Back in February, Dark Horse Comics launched its new miniseries Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures – The Nameless Terror with an excellent kickoff issue by writer George Mann and artist Eduardo Mello.
Now, nearly two full months later, we finally get the follow-up installment in The High Republic Adventures – The Nameless Terror #2 (of 4).
The Nameless Terror #2 once again begins with the framing device of monster hunter Ty Yorrick telling a story to her droid KL-03 about an incident involving the Jedi that took place a century and a half earlier in the timeline. Then in flashbacks, we see the various members of a Republic Pathfinder team reacting to the events that have befallen them. They’ve crash-landed on a planet alongside another ship occupied by the Path of the Open Hand– now referring to themselves as the Path of the Closed Fist in the wake of the Battle of Jedha and the conflict on Dalna. The Jedi known only as Sula finds herself suffering from the effects of the horrifying titular “Nameless” creature– we’ve also come to know it as the Leveler– which eats the Force and is capable of turning Jedi into piles of ash. Fortunately the non-Force-sensitive members of the Pathfinder team are able to pitch in and attempt to fight off the Leveler’s attacks from inside the ship while the Jedi are incapacitated. Meanwhile, two other Jedi called Coron Solstus and Rok Buran have captured a member of the Path, and are using him to gather information about the Nameless and its powers.
There’s some strategic maneuvering around the crashed ships in a way that reminds me an awful lot of the Alien franchise of sci-fi/horror films, which I probably mentioned in my review of issue #1, and I’d still be shocked to learn that Mann and his collaborators weren’t at least somewhat influenced by that seminal cinematic series in coming up with this miniseries. Anyway, some of our protagonists wind up camping out in a hold of the Path ship occupied by a pile of glowing gemstones, which we and Yorrick know are really Leveler eggs– again, likely another Alien homage. Then we follow the Nikto Pathfinder Pako on a quest to use the ship’s latent technology against the creatures that are desperately trying to breach its hull, while Coron and Rok encounter a bloodthirsty Nameless in the rocky terrain outside. It’s another thrilling issue that climaxes with these two Jedi scrambling to find another entry point back inside to safety while the creature drains away their Living Force, and that cliffhanger ending ensures that I’ll be anxious to find out what happens when issue #3 drops in May. I really have no complaints about the creative partnership between Mann and Mello, who alongside inker Ornella Savarese and colorists Vita Efremova and Nicola Righi have generated an energetic, white-knuckle (though always family-friendly, as this is a High Republic Adventures title) exploration of the horror genre in A Galaxy Far, Far Away.
Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures – The Nameless Terror #2 is available now wherever comic books are sold.