– Spoiler Review –
As the Pathfinders try to stop more death at the hands of an enigmatic sonic weapon, all signs point to the remote listening station Zirtona. The High Republic Adventures: Pathfinders #4 brings us the team’s most dangerous mission yet, which provides the first answers to the mysteries of the series, though they provide even more intriguing new questions with the promise of answers in the penultimate issue!
While this issue is probably the series’ most straightforward one to date, writer George Mann still found a way to genre-hop once again. Investigating and exploring the seemingly abandoned and lonely Zirtona listening post is a spooky endeavor, feeling like the beginnings of a Resident Evil game or scary movie, with some light, though still impactful traps left by an unseen nemesis. And just when they think they’ve cornered their suspect, another comes along and proves there’s always a bigger fish.
Of the deaths that have happened so far, it’s not involved any of the characters we’ve met or follow in the series. There’s been some threats to our main characters which put them in harm’s way, but nothing felt too impossible to overcome. Somehow, this little listening post does raise the stakes a little, as the non-Jedi contingent of the Pathfinders forges ahead into the station first, resulting in them springing a trap that leaves Morla’s life on a razor’s edge and only Pol, the little Ezal, Anula, and Master Temesh to continue on. They uncover a few traps throughout their journey, including one which triggers the deadly sonic weapon and I was seriously wondering how the heck they’d avoid it, but Pol reveals an interesting part of themselves: they have hearing aids! Turning them off allows them to be the savior of the Jedi, and could prove handy in the final two issues, though I wish this reveal hadn’t been hidden, but I also understand why it was. There have been no hints, as far as I could tell with a quick reread of the series, about Pol having hearing aids, so this comes as a surprise. Yet I get why it wasn’t necessarily forecasted, as it makes for meaningful representation it’s just something Pol lives with and no one acknowledges or notices, making it just a normal aspect of their life. I mean, I’m trying to think of an totally not awkward way to try and shoehorn the revelation in during an earlier issue and nothing’s coming up easy, so in the end I enjoyed this reveal and what it meant for Pol. I just wish, between Morla and Pol, we had gotten to know them better so far, even Anula and Temesh too, as while I like all these characters and want to see them live through the end, I’m not connected to them. This is only a 6-issue miniseries, so there’s only so much room, and with Vix Fonnix coming back, which I am happy about, it does mean less for our main characters as well then.
Regardless, the issue ends with the reveal of who is appears to be directing and using the sonic noise, as well as their insane-level desire for silence. From the solicits and the final page of the issue, we know issue #5 will reveal what happened, so we won’t have to wait for answers but that will cut into getting to know our main characters as well. I have plenty of questions I hope issue #5 can illuminate though: What created this desire for silence? Why make the sonic weapon, something so very loud despite the desire for silence? How or why did the individual they first meet, augmented with droid arms and hooked up to a computer, become the way they did? How is it all related? And how or why did this silence-seeking team kill Jedi Master Atticus Cole and the other comms team?! I’m eager as hell to find out!
Before a different art team jumps on to tell the flashback issue, we still have Caío Filipe on art, colors from Michael Atiyeh, and Comicraft’s Tyler Smith & Bobby Bradford. Of all the moments I want to cover first, it has to be the sound FX by Smith and Bradford when heaps of junk comes dropping out of ports in a hallway ceiling, threatening to flatten both Pol and Anula if they aren’t quick enough. A giant ball of metal trash comes pummeling down towards Pol and Anula, a swirl of various parts and pieces, extraneous debris falling around it, all shown in a great POV for the panel where we’re basically under Pol and Anula, looking up at this scary and heavy blob coming our, and the characters’, way. It feels like there’s no way out, the streaking reds of the general metal blob feeling ominous and heavy. And the next little sliver of a panel is Temesh, yelling out their names, a yellow and orange shock of lines behind him to emphasize his concern, which Filipe around does a great job bringing to life in the open mouth shout and hand outwards and towards the reader, makes it feel like all is lost if even he doesn’t have faith they’ll survive. In the panel that follows, it’s just a bunch of various metal debris falling, set to a white background, and the word “CRASH” is spelt out in orange, compared to the greens and greys of the other items, but drawn as if it’s a collection of metal pieces which fell that way. In the many Star Wars comics I’ve read, it’s rare to see the SFX that looks like part of the scene around them, often they are exaggerated or panel/page revolting images, but having it amongst the other items and trying to blend in, both felt appropriate about how the metal crashing might sound, but also how heavy and unavoidable the trash seemed. The sequence for when the various sonic weapon antennae produce the deafening and destructive sound is an another fantastic moment from the entire team. The SFX for the sound assaulting Anula, Temesh, Pol, and Ezal’s ears is a very chunky bubble letter presentation of the word “WHOOOM”, and it’s so big and foreign to everything around it, it almost feels like it could drop on top of those underneath it, crushing them like the overwhelming noise is now. As Pol reaches up to turn off their hearing aids, the yellow/orange hyperspace-like background colored image around the group is still evident in the panel, but then when they hit the hearing aid button, the SFX is a small and think “CLICK” and then in the following panel, the background is a pleasant, though silent blue, to denote Pol is no longer afflicted like the others. On the following page, we get little panels of Temesh, Anula, and Ezal’s pain, but Pol zeroes in, determined to help their friends. It leads to half a splash of Pol looking very heroic, various shades of purple behind them and cape billowing around them, while they seemingly are only taking one blaster shot in the middle of the page, yet the little panels around them showcasing how much of a badass their aim was with all the destroyed droids was a great look.
Here are a few other things:
- Unfortunately, SDCC was not as flush with High Republic news I was hoping/dreaming, with the only update was Phase More is still happening/coming. From what I’ve heard through rumors, let’s just say I hope NYCC is the moment they get to unveil some of these projects, as fans will be most pleased, methinks!
- For now, the Pathfinders‘ release schedule largely holds: issue #5 heads our way on September 9; and the finale issue #6 hits October 21. I’ll be keeping the release schedule section of our High Republic page updated as soon as possible if there are any changes!
The High Republic Adventures: Pathfinders #4 goes for the spooky, abandoned station approach and sets us up for the big flashback issue and a dangerous finale to follow.
+ Spooky exploration with promise of answers ahead in the final two issues
+ Some stellar art puts us in danger and hides its SFX in plain sight
– The new character spotlight just might not get as far as I’d hope
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him and the website on Bluesky.
DISCLOSURE: I received a copy of this comic 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.