– Spoiler Review –
The High Republic Adventures #6 – Phase III follows a time-honored tradition for the series: a well-deserved calm before the storm moment!
After issue #5’s bombshell declaration of love between Lula Talisola and Zeen Mrala, the latter of which chose to leave the Jedi Order in the process, the lack of narration from Lula for a few issues was starting to feel like a problem,* but thankfully issue #6 is overfilled with it, giving us the much needed insight into her perspective again. It’s through Lula we get to see how everyone else is reacting to her decisions, be it her Master or her friends, and with how the issue unfolds showing how it doesn’t seem like much has changed, dynamics-wise, we get to better understand their acceptance as well. The issue kicks off with her going over what she can remember, very little, and what it felt like to make her decision to choose Zeen over the order, it felt right, and then how her Master and friends did, sort of feeling like a decent place to jump on for readers (but they’d be missing out on some fantastic stuff though!). As much as I enjoyed getting this sort of summary, I found it even more interesting how, despite her lost or hazy memories, or finally getting to choose Zeen, Lula’s still focused on helping the galaxy, partly to avoid what happened to her happening to others, and is eager to see the Nihil, with their stain on the galaxy, brought to an end. It’s hard to argue she still isn’t a Jedi despite her choice to leave, as she’s still willing to put her life on the line for light and life and she’s focused on the here and now, but I guess time will tell if her attachment to Zeen will cause any issues along the way, though given her history and Zeen herself, I don’t think either would allow that to happen. There’s a first test of her commitment when a friendly game of what looks like space rugby is cut short first by a priority message from Master Yoda, warning them the Stormwall has expanded and they are on the edge, followed shortly by the arrival of the Nihil themselves!
Before we get into that, I just want to acknowledge how this issue continues the tradition of a well-deserved calm before the storm moment, as I mentioned in the intro. In Phase I, issue #11 had the Great Jedi Rumble Race before the big two-part finale, as well as the Galactic Bake-off Spectacular issue, and then Phase II sort of has it in issue #4, where Sav Malagán infiltrates the enemy and makes a friend along the way. In this issue, everyone involved with the rescue of the prisoners from the Nihil ship, including the prisoners themselves, all get together to play a friendly, yet competitive space rugby game, allowing those who were captured a chance to feel like part of a team again and those who lead the rescue a moment to work together on something non-life threatening. For readers, it’s a breather too, one where we get Lula’s much wanted point-of-view follow-up and get to see those who were in prison a chance to find joy again. It’s not often we’re privy to such moments, so it’s much appreciated Older always finds the time for us and the characters and hey, probably a little for himself too.
I’ll admit, I felt like I lost track of when we last saw the Jedi cruiser which helped opened Phase I of this series, the Star Hopper, but since we hadn’t revisited it since Phase III started, I wasn’t too worried about it. And now here it is, arriving above the skies of Eriadu moments after Yoda tells them the Order will come to help them evacuate, but it’s not the home of Padawan learning like it used to be, as the Nihil have taken over!! It’s the Warden from the prison ship they just dismantled, with Driggit Parse and Nihil minions, and they’re here to send a message, to psyche them out, but Lula sees this as an opportunity, jumping into action followed closely by Zeen, Farzala, Qort, and 5A-G3! It’s a very fun scene, the group hopping on some old, janky looking speeder and flying up to board the ship, Lula claiming this is their chance to get a Path engine to help with Stormwall travel, as we get to see them all together, working like they have in the past, with the added element of Lula and Zeen free to express their feelings about one another. The Warden runs away before they can get too close or board and then Lula reveals her true intentions with their little show of force: psychological warfare back at them! With the Nihil gone for now, the group returns to play more space rugby, as even a moment of intimidation is a little win and, as they await help from the Order, why not relax for a little longer.
Harvey Tolibao returns on pencils/inks, with Le Beau Underwood inking as well, and they join forces with colorist Michael Atiyeh and letterers Tyler Smith & Jimmy Betancourt! There’s two pages later in the issue I want to focus on, the first being when Qort and Farzala jump on top of their Solo-esque looking speeder to block fire from the converted Star Hopper and the following page, where Lula and Zeen share a cute moment before joining their friends on top of the ship, 5A-G3 taking over piloting. In the first page, following Qort’s question if their speeder-ship had shields, we get pulled in by Smith & Betancourt’s “…WE DO!” shout from Farzala, taking us to the two young men wildly waving their sabers, blaster fire reflecting away from them or explosions lighting the sky behind them, and this forward momentum pulls down to Lula, Zeen, and G3 in the cockpit, looking assured and safe thanks to their friends, the perspective on the ship pulling us further down the page, where the Warden breaks through the bottom panel, Driggit’s speech bubble catching us and taking us across the Nihil’s manic situation despite being the larger ship. In a way, by making their panel so small on this page, and the little ship of the Jedi and friends taking up so much space, it makes it look like the larger ship, like they outnumber and out-power the Nihil. Atiyeh’s colors are vivid in the action heavy scene, the darker, fiery explosions giving us the sense of how deadly and frantic the blasts are coming, fresh and as fast as the Jedi can block them. The next page we aren’t immediately dissuaded by the notion the speeder and its Force-wielding occupants, as we close in on Lula and Zeen, sharing a cute moment realizing they can admit their feelings whenever they want, and the sky outside doesn’t give much hint at the chaos we saw last panel, as they are relatively safe thanks to the unbeatable duo of Farzala and Qort. Lula and Zeen’s little smiles to one another, with their respective hair and tendrils waving madly in the wind, with Aityeh’s soft colors for each, aid the sweetness of the moment, even if G3 cuts through with one of her usual odd, yet funny comments. In the midst of their conversation, they are climbing out to the top of their vehicle, which is when the final panel reveals the reality of the situation, despite the enlargement of their ship only a page before: the Star Hopper looms menacingly in front of them, their ship barely taking up any space against the other’s massive size. There’s a ton of detail to the Star Hopper, but every ounce of it seems spent to make it look like it’s menacing as all hell, glaring down at the little fly in front of it, ready to swat it away…yet it’s the one that jumps to hyperspace when the Force-users attempt to jump aboard!
Here are a few other things:
- *I’d like to say I was being heard for my calls for more Lula narration, but these issues were written long before I even get a chance to read them/post a review!
- Older initially teased a masked character glimpsed in the prison might be important going forward and we see them playing the space rugby with everyone this issue, even learning their name: Sevran. Curious to see what else is to come of the character…
- With the recent reveal The High Republic – Phase III from Marvel was wrapping up with its tenth issue, it’s reassuring to see The High Republic Adventures – Phase III’s tenth issue isn’t its last (and HUGE congrats to Uzuri with the variant cover!!), so maybe this will continue until closer to Phase III’s overall end in June 2025!
- The High Republic Adventures – Phase III is home to a lot of stories thanks to several miniseries/one-shots either newly announced or ones we already knew were on the way: The High Republic Adventures – Saber for Hire, which follows Ty Yorrick’s latest monster hunting expedition taking a surprising turn (its second issue also came out 5/29); The High Republic Adventures – Crash and Burn #1, the sequel to Crash Landing #1, is out in August; The High Republic Adventures – Echoes of Fear miniseries, starting in August as well, which was revealed thanks to solicitations but got a more official announcement recently, will see the series exploring the strange Echo Stones; and lastly The High Republic Adventures – Dispatches from the Occlusion Zone, another miniseries kicking off in October, this one from different writers, each issue focusing on something different. LOTS of Adventures to enjoy!
- Almost all the Luminous authors behind The High Republic initiative were at the May 23 premiere of The Acolyte, while one fan artist helped make them all appear via hologram and The High Republic Show host Krystina Arielle joined them as well!
The High Republic Adventures #6 – Phase III brings us a chance to catch up with Lula and see our favorites together again, enjoying light and life, if only for a moment.
+ Lula’s thoughts fill in some blanks (for readers)
+ Intimidation Escalation
+ Art imbues sizes matter not into its pages
– Makes it seem like prison wasn’t that tough on some
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.
DISCLOSURE: I received a copy of this book from the publisher at no charge in order to provide an early review. However, this did not affect the overall review content. All opinions are my own.
THE HIGH REPUBLIC ADVENTURES – PHASE III REVIEWS
#1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5