Wars: The Old Republic-The Lost Suns #4
Written by Alexander Freed
Pencils by Dave Ross, George Freeman
Inks by Mark McKenna
Colors by Michael Atiyeh
Letters by Michael Heisler
Covers by Benjamin Carré
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: September 14, 2011
Cover Price: $3.50

One of my favorite time periods in the Star Wars universe is the Old Republic. The original game for Xbox is one of my all time favorites. It is with this background that I dove into Star Wars: The Old Republic #4.

This issue follows two Jedi spies who are on an Imperial ship. Here we learn what is making it possible for the Empire to build their power weapons and ships so quickly, the Sun Razer. The Sun Razer harvests the energy of the Sun and allows the Empire to use the energy. One of the Jedi ends up having worked on the slave planet that built the prototype, and he is dealing with the guilt of not stopping the Sun Razer from being built.