– Spoiler Review –
The flexibility of the Jedi Knights series continues to be tested, going from a big kaiju story, to a fun and twisty caper, and now a darker tone as a meditation between companies turns into an unexpected rescue mission, tying the series into a fateful moment in Count Dooku and Yaddle’s lives.
Though long teased by writer Marc Guggenheim, it’s still a bit of a shock to see Jedi Knights cold open issue #5 with the fateful final moments of Yaddle’s life at the hands of Count Dooku, as seen in his Tales of the Jedi episode, “The Sith Lord.” In the episode, we see Dooku’s fall to the dark side cemented with Yaddle’s death, as while he already left the Order as told by Dooku: Jedi Lost, he didn’t immediately turn to the dark side and become a full-fledged Sith, later finding himself wrapped into Darth Sidious’ web and diving deeper into the Sith Master’s plans. In Jedi Knights #5, the main story of the issue takes place in the series’ present, which finds Jedi Master Yaddle and Jedi Knight Seera Longa meditating a dispute between two corporations, with their investigation into the actual truth leading them into a fateful meeting with Count Dooku. Guggenheim does a great job with the script, building in some levity after the dark opening, and then with how he subtly includes the information readers need, like understanding Dooku’s standing with the Order despite leaving, as well as where he is on his journey towards joining the dark side. But what really stands out is how this all combines into providing additional emotional context to the Tales of the Jedi episode, as of the two characters, Yaddle’s had the least amount of screen or book time, though The High Republic has offered Yaddle quite the expansion these past few years, and learning more about how she views and responds to the Force and those around her makes her fateful death all the more intriguing for both characters. I jumped right into “The Sith Lord” after finishing the issue and I highly urge all readers to do the same, as Jedi Knights #5 compliments the episode so well, giving it more emotional depth, as it deals with my biggest critique of it, the lack of history between Dooku and Yaddle, while also providing motivation for her confronting Dooku instead of trying to leave and warn others earlier. There have been recent stories which overlap or overtake the original version of a moment, but this shows how to add and build on what’s come before, not take away, and I hope the franchise can learn from Guggenheim’s work here.
What also really makes the connection between these two stories work is how the art team of Madibek Musabekov, colorist Luis Guerrero, and letterer Clayton Cowles honor the aesthetics and mood of the animated episode but make it their own at the same time. They easily could’ve traced the episode for a few stills and called it a day, and while it’s clear which shots they were all most inspired by, it’s all done in Musabekov’s own styling so it melds the story into the comics more. Guerrero is key to making the whole thing work, as while the episode is already dark and moody, music helping a ton, he takes the darkness and feeds into it, bringing it out and snuffing much of the background in the process, with light barely highlighting Yaddle or Dooku, deep shadows on or around them. Cowles’ narration boxes and bubbles don’t try to mess with the sense of darkness much, with the placement of Yaddle’s words on one side of Dooku and his response on the other side of him, showing the divide which will never be mended in this moment, helps give the scene the weight it had in the episode. That all this darkness and shadows persists on the first page but then the team goes big and bright on the second, a splash of Dooku swinging his blade down to end Yaddle’s life, it’s where Dooku’s true colors shine through, while Cowles’ sound FX punctuates the fateful decision by Dooku and ensures readers don’t forget it as the story steers back into the series’ present. The variety of Wookiees was a distinct and interesting feature from Musabekov, with Guerrero coloring them with different fur to help readers tell them apart but it really wasn’t too necessary. The sequence of Dooku’s escape was my favorite artistic part of the issue, especially since I appreciated the misleading moment of him recalling his lightsaber with the Force, as the first panel focuses on his hand, reaching out, then its initial movement in the next panel, and then it gets a big close-up, ignited now, moving faster, and it makes it seem like it’s going to come to his hand, free him, but on the next page we see it first impales one of the Wookiees holding him, Cowles’ SFX with a grossly satisfying “shunk” followed by a large howl of shock and surprise to really hammer home Dooku’s deadly tactics.
Here are a few other things:
- I’m glad we got Seera Longa back, but where as Vetna Mooncrest got to do more in her issue, Seera didn’t feel like much more than a audience insert and I hope she’ll get fleshed out more in the future.
- I’m glad Mollie from Star Wars Explained pointed it out, as it certainly felt familiar, but the creative team slipped in a funny reference to the meme of the cat at the dinner table and the woman shouting/pointing at it in Nute Gunray and Quillan Zarro’s quarrel .
- We know issue #6 in July finds Mace Windu, Aayla Secura, and Qui-Gon Jinn investigating a Jedi’s death, but now that we have issue #7’s solicitation for its September release, it’s clear the series is returning to the connective thread of Qui-Gon’s would-be assassin. It’s been a joy to get all this interesting variety, but I am eager and interested to see how Guggenheim develops Corlis Rath’s story more.
- By the next time we check in with this series in August, SDCC will have taken place, so while there’s no confirmed Publishing Panel yet, I wouldn’t be surprised they have one and we’ll likely know more about the future of this and the other current series!
Jedi Knights #5 does a stellar job weaving the connective tissue of different mediums.
+ Building on and adding to what’s come before
+ Art team matches the show’s mood and then focuses on its own
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him and the website on Bluesky.
JEDI KNIGHTS REVIEWS
Vol. 1 “Guardians of the Republic”: #1 | #2 | #3 | #4