– Spoiler Review –
The Clone Wars – Battle Tales #5 brings these early clone tales to an end with a weird but fun flashback, while the framing story wraps up too quickly.
The flashback story finds Commander Cody and Obi-Wan Kenobi prisoners of General Grievous’, surprisingly early in the war since this all takes place prior to the events of the show. While one might expect it to be a grueling prison experience and them locked up, ready for Count Dooku to come and claim them, instead they are left free, without their weapons, and forced to build a bridge. The suspension of disbelief was a little hard to swallow on the premise here, considering Grievous wants them to build a bridge since it’s the only way to the other side of the planet, as if one couldn’t build a bridge anywhere else nor just use their fancy spaceships to, I don’t know, land on the other side or something, and while it makes sense he’d force Kenobi to do something so banal and difficult on the snowy planet, it’s tug against logic was hard too ignore. At the very least, writer Michael Moreci has a great handle on the characters’ voices, so there’s plenty of good banter between the droid General and the Jedi General, while the introduction of the furry and cute natives, with their willingness to help stand up to Grievous, also brought this series’ (and the show’s) signature fun to help cover up the flimsy premise.
As for the framing story, it’s over so quick, and without much context, I almost forgot it happened after reading it. In the Vader’s Castle series from IDW, the framing stories have felt more impactful while also providing a larger context, thus feeling like they could stand on their own if needed, while Battle Tales‘ doesn’t feel like it makes sense or was necessary by the time it ends. The resolution here is nice, but it felt foregone and rushed, and it makes me wonder if they could’ve spent more time on the flashback stories, making them the main for each issue, and simply not do a framing for better results. Plus, I’m curious, once I do a miniseries review, if reading these all right a row, like originally intended for its release in April before the current pandemic set things back, will change my feelings on the framing story aspect.
The art for the flashback, from Philip Murphy with Rebecca Nalty on colors, hued so closely to the look of the show, I thought we were seeing frames from an unaired episode. Derek Charm, with Luis Antonio Delgado on colors, have managed to make their version of the show’s style work, but Murphy basically, pardon the pun, cloned it for his section, something I was really impressed with; heck, he even gets Obi-Wan’s beard look just right! The Queby, the new species on the planet, remind me of a cross of the Care Bears and the look of the Ewoks from their animated show in the 80’s, and I’m actually all here for it. The design of the issue, especially the paneling in the flashback story, was some of my favorite of the series, which is all thanks to Jake M Wood.
Here are a few other things:
- Don’t forget, the other The Clone Wars content out recently includes Stories of Light and Dark, an excellent retelling of some of the show’s most popular episodes.
- I’ll try to have a miniseries review, looking back at this whole experience together, sooner rather than later.
The Clone Wars – Battle Tales #5 is a cute, somewhat weird, and quick ending to the series.
+ The cute new friends of the Republic
+ Characters and art teams most excellent again!
– Flimsy premise
– Framing story over before it really got started
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Twitter @MynockManor and Instagram @mynockmanor.
THE CLONE WARS – BATTLE TALES
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