The High Republic Adventures series from Dark Horse looks to be the incubator for a lot of stories in Phase III of the High Republic, as while there’s already some one-shots and a miniseries, TWO new miniseries have been officially announced/revealed recently: Echoes of Fear and Dispatches from the Occlusion Zone! While one was revealed due to advanced comic solicitations, both got the grand reveal at the Portsmouth Comic Con, where the team also showed off some covers and interiors for other upcoming works, as well as setting a hard date on when the entirety of Phase III will end: June 2025! It might seem sooner than we’d all hope, but it’s sort of nice to know to plan ahead with tissue purchases. Head below for all the new reveals and details!
The High Republic Adventures: Echoes of Fear starts August 21 and will be a 4-issue miniseries, written by George Mann, illustrated by Vincenzo Riccardi (who brought some frightening images to Tales from the Death Star),Michael Atiyeh on colors (who is behind many of the Dark Horse Star Wars coloring duties), and lettered by Comicraft (aka Jimmy Betancourt & Tyler Smith, as always for Star Wars Dark Horse content), with cover art by Eduardo Mello (who previously did the interiors for Mann’s Phase II miniseries: The High Republic Adventures – The Nameless Terror). This one is of GREAT interest to fans because it follows up on The High Republic Adventures – Quest of the Jedi from Phase II, filling in the backstory of the mystical Echo Stones which Barnabus Vim had hidden and are largely believed to be what’s on the Nameless control rods Marchion Ro uses, while it also gives us a chance to go far back and enjoy a story starring the Sith for once. Here’s the official blurb from the press release {and a big thanks to Dark Horse for using a quote from me in it!}:
“Jedi Knight Reath Silas and Jedi Padawan Amadeo Azzazzo are charged with delving into the Jedi Archives to learn more about the mysterious Echo Stones and their Force-amplifying powers. Their journey will ultimately lead them outside the safety of the Jedi Archives into a perilous adventure. In their search, they uncover the dark legend of the ancient Sith Lord Darth Ravi, and his quest to solve an ancient puzzle that could grant him power beyond all-imagination…or destroy him.”
As I said in my July 2024 comic solicitations, where Echoes of Fear was advanced solicited, this miniseries will overlap in release with George Mann’s September 24 Tears of the Nameless, which charges Reath and Amadeo with testing theories against the Nameless, with fallen Jedi Azlin Rell at their side! Could this be a prequel, showing what gave them the ideas, as I imagine Echoes of Fear will use Reath and Amadeo as the framing story while Darth Ravi’s quest in the past will make up most of each issue? Either way, both stories sound frightening excellent and I’m excited for them both! Plus, featuring a Sith in one gives me hope my theory about the Sith taking center stage in the next publishing initiative after The High Republic ends might just be correct!!
As for The High Republic Adventures – Dispatches from the Occlusion Zone, it’s a new miniseries kicking off in October 2024 which will have 4-issues as well, written by Daniel José Older, Alyssa Wong, and Cavan Scott (it’s not clear if there’s one more author or if Older will be writing two)! The cover for issue #1 is by artist Jake Bartok, whose fan work I’ve tried to link to every so often as it’s rather excellent, so it’s awesome to see him get to do an official piece for the era!! Make sure to follow him on Twitter and Instagram! While it’s no surprise we’ll have Older writing an issue, as he’s typically behind any THRA project, it’s great to see both Scott and Wong having their own issues as well. Especially Alyssa Wong, who we at the Manor, and tons of fans elsewhere, have missed dearly since the ending of their Doctor Aphra (Vol. 2) run earlier this year. We don’t know who they are writing, but Crash Ongwa was based off them and they’ve written her before, so maybe their issue will have more to do with Crash and her team, as well as Rue (who stars on a Pride Cover for Marvel’s variants), whom Wong introduced in their Tales of Light and Life story, since the second Crash-focused one-shot is out in August, a few months before this series begins. As for Scott, who is behind the already stellar Saber for Hire miniseries, he took to a newsletter to reveal he’ll be writing Keeve Trennis and Ty Yorrick together (set after the end of Saber for Hire), though the latter has joined Ty in a unique way: Keeve no longer will have the title of Jedi Master?! Since Dooku: Jedi Lost introduced a Master Keeve as one of the Lost Twenty Jedi, Scott played coy for a while if it was her or not, but the tooka-cat’s been out of the bag for awhile now, so we know it’ll happen sooner than later: his The High Republic – Phase III comic for Marvel seems to be over at issue #10, which would be out in August, and the audiobook Tempest Breaker is out in December, and his issue of Dispatches from the Occlusion Zone is the last, so it would be out in January, meaning her leaving the Order is probably happening in Breaker. Of all the people to hang out with after such a decision, Ty’s the right one, at least! I have a sense Dispatches from the Occlusion Zone is sort of their way of giving some endings for certain characters, as they might not show up in the final Wave of stories in 2025, but we’ll see! As for why we still have an Occlusion Zone for dispatches to arrive from, better read Temptation of the Force when it hits June 11 (our review is out May 28) to prepare for this second Wave of Phase III!
As for what else was at the convention, here’s a few links to Fantha Tracks’ coverage:
- There was some previews for issue #2 and already issue #3 of Saber for Hire.
- They also showed a preview for The High Republic #8 – Phase III.
- Character studies for Crash and her crew in their second one-shot, The High Republic Adventures – Crash and Burn #1, by artist Nick Brokenshire.
- It’s a little thing, but I ADORE these giant logos for the Phases, makes them feel more epic, and wish they were using them more widely (first image in the link).
- And lastly, and most importantly, the news June 2025 will see the end of Phase III. Lucasfilm Publishing Creative Director Michael Siglain already has a memoriam in waiting (or he’s a master troller), while he’s recently teased again they already an idea what’s next (and I’m still betting on my Sith-focused era).
That’s all the news for now, but don’t forget the High Republic era is coming to live-action on June 4 with the premiere of The Acolyte, so I can’t wait to see what references might be hiding for fans to catch!
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.