Today I read “Star Wars: The Old Republic- Blood of the Empire”, written by Alexander Freed, with pencils by Dave Ross.
Now, I have to start by saying, I love Star Wars. It’s probably been my favorite mega-franchise of all time. Ever since I was a kid, I devoured the movies, the novels, the video games, and more recently; the comic books. That being said, I’ll be the first to admit that when it comes to Star Wars’ various offshoot mediums, they’re usually pretty hit or miss. For good or ill, “Blood of the Empire” is neither.
The “Old Republic” comics are tied in with Bioware/Lucasarts upcoming video game of the same name. To give you a bit of timeline, the events of this comic take place 3,600 years before the Battle of Yavin. I know very little about this particular era of Star Wars history, but Borders was going out of sale, and this book ended up costing around $3 after all the discounts, so I figured I’d take a chance.
“Blood of the Empire” seems to follow the recent trend in the Star Wars universe of focusing on the Sith- The intergalactic bad guys. For those not familiar with the Sith, imagine the kids at Hot Topic, add a hell of a lot of tribal tattoos, red lightsabers, and they’re perpetually angry. Such is the general background of the main character in this issue, Teneb Kel, a Sith apprentice who is essentially turned into the errand boy for the Sith Council. His job is to find and kill a Sith traitor who is planning on helping the good guys blow up the Sith home world.
The plot in this particular issue is about as steady as the Millenium Falcon’s hyperdrive; it’ll eventually get you where you need to go, but it’s gonna sputter a bit before it finally kicks in. Now, some of these plot hiccups serve to give the reader a better idea of Sith history and culture, which is great. But there’s also some crazy hallucinations that could possible stumble a reader not as familiar with “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” type visions. That being said, there’s some cool mysteries that get mentioned in this issue that I definitely want to see played out in future volumes. Freed has given us a nice look at this particular era of Star Wars history, now he just needs to explain why it’s important.
Star Wars has had a long history of producing excellent art, though that’s not always been the case when it came to their comics. “Blood of the Empire”, however, rises above some of the less dynamic art styles used in previous Star Wars comic titles. The pencils by Dave Ross give the characters a very visible level of emotion, and add enough flash and bang to make the fight scenes seem as if you were watching them on the big screen. That being said, the inks by Mark McKenna, while excellently crisp and perfectly placed, seemed to lack the heavy, solid black shadows that I think would fit with the overall shadowy nature of the Sith.
Where this issue really shines, though, is in the colors, and the cover illustration. Micheal Atiyeh brings the page, and the whole feel of Star Wars, to life with his excellent choices in both color and light. His use of metallic reflections and glow effects really deliver the patented Star Wars look. Finally, the cover illustrations by Benjamin Carre’ were what drew me to this title in particular. The painterly look of his work looked as if it was taken out of some un-announced film that George Lucas had been hiding for years. The lighting, the dynamic action, the composition; all of it screams, “BUY ME!”
I will honestly be curious to see just how the “Old Republic” comics proceed over time. I think there’s some great potential here to tell an exciting new chapter of Star Wars history. Or it could end up being a failed attempt at synched merchandising for the upcoming game. But this issue, “Blood of the Empire” , while not being a comic masterpiece, delivers on a variety of levels, and leaves me wanting to read more. Time will tell where this Padawan ends up.
TL;DR: AWESOME COVER, SMALL STORY HICCUPS, SHINY THINGS. BORROW IT FROM A FRIEND OR LIBRARY.
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