Today saw the release of the third issue in Dark Horse Comics’ Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures – Dispatches from the Occlusion Zone anthology miniseries, and below are my brief recap and thoughts on this penultimate installment.
The High Republic Adventures – Dispatches from the Occlusion Zone #3 begins in the Seswenna sector of Nihil space near the planet Eriadu, where Jedi Master Emerick Caphtor sends a transmission back to the Republic about his investigations into the origins and nature of the Nameless creatures. His Jedi Vector starfighter is suddenly beset upon by the spider-like ship belonging to the Nihil’s mad scientist Niv Drendow Apruk, who takes Caphtor into custody and sends out a transmission of his own to the Jedi Order. Then Niv Drendow (yes, he has two first names and won’t let you hear the end of it if you say it wrong) demands that Emerick turn over all of his research pertaining to the Nameless, bringing the captured Jedi along with him to his home moon of Vrant Tarnum, where another Nihil scientist named Baron Boolan served as his mentor, though secrets were kept from Apruk.
As they approach Boolan’s old laboratory, Caphtor and Apruk are attacked by charhounds (like Ember, but initially quite less friendly), with Emerick having to fight them off with the Force as the pair head inside the dilapidated ruins. Here Caphtor voluntarily turns over something Niv Drendow didn’t even know he had– research notes about the Nameless written by former Jedi Azlin Rell. Apruk is taken aback by this show of trust, and even more surprised when Emerick tells him that Driggit Parse has been feeding the Republic information about the Nihil. So Emerick gains control of the charhounds– through treats and scritches, naturally– and convinces Niv Drendow to work alongside him in filling in the missing pieces about the Nameless using a combination of Baron Boolan and Azlin Rell’s work on the subject. Later, Apruk sends another transmission to the Jedi Order, but this time he uses the opportunity to stun his own Nihil crew and turn himself over to the Republic, in exchange for continued access to Azlin’s journals from his prison cell on Coruscant.
I feel like this issue of Dispatches from the Occlusion Zone flew by really quickly but it also might be my favorite in the miniseries so far– so kudos to writer Daniel Jose Older and artist Lucas Marangon (from Star Wars: Tag & Bink Were Here), whose respective styles match up impressively well. With each passing release in The High Republic lately, the Jedi and the Republic are inching ever closer to being able to resist the Nihil’s mastery over the Nameless, which is proving to be an exciting buildup to the publishing initiative’s eventual conclusion next year. I also liked that Emerick was able to win over Niv Drendow by appealing to his desire for knowledge, something that both of these otherwise very different characters share. So now the Jedi know how to “pierce the veil” of the nebula labyrinth surrounding Planet X, but how are they going to make use of that information. I can’t wait to find out.
Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures – Dispatches from the Occlusion Zone #3 is available now wherever comic books are sold.