Written by: John Jackson Miller
Illustrated by: Brian Ching
Published by: Dark Horse
Dark Horse comics was set up in 1986 by comic shop chain owner Mike Richardson, and in the twenty years since its creation has carried a portfolio of books that balanced original work, such as Sin City, with established licences such as Aliens, Buffy and Star Wars. The Star Wars line of comics underwent a makeover around the time Episode I was being released with the creation of the first Star Wars on-going and again around the time of Episode II when Star Wars was morphed into Republic and a second on-going Empire was launched. Now that Episode III has come and gone, and in celebration of its 20th anniversary, Dark Horse is once again re-booting the Star Wars line. Republic is ending, Empire is morphing into Rebellion and at least two new titles are being launched - Knights of the Old Republic and Star Wars: Legacy. Interstingly both of these titles are set well outside the time period of the movies. Legacy is too occur 130 years or so after Return of the Jedi while Knights of the Old Republic takes place around 4000 years before The Phantom Menace.
The time period of Knights of the Old Republic, or KOTOR (all SW fans love acronyms), was created by Dark Horse for use in the Tales of the Jedi comics, and has recently gained greater notoriety through two enormously successful KOTOR video games. I suspect that, in part, it is the success of these games that has prompted Dark Horse to move back to this time period. The new KOTOR series is written by John Jackson Miller, better known for his work in comic book commentary than writing, and is illustrated by Brian Ching whose work on last years Star Wars: Obsession mini series I found pretty impressive. While both are relative newcomers to comic writing and illustrating neither is new to the industry as such, and so I approached this first issue with cautious optimism.
The story opens with the main protagonist, a padawan by the name of Zayne, attempting to bust a small time spice dealer. This initial scene flows well, and gives Ching a chance to draw some nice cityscapes and a good full-page panel of Zayne lighting up his sabre. Ching’s art is quite soft in style and is accompanied here by very pastel colouring. The over all effect is similar to that of SW:Obsession but in my opinion is a bit sketchier, lacking the polish that series had. The rest of the issue introduces Zayne’s classmates, his teachers and his place in the group. It all seems like like standard first issue introduction and scene setting until the totally unexpected curveball that gets thrown at the end (I won’t spoil it).
On the whole this was a promising start. The writing was surprisingly good for someone with so little scripting behind him. The characters were well defined, or at least as well as they can be in a single issue, and the cliff-hanger leaves you almost certain to pick up the second issue just to find out what’s going on. While the art left room for improvement, it was far from bad and I’m pretty sure improvement will be seen as the series finds its feet. Importantly the choice of time period frees this book from any previous continuity and this has two positive effects. Firstly it makes it equally accesible to fans and new readers. Secondly it allows the writers and editors a free hand in telling their stories and encourages them to be creative rather than relying on the Skywalker family for all salient plot points. For these reasons I find myself looking forward to seeing where KOTOR is going to take us and optimistic about the rest of the Star Wars line as it looks to find a way to maintain its longevity and appeal in a world free frrom papa Lucas’ original vision.
Having just finished a PhD in Immunology Ross is currently pursuing a career as the most over qualified barman in the Midlands. He lives in Birmingham where he reads comics, spends too much money on music, clutters up his girlfriends house and attempts to learn Portuguese.