– Spoiler Review –
The High Republic Adventures #5 brings its opening arc to a close in an epic, emotional finale, as Zeen Mrala and Krix Kramerat make their choices and the series sets up a new, intriguing story thread. Also…we finally see Marchion Ro without his helmet on!
One of the best things from The High Republic Adventures, a great series in-of-itself, has been how the team has presented duality and dual storylines/character journeys with the split panels on a page, and it’s back again, if only for a page, to bookend the arc in a ways and show the divergent paths Krix and Zeen go on after the issue’s events. I honestly thought the team was presenting these stories this way to potentially show that no matter how different their paths were, they were still connected and might be able to bridge the growing gap between them. And heck, considering IDW is all-ages focused, I imagined redemption was on the table for Krix, as much as I was beginning to be annoyed by him and his choices, as would we really see a young character go down a villainous route? I’m glad writer Daniel José Older, and the art team consisting of Harvey Tolibao/Pow Rodrix/Manuel Bracchi, with colors by Rebecca Nalty and letters by Jake N. Wood, proved my misguided assumptions wrong, as Krix and Zeen don’t find themselves reconciled by the end, instead, via the dual the panels, they’ve turned their back on one another, joining their new lives after their choices came to fruition. It’s an excellent way to use the comic medium, as even reading these panels without dialogue would offer the same outcome to a reader thanks to the framing and the characters’ faces/postures.
Krix, in his anger and frustration, shoots down a passing Vector thinking he’s taking down a nasty Jedi, but he quickly realizes it’s Zeen, come to talk with him. When he approaches her downed ship, he stumbles away after being contacted, unable to face what he’s done, as he can’t even speak now when he’s in person with Zeen. She’s surprised he leaves her in the crash and this choice obviously hurts her and only adds to the feelings she’s had as they grow further apart, so when she catches up to him, she Force-chokes him. Lula arrives just in time, stopping her, and Krix gets away with Marchion Ro. Krix’s inability to speak through most of the confrontation only shows the lack of conviction in his beliefs and how, despite his words in their messages earlier, he’s not ready and willing to actually accept Zeen. She saw through that already, hence her demanding no more lies, promises, or apologies as she chokes him, and her command of the Force and confidence in her decisions shows how this path is what she needs, but the anger definitely isn’t a good thing to use and hold onto.
When the dust settles on the junk moon of Quantxi, as the local Junk Mavens and their giant monster friend*, with the newly arrived Jedi Masters of Yoda, Buckets of Blood, and Sy, alongside Qort and Farzala, drive back the Nihil, Zeen finds herself in the warm embrace of her new friends as they gather on Starlight Station again. She feels bad about her actions against Krix, ready and willing to be let go by the Order, but instead she finds herself accepted even deeper within the Order. They might not still train her as a Jedi, but they agree to help her harness and use her power, while learning how to be responsible with it instead of using for anger like she did. As surprised as I was to see the Jedi in this era already have the age limit to training, this almost seems like the better choice, the one that should’ve been presented to Anakin Skywalker instead. He almost did leave the Order, and Obi-Wan would’ve gone with him, and I’ve always wondered how that would’ve looked and if it would’ve been the better option, so I’m very interested to see more of Zeen’s tale and how it works out, as I imagine whatever goes on with her would’ve been similar to an Order-less Anakin, training still included.
With Krix, Marchion Ro pulls him deeper in the Nihil, entrusting him a secret regarding his latest machinations, tracking down some sort of heirloom that will help him change the galaxy forever (which I highly suggest reading The Rising Storm to find out more†). Krix receives no hugs nor offered forgiveness like Zeen, and no one addresses his anger and tries to bring it under control, but rather Marchion Ro uses the anger to further mold him into whatever he wants with the boy. He claims he wants Krix to run a new outpost for the Nihil and hands the lad his helmet to wear, completing Krix’s transformation into a villain. He’s abandoned his friend and chose not to accept her true self, abandoning her here again in an effort to save himself, so the boy deserves what’s coming to him by joining up and trying to be more and more like Ro, but it’s a fascinating journey I hope we see continue, be it here in the comic or in a different medium going forward.
Since Marchion Ro hands Krix his helmet, this means we finally get to see a visual representation of the man maskless. Ro’s face, unmasked, has been described before in the novels so I’ve had a rough idea in my head what he might look like, and while he seemed like he’d be a handsome, long-locks of hair, Duros-like alien in my head, it turns out he’s…a handsome, long-locks of hair, almost human-like alien. I can’t say we’ve ever seen any of his species before, especially since the books have most people who see him maskless say they’ve never seen anything like him, and this only continues to add to Ro’s intriguing story I just can’t stop needing to know more about. In fact, fellow THR writer Charles Soule chimed in on all the Twitter delight over Marchion’s good looks, saying he,“…doesn’t look like that by accident,” and wow, there goes the theory wheels spinning again!
Not all the Jedi Masters return to Starlight, though it’s not due to tragedy: before Torban, Sy, and Yoda catch up with the Padawans fighting the Nihil, they run into…Elder Tromak! I guess I made an assumption a few issues back, when Ro had Tromak taken away after Krix lied about the holo communicator, he pushed off screen and killed, and oh Force was I wrong again! Turns out he wasn’t and was able to sneak away aboard one of those weird, those beastly bogaranth, and pulls Yoda aside to chat with him. They met once before, years ago on Dalna, the planet Honesty Weft came from (as seen in A Test of Courage) which I’m sure we’ll learn more about, like why Yoda might’ve been there in the first place, and Tromak promises to reveal what Marchion Ro is after if Yoda agrees to come with him…alone and without his comlink. The two arrive at the same planet Ro and Krix are on and drones shoot them down, their fates left as a cliffhanger. Obviously Yoda makes it out, but I’ll be eager to see where and when we’ll dive into how he survives and makes it back to the Order…and what he learns!
Harvey Tolibao has shepherded the series since the beginning and he receives a little assistance in THRA #5 from Pow Rodrix and Manuel Bracchi. It’s very clear the grand majority of the issue is by Tolibao and when it’s not, the other two do a really great job adhering as closely to Tolibao’s look, to the point I almost didn’t notice the change! Per usual, I love how much the team packs into a panel, especially in the battle unfolding on the moon with the Nihil, but it gets too cluttered to the point I’m not always sure what I’m looking at, besides well that awesome giant of a Savrip; I liked how Jake M. Wood kept his SFX in those moments to a minimum, as the art does so much talking with its intense detail. My favorite page other than the final page I’ve talked about a bit already is the full page of the Spider cruiser jetting off from the moon, Torban, Farzala, Lula, and Zeen shielding themselves as it’s engines kick up the dust and junk around them. The scale of the cruiser is frightening to consider and Tolibao’s detail is unparalleled even on the smallest parts of the ship, while Nalty’s colors make it truly menacing with its eyes glaring red, even more so than the red of the moon’s sky around it. Really though, the fact you could read the final page without dialogue and understand what’s happening completely really shows the strength of this team, united with Older’s vision, and they’ve been an excellent combination for what’s turned out to be an exceptional story so far.
Here are a few other things:
- *The giant creature the Junk Mavens summon is a Savrip and I can’t believe I didn’t put it together but…it’s one of the alien fighters in the Millennium Falcon’s dejarik board! That’s a really fun reference and I wish I had picked up on it in the first place.
- †I won’t give anything away, but I do appreciate how the Wave II books coming out at the end of June and July, which include Zeen as a character in at least Race to Crashpoint Tower (per a recent excerpt), manage not to really spoil what explicitly happened between her and Krix. So I was still surprised with how things shook out between them.
- We have a page dedicated to The High Republic, which is where you’ll find all our reviews, news articles, and a list of what content is yet to come!
- Since this is the final issue of the arc, we’ll have an arc review out sometime before the next issue arrives in July!
- And a big welcome back to Star Wars comics to Heather Antos, who was an editor for Marvel’s line for the first few years!
The High Republic Adventures #5 is an excellent conclusion for its first arc, paying off various threads, dealing with the emotional fallout, and setting up for new stories.
+ The dual panels sending off Zeen and Krix storyline in style
+ Consequences of choices
+ Marchion Hunk
+ Yoda’s Vacation Cliffhanger
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.