– Spoiler Review –
In The High Republic Adventures – Saber for Hire #3, Ty Yorrick’s ship and squire are on the lam, so avoiding the situation on Temerancé any further is impossible for the monster hunter, leading her into an even more dangerous situation as the Nihil double their efforts to steal more children, including bringing in a potentially familiar face!
Saber for Hire #3 begins not with Drewen, who took Ty Yorrick’s ship to go rescue the Chancellor’s son and prove himself to her, nor even Ty herself, who is left on Temerancé despite wanting to be as far away from more Jedi stuff as possible, but rather with the young Lene Kostana whom Ty helped save. It’s a brief change of scenery, but in it there are introductions to Lene’s parents, Sula and Galdrim, and the repercussions of Ty’s flittering desire to be anything but still. While we’ve seen Ty gleeful, happy even despite Drewen’s protestations, as business booms behind the Nihil’s Stormwall, we’ve not seen what her glee and constant movements means for those she helps until now, as we are party to the fear Lene’s parents share about the Nihil returning, which reveals her actions have consequences too. Lene, barely conscious when they parted, commented on her always running away, and by getting out the moment the job is done, the families whose children were stolen are still scared, worried the Nihil could return and try again, no protection in sight beyond calling for help once again. It’s Ty’s boon there are no Jedi, but the people’s loss, as safety isn’t as guaranteed as it used to be or was promised as the Jedi and Republic initially expanded out into the greater galaxy. Ty does her best to ignore their fear and problems when she’s forced to return and take the Nihil ship to catch up with Drewen, but Lene continues to dig into the saber-for-hire’s mind as she helps her with the ship. It’s a fun dynamic, as Ty’s reaction to Lene’s hug upon her initial return is exactly what you’d expect, while Lene’s insights from digging into Ty’s thoughts or what the Force tells her makes Ty uncomfortable in a way she needs to be going forward, bringing her back down to reality. Lene makes a point Drewen left in hopes to prove himself to Ty, which Ty doesn’t want to unpack with a child, so she places the future Jedi outside the ship and jets away…but she doesn’t get far again, as she senses Lene’s distress: the Nihil have returned!
Lene’s efforts to stop the Nihil when Ty originally rescued them have not gone unnoticed, as the Nihil are joined by one of the dastardly Baron Boolan’s Children of the Storm to hunt down the Force-sensitive girl! The person under the hood grievously injures Lene’s parents while using the Force to rip through their minds, searching for where they hid Lene, but they are stopped from doing any more harm as Ty returns, blasting at them with her ship. While they don’t flinch, it’s enough of a distraction for Ty to get to the ground, checking on Lene’s parents who die before her, but she’s soon on the run from a Nameless creature! While avoiding the Nameless, she stumbles into Lene’s hiding place, fleeing with the child in her arms, her earlier coldness to Lene gone as she holds her close, calling her baby, and promising her everything will be alright. Ty’s limited connection to the Force helps prevent the worst of the Nameless’ effects, but the hooded stranger holds back the Nameless from attacking, asking for the child or else they’ll sick the creature on Ty and Lene, though when talking to her, the stranger refers to her as Tylera! Since we’ve had the solicitations for awhile, as well as covers, the mysterious Child of the Storm has been something I’ve been theorizing about ever since and well, after this issue, I might have to change my guess. I initially wondered if this was her friend while she was in the Order, Kilas Teradine, as while we saw her stab him, surviving a lightsaber stab wound isn’t impossible and knowing Baron Boolan, he probably could cyborg Kilas back to life, but everything in this issue sort of hints at what felt improbable before: Master Cibaba!! Kilas never really called Ty by her full name, but Cibaba did, while the orange/yellowish skin of the one non-cybernetic arm we see matches Cibaba’s skin color! And to top it off, the way the stranger tears into Lene’s parents’ minds feels like a corruption of his ability to mind meld, like we saw Ty and him do last issue. Kilas felt like a great choice for her to have to face in this series, but her Master, who never took another Padawan after she left and became a Seeker instead (which we just learned), is a whole other beast, and I feel like only one issue to deal with such a revelation won’t be enough, but I trust Cavan Scott so we’ll see! Ty and Lene manage to escape the stranger and the Nihil thanks to Rover, Ty’s astromech, piloting the Nihil ship, but as they jet away to help Drewen, it seems like Ty knows exactly who was under the hood.
The issue’s final pages pick up with Kip Soh and Jom Lariin still enjoying beach life, but Jom doesn’t feel so comfortable anymore, worried Nihil could be coming for them at any moment. Kip shoots down his concerns, but he jinxes them in the process: the Nihil arrive to collect Kip and Jom! Exposed on the beach, they make their way into a nearby cave, but a tentacled creature attempts to take them before the Nihil have the chance…if only there was a monster hunter nearby! Just when things look dire, someone intervenes, already showing they’ve learned from their Master, beating back the creature and saving the boys, for now: Drewen! The victory is short-lived, as the Nihil arrive and Drewen and the boys are completely outnumbered. Will Ty make it in time? Will the twisted Cibaba, or whomever happens to be underneath the hood, complicate matters more by catching up? Will Master and Apprentice finally unite or will this only rip them apart further? And can Lene help with the hooded stranger, getting in their mind? We’ll find out next month in the big finale!
Rachael Stott’s art continues to be a real delight, while colorist Nicola Righi gets an assist from Vita Efermova and Tyler Smith & Jimmy Betancourt remain out steadfast letterers. Ty’s so-over-it face when Lene is helping her fix up the Nihil ship, as well as Lene’s initial disappointment and eager to please expressions afterwards, really give Scott’s script an extra punch of humor and emotion to their little exchange, as we’ve come to expect from this art team. The color scheme this issue really stands out, from the pleasant, cool nighttime shades while Ty is with Lene and her family, the oppressive, unnatural feeling greens of the Nihil’s smoke, to the shocking reds as the stranger interrogates Lene’s parents, there are clear markers of how we’re supposed to feel, while I enjoyed how Ty’s presence brings those reassuring and cool colors to the scene, washing away the smoky greens. Betancourt and Smith have worked with the Nameless before and their practice makes the appearance of one all the more unsettling, especially with how the sound FX for its growl seems to grow over time, first its initial “kri” that almost seems happy, excited thanks to its placement, it’s little inquisitive “hrrr” when it senses Ty, and the absolutely menacing “kri” when it has Ty and Lene dead to rights but is held back by the stranger, the shape and size of which reaches out towards the pair and looks like it’ll eat them up before the creature could ever reach them. I appreciated the panel where Drewen is revealed, as the tentacled monster he’s taken down takes up most of the panel while he himself is almost hard to see, small, seemingly not the focus, as if to show how out of his league he actually is despite the victory. This framing continues in the issue’s final pages, a double-page spread, where while he’s standing in front of Jom and Kip, he still seems like a smaller shadow compared to the aggressive amount of Nihil before them.
Here are a few other things:
- It seems absolutely wild there’s only one issue left, given everything that happens here and still needs to transpire, so I’m curious how much we’ll cover and if there’ll be any teases of something else to come, besides Ty and Keeve Trennis’ issue in The High Republic Adventures – Dispatches from the Occlusion miniseries, which will take place chronologically after Saber for Hire.
- It looks like some of the upcoming comic covers for Dark Horse High Republic-set comics include a reference to The Acolyte; nothing like a good cross branding! Check out my reviews of the series here!
The High Republic Adventures – Saber for Hire #3 sets up for a finale so big, I hope it fits in this miniseries!
+ Hooded Character mystery!
+ Repercussions shown of Ty’s actions
+ Ty clearing the fog in how the art team expressed the colors of the scenes
– You’re telling me there’s only ONE issue left?!?
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Bluesky, Twitter @MynockManor, and Instagram @mynockmanor.
DISCLOSURE: I received a copy of this book from the publisher at no charge in order to provide an early review. However, this did not affect the overall review content. All opinions are my own.
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