– Spoiler Review –
Keeve Trennis returns to the forefront of The High Republic comic from Marvel in its Phase III iteration, this time a Jedi Master following the events of Phase I, but does being a Master ever prepare anyone for what’s still to come? Find out in The High Republic #1 – Phase III, where Trennis and her crew are thrust into stalling the Nihil helping the Hutts in a thrilling and action-packed, yet somewhat too fast issue!
When we last saw Jedi Knight Keeve Trennis, The High Republic #15 – Phase I (technically, but more on that later), she’d finally found the strength inside herself to be the hero everyone thought she could be, holding up a Jedi she once looked up to, Avar Kriss, after they barely made it off Starlight Beacon alive together. While we don’t know anything which transpired for her in the year since, besides a mission she took sometime before the events of this series in Cavan Scott’s Tales of Light and Life short story. when we pick up with her in this issue, she’s a Jedi Master, yet despite her new role and her progress, she can’t stop seeing her Master’s final moments, or guessing at them, when he sacrificed himself to the Nameless prowling the station to help her live to fight for Light and Life another day. Losing Sskeer (as far as we know…) and so many others weighs on her still, but she’s in the thick of things in this Phase of the era regardless, patrolling the edges of the Stormwall, a seemingly impenetrable barrier Marchion Ro and the Nihil placed over a section of the Outer Rim. She’s doing so alongside Commander Jahen, who once served on Starlight Beacon, and a few other Jedi, like Terec and Ceret, the Kotabi bond-twins who are anything but bonded now after surviving their run-in with the Nameless, Santar, who was on Mulita fighting the Drengir, and Ai-dan, a new character. No sooner do we learn all that then the issue thrusts us into the story, revealing a lot’s been happening with the Hutts in the year since and now Keeve and her group are tasked with stopping the Nihil from helping the crime lords maintain their sectors against Republic Defense Coalition forces. The Hutts sort of made a deal with the Republic and Jedi during Phase I, as seen in The High Republic Adventures #7 – Phase I, so I’m curious what, beyond typical Hutt backstabbing, brought about the change? Was it losing much of the planets it controls behind the Stormwall, as is mentioned this issue, that brought them to push away the Republic to keep what little was left? It all happens a little too fast that I was left trying to understand what’s going on, but I know better than to be impatient about the answers, as Scott has more than proven these things will become clearer as time goes on.
The issue leaves Keeve and team behind to visit Ballum next, where we see the Nihil emissary, alongside a mysterious being walking a chained Nameless creature, arrive to begin negotiations with Skarabda the Hutt. She’s not eager to make any deals with the Nihil, especially when her own mysterious enforcer engages in a quick fight with the Nihil’s mysterious enforcer, coming out on top by disarming the masked (maybe) Nihil. This temporary show of might doesn’t last long, as Keeve and their Longbeam the Gios arrive, with the Hutts rushing to attack the Republic ship. Terec, Ceret, and Ai-Dan take to Vectors to fight off the ships while Keeve and Santar join the ground assault, alongside RDC forces. The two mysterious enforcers are in the thick of battle, the Skarabda’s riding a strange new creature and the Nihil’s, who we learn is named Brother Lycos, unleashing the Nameless. It seems the RDC and Jedi have been planning for such a situation (which I liked hearing), calling immediately for the Jedi to retreat due to the Nameless’ presence, but Santar, already a hothead from the little we’ve met him this issue, doesn’t want them to lose this fight and, in Stellan’s name, goes to take out the Nameless. It unsurprisingly wins the fight, knocking him out of the sky as he leaps towards it, and then proceeds to turn him to a husk, Keeve unable to avoid seeing Sskeer in her mind in the same way. As much as she’s a Master and found confidence in herself, she’s still not sure she’s fit for such a role and those doubts rise to the surface, even more so when Lycos grabs her with what looks like the Drengir tentacles (?!) and prevents her from escaping, the Nameless growing near. Terec hears this and rushes to her rescue, blasting away the Nameless with their Vector, but the victory comes at a cost, with Lycos jumping insanely high onto Terec’s ship, breaking through the cockpit and bringing it smashing down to the ground! Is Terec actually dead? Is Lycos as well? And what is he?! We know from the cover and solicitation for issue #2, out December, Lycos is a ‘Children of the Storm,’ while the official site’s Databank recently updated* and revealed Baron Boolan, once a Little in the Path of the Open Hand from Phase II, is now in charge of strange experiments on Marchion Ro’s behalf, including stuff with the Nameless and creating Jedi hunters to bring in Jedi for more. Without spoiling anything, we get a little insight into Boolan’s efforts in The Eye of Darkness novel, which we’ve already reviewed but is out November 14, and seeing what he’s done here with Lycos, it looks like it’s going to be even more difficult for the Jedi to come out top in this Phase! What has Boolan done to Lycos that gives him such abilities, including Drengir tentacles?! And is Lycos a new character or someone we’ve met…like say a descendant of Tey Sirrek from Scott’s The High Republic – Phase II run, given they have similar ears? While I’m looking for clarity on the Hutt intrigue, I’m more enamored with finding out more about Lycos and his ilk!
The battle in space takes a similarly dark turn, as more ships are lost and Ceret is paralyzed over the seeming loss of their bond-twin and the arrival of the Ataraxia, once the flagship of the Jedi, now turned against them!! But who would be diabolical enough to take something of the Jedi’s and make it their greatest threat? Keeve, already down, is knocked over by the Hutts’ enforcer’s creature, and then the person dismounts, revealing a familiar, deadly face: LOURNA DEE!! I mistook the cover of this issue to mean they were working together somehow, but one should never judge a comic by its cover. It seems Lourna has been VERY busy in the year since Starlight’s fall and I am eager to learn more about what she has up her sleeves! Such an unpredictable character has been fun to watch, even despite her actions hurting my favorites, and I prepared for more of both in Phase III.
As I mentioned earlier, we’ve seen Keeve since the end of Phase I, not only in Tales of Light and Life, but in Scott’s Yoda maxiseries, where its final issue doubled down on Yoda’s words in Dooku: Jedi Lost about how sad it was to lose Master Trennis by having her in a Force vision where she’s angry over him leaving her to her fate! Mull on that in months ahead, folks, because Keeve’s story is heading towards such a moment and I don’t know if I’m ready for it, despite all this preparation.
Bringing all this insanity, in a good way, to life on the page is Ario Anindito and Jim Towe on art, with Mark Morales inking for Anindito, while Jim Campbell provides colors and Ariana Maher is back as letterer! It’s quite the team and it shows in every page, while I really appreciated how, and while I feel like I’ve been saying this lately it’s good thing I can, Anindito and Towe’s work blends really well together, to the point I’m only vaguely sure which pages are Towe’s over Anindito’s in some cases. There’s a strength in vision here shared between the two in bringing this story to life which makes me even more confident about what’s to come. The opening few pages are classic Anindito and Morales horror, ghastly images of Sskeer struggling with the Nameless, their glowing eyes and dangling tenatcled beards appearing from the shadows, Campbell balancing the shadows and giving just enough detail in colors, while Maher’s sound FXs sound powerful for Sskeer’s struggles but seem ineffectual regardless, while the narration boxes see a downward movement, pulling us down into the shadows along Sskeer. The quick and brutal battle between Lycos and Lourna in Skarabda’s hall is a great sequence, as we feel the suddenness of their initial strikes towards one another as Lourna’s electrified blade and Lycos’ teethy blade is the epicenter to Campbell’s colors, an explosive bit of blue to match Lourna’s attack, while Maher’s SFX is crunched together to feel short and sudden, while the blades clashing leads us down to the next panel, where Lycos uses his chains for a follow-up strike, and he barely dodges Lourna’s response swing. Two panels later on the next page the fight is over, Lourna slamming Lycos’ hand so he drops the blade, it’s “thukk” into the ground a note of finality to their short fight. The sequence when Lycos jumps to Terec’s ship is also fast and swift in its art, with a great swooshing effect in the art and Maher’s SFX making his jump explosive, followed by the confident landing on the Vector, a hearty “thdd” denoting he’s on and not going anywhere, the tendrils snaking out from his back giving him the visual of a parasite, like he doesn’t belong on the Vector like this. It’s a pretty foregone conclusion when Lourna dismounts her creature and pulls back her hood, revealing head-tails covered in metal (maybe beskar to avoid any more Jedi chops?), but I love how they withhold her face for the final page, as the panel beforehand shows us a shocked Keeve, recovering from being knocked over, while Lourna’s holding the mask out in front of her, our perspective behind her, allowing for her to pull a Jedi and toss off her robes for the final page, a glee-fully dementing smile as she makes herself known. The final panel is a close-up on Keeve’s eyes, but it’s a far different look than the surprise we saw her with last page, but rather determination, if not some anger, as she shouts Lourna’s name. Lourna’s design is great, from all the extra armor she has on her, while we see she has a new robotic hand, while there’s clearly a powerpack for her electrified blade. Keeve’s design is also such a good new look, her dreads dangling loosely as she meditates then tightly wound in a top knot when she’s ready for a mission, though some still hang to the side, flowing here and there. Terec (RIP, maybe) and Ceret are easier to tell apart due to the cybernetic implants, as Terec has one on the side of their skull and Ceret has one around their neck, giving us a clear and quick way to see how much they’ve changed, to give their lack of connection a physical aspect.
Here are a few other things:
- This wasn’t Cavan Scott’s only High Republic content released this week, his very first episode of Young Jedi Adventures, “Charhound Chase” premiered on Disney+! I checked it out and it’s amazing to see Bell Zettifar, Loden Greatstorm, and Ember come to life in such a way, while it’s a fun little adventure which shows Bell is more than a worthy successor to Greatstorm’s teachings. There’s a lovely interview with the YJA team, and Scott, about the latest batch of episodes on the official site.
- Speaking of the official site, they released Scott and George Mann interviewing each other about High Republic! It’s such a lovely chat, as you really see their friendship shine through, and it has all sorts of goodies in there, talking about Avar Kriss and Keeve’s journeys, teases of what’s to come, and other little insights into the era. Definitely go give it a read!!
- Peek ahead at some great variant covers for issue #2 of this series, out December 20, that includes what looks like a young Keeve with Sskeer…are we getting some flashbacks next issue?!
- *Revealed last week was new concept art of our heroes and villains, while the official site’s Databank included some more new faces/updated art.
- Minecraft, the wildly popular game, received a Star Wars expansion called Path of the Jedi, and it includes a High Republic reference with the Temple’s Kyber Arch!
The High Republic #1 – Phase III might be a whirlwind, but its pages are full of thrilling, emotional encounters and enticing mysteries and cliffhangers I can’t wait to find out more about! It’s kriffing great to be back!
+ Keeve is back!!
+ Lycos and those like him set a dangerous precedent
+ Lourna Dee and danger are back as well!
+ Unified vision in the art department make this a visually exciting issue to read
– Minor confusion about some background details
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.