Reilly2040's Blog

And here it is. The conclusion of the story arc started in issue one of this monthly, as we get the final confrontation between Zayne, Lucien and Haazen.

Its no secret that I love this series. Its one of my favourite monthlies (only slightly behind the GL titles) and its currently the only one of the Dark Horse Star Wars books I’m getting (budget cuts meant Legacy got dropped). For me, its got a great combination of action, mystery and, most importantly, humour that really give it a great Star Wars feeling. Sometimes I think the humour of the films gets lost in some of the expanded universe stuff, but its in this book in force (pun unintended).

I found this a really satisfying end to the main driving arc of the series thus far. Lucien and Zayne’s fight was great to see (and showed how far Zayne’s come in terms of his Jedi abilities since the early issues), and I loved Lucien’s final fate (and the fact that the Darth Sion comment appears to have been a red herring). Zayne turning his back on the Jedi Order (as they’d turned their backs on him) in order to stick with Griff rang true to me, and I’ll be really interested to see what direction this series takes now. They’ve been careful to keep some plot threads on the back burner (Rholan, Jarael), and they’ve still got the backdrop of the Mandalorian war with the Republic, and the Revanchanist movement to play with.

A brilliant series, and I’m glad they didn’t drag out the Covenant plotline past its due date. If you like Star Wars, you should really be checking this series out, and next month’s issue should be the perfect jumping on point.

Knights of the Old Republic is really firing with full thrusters at the moment.

For those that haven’t followed the series, its about Zayne Carrick, a failing Jedi Padawan, who finds himself on the run with the local wannabe crime lord and various others when the Jedi Masters kill his fellow padawans. Finding himself framed for their deaths, he has to find out why his friends were killed while avoiding being caught by the Jedi or the Republic. Fortunately at the same time, the Mandalorians go to war with the Republic, which provides him ample chaos to have all kinds of adventures in.

And now, series writer John Jackson Miller is wrapping up this main plot thread.  After over 30 issues, Zayne has closed in on the Jedi Covenant, and we’ve discovered how they’ve been manipulated from the beginning.

I love how Miller is not taking the option of keeping that plot thread running indefinitely, and instead giving us a conclusion to Zayne’s fugitive arc.  We get to see how Haazen has manipulated the covenant into becoming his instruments as he attempts to seize power for himself, and the one who has most been manipulated has been Zayne’s master, Lucien.   There’s a real feeling here that with his world unravelling around him, Lucien’s really lost the plot, and the hints from Haazen that Lucien coul go onto become Darth Sion were a big twist.

While Legacy tends to be the series that gets the most attention online, Knights of the Old Republic has always been my favourite of the Dark Horse series (and indeed, is currently the only one I’m buying monthly).  Its got a great balance between humour and adventure that I think is important to Star Wars.

I’m also pleased to see Brian Ching return to the art duties with this issue.  The art on this series has sadly been a mixed bag lately, so its nice to see the original artist returning to wrap up the story arc that started with issue 1.

Roll on issue 35.  I can’t wait to see how this ends.