Three episodes in and Krystina Arielle continues to delight in The High Republic Show, which is as exciting and entertaining for its reveals as it is hilarious and entertaining thanks to its host! The third episode has a great extended chat with creatives working on the comics, a look at an amazing Marchion Ro helmet (when can I get mine?!), a fun video exploring many of the era’s lightsaber hilts, variant cover for Wave II’s books, while it reveals a mystery-laden new comic miniseries, Trail of Shadows! Check out all the details below!
As a big fan of The High Republic comic at Marvel, it was great to have writer Cavan Scott and artist Ario Anindito, joined by Rob Simpson, talk about the series and the era as a whole. Between Into the Dark and the big entrance from the Hutts in the latest issue of the series, it seems we’ll get more and more about them in this era and how they take advantage of the chaos wrought by the Nihil, as Scott promises what we’re seeing so far is basically the pre-title sequence to their involvement. He also reveals Sskeer wasn’t even always in the comic, nor was he even Keeve’s Master for the longest time, but he’s grown vital to the story more and more as time has gone on, while Keeve was with Scott from the first week of planning and central to his part of the story, plus knowing her end makes writing her all the more exciting. Whatever he’s doing with Keeve, it’s working, as I’m a big fan, but so are Simpson and Anindito, who feels like she’s alive when he draws her. It’s an excellent chat about the series, making comics, and how to get into the medium and well worth a watch!
The big reveal this episode of the show is a comic miniseries from writer Daniel José Older, David Wachter on art, colors by Giada Marchisio, and cover art from David López called Trail of Shadows! This sounds like a fun project as it’s a detective story first and foremost, introducing the mystery fiction to the era. Here’s the blurb:
“Following the shocking events of the Republic Fair, the Jedi call upon one of their own, Emerick Caphtor, to investigate a strange mystery with ties to the Jedi Order. At the same time, Chancellor Lina Soh calls upon Sian Holt, a high-end, in-demand private detective to look into the same mystery. But will either solve this riddle before anyone else dies?”
They are keeping the strange mystery under wraps for now, as it’s vital to The Rising Storm‘s story and would be a spoiler, but it seems to have lots of implications for the story and era overall: “The mystery at the center of our story will expose cracks and splinters in the mighty foundation built by the Jedi. The hunt for the truth and the trail that leads to understanding the scope of this threat will not only affect our two detectives but also have ramifications for the entire galaxy.” How about that for freaking ominous!?! Beyond that, we don’t learn too much about the two new characters, Jedi Emerick Caphtor or private detective Sian Holt, but from the sound of things they’ll be worth the wait. There’s no release date yet, but expect it in October.
Other than that, the highlight video of some of the era’s most notable Jedi and their lightsaber hilts was absolutely awesome, and I hope they make those images or the video available separately. Also, the next wave of books have some variant editions to stock up your shelves with. Del Rey Star Wars’ Twitter account has a thread to the two The Rising Storm covers to pre-order, Target’s has Ember, the very good and awesome charhound that joins Padawan Bell Zettifar, so that’s my cover without question (and a Marchion Ro poster), while Barnes & Noble is the standard cover but has a Lina Soh poster. Likewise, Justina Ireland’s Out of the Shadows has two variant covers from Wal-Mart and Target, both featuring Nihil characters, though Target’s has Tempest Runner Lourna Dee (I think I’m going to stick to the regular cover though). If you want to get a sneak peek of the upcoming novel, here’s its first excerpt! UPDATE: There’s another The Rising Storm cover, from Out of Print, that features Stellan Gios and Lourna Dee rushing to face him, and comes with a tote bag. Here are all the covers below:
I’m really hoping the era eventually gets action figures and toys, but while it has some shirts to buy, now I need to be able to have a similar, intense Marchion Ro helmet show in the episode. Like, wow! Hopefully they have some fun announcements for merchandise in the next show, which we have to wait until July for, just after the second wave of novels drops. Check back for our reviews at the end of June, but get a small preview of my non-spoiler thoughts on Twitter.
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.