2022 has been a pretty eventful year for The High Republic, even if it only released across 6 of the 12 months. 2022 started with the finale to Phase I that saw Starlight Beacon fallen and story left on a cliffhanger and the year ended with the beginning of Phase II, the 150 years extra blast to the past for extra context to the era’s story. The High Republic Show and the affable Krystina Arielle have been there for us through the big moments and the quiet in-betweens, feeding us many feasts of content and now they have one last holiday gift for us with this year end show! There’s a peak behind Dark Horse’s content, author discussions, and the requisite reveals, Character Encyclopedia anyone!?, but I’ve also included some other recent news, like another author roundtable and previews galore. Head below for the High Republic year end extravaganza before we return early 2023 with our The Battle of Jedha review!
Dark Horse not being part of Star Wars comics back in 2015 might’ve been a shock for many, but 2022 saw them finally return and contributing to the High Republic era as part of their new content. THRS started off, after the usual recap or tease of recent events, with a look behind the panels for their return, having both Matt Dryer, the Star Wars Editor for DH and Sanjay Dharawat, Assistant Editor. Their excitement for working on Star Wars comics is palpable, especially considering their connection to DH’s earlier contributions as fans. They tease how Daniel José Older’s The High Republic Adventures – Phase II will give us a lot more of Maz than we’ve ever seen before, while the excitement is real for Dexter Jettster’s time on the series, as we saw in the stellar opening issue; the second one will be out January, with issue #3 to follow in February, the cover for which was revealed in the show (see above). I also really liked Dryer’s thoughts on how awesome it is that THRA could be someone’s first Star Wars anything, because if it’s anything like Phase I’s THRA, those new (and old) fans have quite the treat ahead of them. Lastly, they teased the 2023 Free Comic Book Day issue, which will serve as an epilogue to Phase I’s story and characters to tide us over before Phase III returns by the end of the year. See the first glimpse of a panel (on the right) with some lovely, familiar faces!
In this episode of the show, there’s a roundtable with authors Zoraida Córdova and Charles Soule, plus Lucasfilm Publishing Editor Emeli Juhlin (welcome to the show!), while just last week the official site had a roundtable as well with the remaining new Phase II authors beyond Córdova, like Lydia Kang, George Mann, and Tessa Gratton, plus Lucasfilm Publishing’s Creative Director Michael Siglain. Out of the two, one of my favorite comments comes from Zoraida, where she mentions how fragile peace is when it’s not tended to and how the initiative has been showing that, a great way to tie in and sum up how it’s been providing messages that go beyond the page and into our world.
Zoraida gets to talk a bit about Convergence since its release in November, talking about how she wanted to focus on the heirs to ground the broad story, the way the Path of the Open Hand can sneak in with their “gifts freely given” when the two planets Eiram and E’ronoh’s war causes desperation for both sides, and getting to write a space battle for the novel’s opening. It doesn’t take long for the Show and the site’s roundtable to feature Axel Greylark, the son of Chancellor Kyong Greylark, herself one of two Chancellors. He’s a different type of rogue, someone Lydia Kang and Zoraida worked on together, and he’s an imperfect person so they feel like people can relate to him, while Convergence and later Cataclysm (novel by Kang out in 2023) show how the person nurturing him has focused in on and forced him to scratch the hurt inside. I will say he’s definitely one of my favorite new characters of the era, as I’ve found him fascinating and can’t wait to see where his journey goes next, especially since Cataclysm‘s cover sees him with Jedi Knight Gella Nattai’s lightsaber and I don’t quite know how or why it could happen! Speaking of Gella, they mentioned how Convergence is her getting a crash course in street smarts, but we also got to see some concept art by what looks like Ario Anindito…either it means she’ll feature in Marvel’s The High Republic – Phase II at some point or it’s just part of the character study process like we saw in the beautiful “Art of” book!
In both roundtables, there’s a lot of talk about kissing and romance, and while not bad things and can be part of stories, the seeming focus on it leaves a lot to be desired. As Eleven Thirty-Eight contributor and all-around great person (who was gracious enough to help with our Phase I retrospective article) James has put in their Twitter thread, this is a concerning trend because it ignores the aromatic spectrum, especially aro (aromatic: romantic orientation generally characterized by not feeling romantic attraction or a desire for romance) and ace (asexual: sexual orientation generally characterized by not feeling sexual attraction or a desire for partnered sexuality). Romance or the desire for it doesn’t make a character interesting nor does it have to always be the focus, and while we’ve had characters in Phase I who were along these spectrums, like Vernestra Rwoh and Leox Gyasi, it doesn’t help the small amount of representation if it’s not usually called into the focus over romance. I don’t believe there’s any ill-intent by the authors either, but one can hope they are considering it as well beyond the romantic aspect of the franchise and among the many other pieces of representation they are pushing forward.
Looking ahead at 2023 and its remaining Phase II content, for starters we have George Mann teasing a bit of The Battle of Jedha audiobook, the first excerpt of which released last week and revealed the expansive cast, while Emeli likes Keth and Kradon in the upcoming release; I’m currently working on my review, so it should be out before January 3! I also really enjoyed Mann’s simple yet effective approach to writing middle grade novels, as Quest for the Hidden City was excellent, so it was nice to hear Emeli hype up Quest for Planet X and its connectivity with Mann’s entry, carrying over characters like Padawan Rooper and prospector Dass. She also said to look out for Marda Ro, especially her appearance in Path of Vengence, the final book entry in Phase II. Soule spent a good amount of his time on the upcoming The Blade miniseries, revealing how eager he is to exploring Porter Engle’s blade-slinging past and surprise us. We just got a taste of the miniseries with a recent preview, giving us our first glimpse at what Soule hopes the art team of Marco Castiello and Jethro Morales will bring to truly making Porter’s blade work unique and memorable. He also touches on Porter’s “sister” Barash and how her name is certainly inspiration for the Barash Vow he introduced in canon many years ago; he wouldn’t commit if we’d see why and how in The Blade itself, but we’ll certainly understand it afterwards. Lastly, he teased a new character to watch out for that appears in issue #2, General Vice (I might be off on the spelling), saying they are someone to keep an eye on.
In the official site’s roundtable, we learned a rough timeline for two of the stories in the mega Young Adult Anthology arriving ahead of Phase III in 2023 that contains stories across the era and Phases. Siglain revealed Zoraida’s will take place prior to Convergence, while Claudia Gray’s will be one day after Starlight Beacon’s fall. The Anthology arrives in September, with Phase III to follow shortly after: November 2023!!
The big reveal for the final THRS of the year is the Character Encyclopedia from DK Publishing, written by two names that should be familiar to fans: Amy Richau (Star Wars Timelines, SW Insider, Star Wars Updated and Expanded Character Encyclopedia) and Megan Crouse (the official site, SW Insider, Den of Geek)!! Featuring over 250 characters, this comes out sometime in 2023, and should be a important resource alongside Phase III sure to be epically sized story. Love the cover from Phil Noto, which focuses mainly on Phase I characters but includes some Phase II and even has the Drengir and Nameless on it.
We also got covers for issues #6 and #7 of The High Republic – Phase II series from Marvel, both out in March. There’s only 10 issues this run, so it looks to be wrapping up no later than June thanks to this double issue month.
And that’s about it! We’ll be back next week at the Manor for reviews of the year’s final THR comics and then back early the following week with The Battle of Jedha reviews as well! Have some great holidays and a new year!!
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.