Today saw the release of the debut issue in Dark Horse Comics’ new Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures – Echoes of Fear miniseries, and below are my brief recap and thoughts on this premiere installment.
The High Republic Adventures – Echoes of Fear #1 is set during Phase III of Lucasfilm Publishing’s ambitious multi-platform initiative Star Wars: The High Republic, with Nihil Leader Marchion Ro having divided the galaxy via his Stormwall. And now, in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant Jedi Knight Reath Silas and Padawan Amadeo Azzazzo investigate the existence of the long-thought-mythical Force artifacts known as the Echo Stones, in the hopes that information about them will led to the Rod of Ages, which have the ability to control the Force-eating creatures called the Nameless. So Reath and Amadeo race to the Jedi Archives, breezing past Master Vernestra Rwoh on their way. Then Silas shows Azzazzo a holocron containing a story from an “old Jedi explorer” named Joria Skarl, who specialized in creating a record of myths and legends– a reference to one of writer George Mann’s other Star Wars works. From that point on, this issue is mostly a depiction of the tale of Darth Ravi the Bold, who was first mentioned in Claudia Gray’s Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures – Quest of the Jedi last year.
It seems that in even-more-ancient times, Darth Ravi acted much like Alexander the Great, conquering as many worlds as he could, though he was never satisfied with the results, as successful as they were. So one day Ravi hears about a so-called Echo Stone that would theoretically expand his dark-side reach even further across the galaxy, granting him near-invincibility. The only problem is that the stone is locked within a rather nifty moon-size puzzle box, so Darth Ravi sends wave after wave of his most committed followers to solve the enigma, a task which concludes with all of them dead from booby traps, lack of food, or by Ravi’s own hand. And though this ancient Sith Lord has visions of himself becoming his own worst enemy, he continues on his quest, eventually breaking through the final challenge and accessing the chamber holding the Echo Stone– the doors to which happen to be marked with numerous warnings against wielding the stone. He disregards those words of caution, however, and grasps the floating artifact in his hands, turning both him and the stone to dust through its power.
That’s the end of the story-within-the-story, and neither Reath nor Amadeo are certain whether to take it at face value. But Silas insists that it’s valuable just to know that old stories within the Jedi Archive contain any references to the Echo Stones whatsoever, so they continue their hunt for more. It’s an interesting beginning to a different, almost anthology-style miniseries for The High Republic, and I’m curious to see what clues about the stones and their powers the next tale will offer to our protagonists. Could these two young Jedi discover the means to bring about an end to the Nameless creatures and their mind-altering, extreme-fear-inducing control over the Jedi? With Phase III hurtling toward its conclusion, I could very well see that as a possibility, even though it would mean this Dark Horse title directly tying in with The High Republic’s larger overarching story– something that hasn’t happened as often as I would have liked or expected. Either way, I think Mann did a great job here with the jumping-off point, and artists Vincenzo Federici and Vincenzo Riccardi (along with co-colorist Michael Atiyeh) should be specially commended for their work on the Darth Ravi flashback, which contains some of the most strikingly bold illustrations I’ve seen in Star Wars comics in a long time.
Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures – Echoes of Fear #1 is available now wherever comic books are sold.