– Spoiler Review –
Just when you think things can’t get any stranger, the mystery around a Jedi Master’s death goes to whole new places while a familiar face (or two) left me grinning from ear-to-ear. This is the High Republic era, what else would you expect?! Read on for my review of The High Republic Adventures: Pathfinders #2!
Last we left off, almost two months to the day in the real world, the Pathfinder team of Master Temesh, his Padawan Anula, Republic pilot Pol, and medic Harby not only had the murder of a Jedi Master to investigate, but also the secrets of a wayward EX droid which fell into their laps with an emergency message, conveniently during a local comms blackout. The High Republic Adventures: Pathfinders #2 wastes no time in picking right back up with the story, though as it normally seems to in the High Republic era, things go sideways, quickly. Whereas Phase I of the main High Republic started off with the Great Hyperspace Disaster, which made for some interesting and treacherous hyperspace travel afterwards, Phase II (set 150 years prior, whereas this comic is 130 years prior to Phase I) found the Republic expanding its reach and charting or dealing with new hyperspace lanes, yet its stories never really got into any hyperspace shenanigans. What Pathfinders might find at the end of their journeys was more of the risky part of their jobs anyways, which Phase II rightly focused its stories on instead, yet there’s fun to be had with taking the journey itself and thankfully this issue brings in one unpredictable scenario. Pathfinders #2 decides not only are the two big mysteries not already enough, but it wants to throw a wrench into readers’ expectations, as the usual calm journey through hyperspace takes a trippy and sudden left turn, with big kudos to the art team! Torn out of hyperspace, the Pathfinders find themselves within a spatial anomaly, and while they try to say some science-y things to explain it, essentially imagine a not-so-deadly black hole, as if there’s a little pocket torn out of the fabric of the galaxy and entering it yields an excessively empty bubble to be stuck in. Yet they aren’t alone and a strange, aggressive creature is using the bubble to hunt for prey, ramping up the tension in a creepy, ‘how-can-this-get-any-worse?’, way. Writer George Mann seems to be having fun with throwing new and unique things at these characters and I’m glad he’s been left alone to cook, as this is a fascinating situation for the group to be in and, much like I was thinking in my review of issue #1, it shows the Jedi really having to rely on not only each other, but the Republic and its members of their task forces. It’s hard not to focus on the feeling the Jedi are the heroes in the main High Republic story, especially since the initiative was all about showing the Order at its height before the fall towards the Prequel era Order, so I’m glad they are using Phase More to give the everyday beings a chance to help the Force-wielding beings and take more prominence in the story.
It really is a joint effort to escape this latest quagmire, as while the Pathfinders team our main heroes ran into on Jagoth in issue #1 whom come up with the plan to those trapped out of the anomaly, a surprisingly delightful Jedi character from the main Phase II story returns: Rooper Nitani! The lovely cover by Jake Bartok was a dead giveaway, given she’s shown with the famous and gorgeous shield of the Jedi, but just seeing the back of her head and the shield lounging behind her in her first panel appearance in issue #2 brought the biggest damn grin that never quite went away. During the main Phase II story, Rooper was apprenticed to SILANDRA SHO (sorry, the rules still apply, one must always all caps the legend’s name!), a Jedi Master who wielded the shield, one of a long line to do so, and she had a few main appearances in the middle grade books. Last we saw Rooper, it was in a story where we experienced the delightful way SILANDRA SHO set up a trial for her to ascertain if the Apprentice was worthy of the shield, so I was glad we got to see her again given she showcases why she truly was the next best person to carry the shield. Rooper’s return in Pathfinders #2 centers on her attempting to pull off a daring rescue of the main Pathfinder team trapped in the anomaly. She receives Morla and Talik’s call for help via another familiar face, but we’ll cover that later, and she jumps into action to help. I loved how Mann has her say she’s being a shield while she’s doing the daring job of distracting the giant creature and placing a buoy to help guide the trapped team out. She’s exits the story, off on more adventures I hope to one day see, but it was still a blast to see her again, even if she technically doesn’t even use the shield, but like I mentioned she says, she IS the shield anyways.
As for WHO relayed the comm team’s message to Rooper, it’s none other than now Jedi Knight Vix Fonnick! Vix’s only real appearance is The High Republic Adventures: Quest of the Jedi #1, where she and her Master, Barnabas Vim (who has had more stories about him, including him potentially ending up on Planet X at one point!), uncover and then try to hide the Echo Stones (which end up being used by nefarious forces like the Nihil to control the Nameless). We’ve not seen or heard from her since, besides being mentioned here and there, so it’s interesting to find her in this story, especially given this is set over 100 years since we first saw her! Twi’leks typically aren’t presented as being long-lived, so it might just be we’re finally seeing that possibility, or maybe she’s found a way to extend her life somehow…or her journeys to get to this point warped things so she did age slower than normal. We might get a chance to find out, as she might be connected to all the mysterious things happening, as it seems to be implied the EX droid that brought this team into the anomaly in the first place came from a listening station and that’s where we see her here.
The team of Partha Pratim on pencils and Jagdish Kumar on inks is replaced in issue #2 by Caìo Filipe, whose recent work on Dark Horse’s Star Wars original graphic novel line stunned, while colorist Michael Atiyeh and Comicraft letterers Tyler Smith & Bobby Bradford remain. I really loved how Filipe and team reveal the wild nature of the anomaly throughout the issue, from the twisted entrance to the slightly confusing, in a purposeful way, of how the escape unfolds. By the end of the first page, things are already going wrong, with the panels tearing away from their usual places, melting and distorting, not only the outlines, but the characters inside them, stretching and scrunching them and their ship. Smith & Bradford let their SFX hide behind the distorted panels, word bubbles wavy and unusual as well, giving the impression the panels and imagery is break the conventions of the comic page before out very eyes. Atiyeh gives the initial distorted panel a splotchy blackness, as if the ink itself is twisting and melting as well, while the characters are then framed in a pinkish red, an unnatural looking color to match the unnatural looking way their faces are being affected by the event. It’s a scary, wild visual that uses the medium to its advantage! Just as scary and unnerving, how about the page where we see the situation in full via a blank, black page besides two insert panels, the Pathfinders’ little ship against the vast nothingness, and then a little oval full of stars, of what it should look like when a ship is floating in space. The next page is the inverse image, which is a neat juxtaposition, with the star field interrupted by a random oval of nothingness. Eerie! The sequence once Rooper flies into the anomaly, which swoops and sweeps across the pages with little inserts of action inside the ships against the ships flying around and avoiding the creature, can be a bit daunting to look at. I got lost a few times and I think it’s sort of meant to be this way, as everything is all messed up inside the anomaly anyways, so might as well do things a little differently.
Here are a few other things:
- While it was great to see some familiar faces, it did leave less room to get to know our new characters better, but there’s still four issues left so hopefully they’ll come more to forefront going forward!
- It appears Pratim and Kumar will return for the series’ third issue, Filipe back for the fourth, and the fifth to feature Vincenzo Riccardi, who won a spot in the Top Art Teams in my 2025 Star Wars comics year-in-review…with no idea on which team will get the finale but I’m betting Pratim and Kumar.
- The shield of the Jedi made an appearance in Phase III, wielded by Reath Silas, though how it ended up at a shop on Batuu for Silas’ ex-Jedi Master to buy and give to him, remains to be seen. I personally would be more interested in seeing more of its history, before even SILANDRA gets it, though as well as her journey to being worthy of it as well!
- Still waiting on additional “Phase More” releases to be revealed and I’m really hoping we won’t need to wait until SDCC in July.
- After some delays, Pathfinders‘ release schedule is: issue #3 on July 1, issue #4 on July 29, issue #5 on September 9; and no word on the finale issue, #6, yet. I’ll be keeping the release schedule section of our High Republic page updated as soon as possible if there are any changes!
The High Republic Adventures: Pathfinders #2 might not dig too much into its new characters, but the reappearance of some old favorites and the wacky new anomaly situation make for another fun and interesting issue.
+ Rooper’s grin-inducing return (and the questions with Vix’s)
+ Intriguing and memorable anomaly situation
+ Anomaly gives the art team room to go weird and strange and they totally deliver!
– New characters still need more time in the spotlight, soon!
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him and the website on Bluesky.
DISCLOSURE: I received a copy of this comic 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: PATHFINDERS REVIEWS
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