– Spoiler Review –
While it won’t answer all the questions, The High Republic – Eye of the Storm #2 is the definitive ending to Phase I, allowing Charles Soule to bookend the era he helped start with a packed and intriguing glimpse into Marchion Ro’s plans, motivations, and the mysterious creatures he’s unleashed on the Jedi, setting up in equal parts for Phase II and Phase III. This should be your final piece of reading for Phase I content and for good reason.
In Eye of the Storm #1, writer Charles Soule lifted the veil on Marchion Ro, his people the Evereni, his family, and how certain aspects of Nihil and the Ro family plans with the marauders came to be, answering certain aspects but leaving others unanswered or opaque, preserving mystery despite the details. Its unique glimpse into Marchion’s POV, a red gaze where the subject of his focus looks like a skeleton, informs a lot of his words and actions through the era so far and even more so in Eye of the Storm #2, as the Nihil and Republic question why he’s doing all this, what his ultimate plan or goal is. It’s something we’ve been wondering since Light of the Jedi, so it’s really neat to have Soule bookending the era, filling in these details and fleshing out Marchion after all the charater’s done, and still somehow managing to provide us with hints on where the story will go in the future, be it Phase II or Phase III. Marchion’s skeletal POV makes even more sense after some loyal Nihil ask him why they’ve gone so big so fast with their attacks and explains why he’s so correct about the who is important than the how for the Jedi and Republic to understand: to Marchion, he’s all that matters, so anyone telling him what to do, like the Jedi or the Republic will by expanding into his territory where the Nihil rule, makes them enemies. It’s a really simple thing, when you think about it, and very clear even from LotJ, while the whole story of his people, the Evereni in EotS #1, boils it down to how it could get to this point, how eons of their struggles and tribulations led directly to a knife like Marchion, who cares not for trivial things like power or status, just that he’s left alone to do as he wishes. Someone like that, who has no ties to weaknesses like other people or possessions leaves him an even scarier villain than his outright attacks and methods have made him out to be so far. Beyond besting the man in combat, there’s obviously no bartering, no appealing to reason, nothing to tempt him with…so how do you take down someone who never sees anyone else as an equal? Marchion’s been a fascinating, unpredictable character so far and this only adds to his myth and grows the threat he is to the Jedi the Republic during this era, beyond even his Nameless creatures. The final actions he takes here, escalating things even after Starlight Beacon falls, ensures he’s even more of jerk to hate, but it only makes him easier to love as a villain, and I have a feeling he’ll go down as one of the Saga’s ultimate baddies before the final piece drops in the era.
The issue outright states it won’t uncover why the Nameless are what they are or how they can do what they can to the Jedi and the Force, but it does peel back some layers on how Marchion got them and sort of how he knows about them. It a very fascinating sequence, Marchion works up a bunch of Nihil to pure loyalty so he can use them to gain access to more Nameless, as the highly unique and intriguing planet they are on requires a sacrifice, so to speak, to enter. A veil surrounds the planet, the narration describing it as an immune system, so Marchion waits for it to exhaust itself on the Nihil sacrifices before he sneaks in afterwards. But why call it an immune system? As Marchion tells the Nihil after they land, the planet is alive! As an Expanded Universe reader back in the day, my mind immediately went to: Zonama Sekot, a living planet in Legends that was key to the Yuuzhan Vong invasion as seen in The New Jedi Order series (which Chris is beginning to cover in his Legendary Adventures here at the Manor!), and is actually a named planet in canon. There’s not much else gleaned from Marchion and the Nihil’s visit that could link the two, but knowing Zonama was the seed planet for the Yuuzhan Vong, who couldn’t be felt in the Force, and this unnamed living planet harbors those who can EAT the Force, the connections, though loose, are there. Regardless, Marchion uses the mystical staff to tame the Nameless after they deal with the planet’s attack force, and he brings them back on his ship, hence how and why he had so many to unleash against the Jedi in The Fallen Star and wasn’t mad about having to go get more. As for how Marchion knew about the planet, it was part of stories his father and grandmother told him, and visiting it and procuring more Nameless than the Great Leveler he found in the opening moments of The Rising Storm, it confirmed their stories to him…but those stories are left untold for now, but the fact Phase II will dive 150 years before these moments means we’ll likely see how Asgar and Shalla knew about the Nameless. As for how the Jedi will deal with the Nameless, Trail of Shadows ended with their first hint at where to start looking, Yoda’s epic return in Midnight Horizon showed he’d been busy learning on his vacation, and maybe if Sskeer survives he can help them considering he’s basically immune to their effects/Avar’s song can bring back those not totally drained by the creatures, but I imagine fighting them and killing the Nameless won’t be the final answer, judging by their part in the Chosen One prophecy (as seen in Master & Apprentice by Claudia Gray): “Only through sacrifice of many Jedi will the Order cleanse the sin done to the nameless. The danger of the past is not past, but sleeps in an egg. When the egg cracks, it will threaten the galaxy entire. When the Force itself sickens, past and future must split and combine.” How funny would it be the egg reference here is actually the one from Soule’s Poe Dameron comic all those years ago?! I highly doubt it as most of this likely isn’t as literal as one would like, but still, the only egg we’ve seen crack in canon! The Ro family connection to the Nameless, and the creatures themselves, will be integral to Phase II, so this is how EotS sets up that part of the story.
Eye of the Storm #2 goes beyond the ending of The Fallen Star, letting us glimpse at the Republic and Jedi’s response to events to some degree. For both the Republic and the Jedi, they are more concerned about the how than the who, with Lina Soh’s advisors eager to show a response rather than dig into who the man is that brought them all so low and the Jedi are recalling everyone under the guise of prudence since his creatures seem to specifically target them. Lina’s sure Marchion is the leader of the Nihil he claims to be in his big message to the galaxy, dividing her resources to both show the Outer Rim they won’t abandon them and learning who this Marchion is, but of course Marchion has more chaos up his sleeve. As the Republic Defense Coalition Forces rush out to protect the Outer Rim, Marchion unveils the fruits of Chancey Yarrow’s labors, her Gravity’s Heart machine and other theories, as stormseeds, which connect and form a no-fly zone as it were, letting no one in or out of a large swath of space, and destroying the Republic’s forces in the process. Too bad Elzar Mann cut down Chancey by mistake, the main key to unraveling the Nihil’s latest crisis, so I’ll be curious to see if her daughter Slyvestri would ever consider helping despite what happened because I sure know Nan wouldn’t consider it after witnessing it firsthand. As for the Jedi, the idea to recall the Jedi to the Coruscant sounds prudent on paper, but when they make this known to Lina and her advisors, it certainly carries a tinge of fear with it as is so rightly called out about their choice. Is fear guiding them now, abandoning the people and the Outer Rim, just to avoid dealing with the Nameless until they understand them or is it really caution, as after all they don’t seem to attack non-Force users so it’s not like they are a danger to the Jedi and the Republic has it’s Defense Coalition to fight the Nihil anyways. After all, they aren’t soldiers, not that yet linked with the demands and whims of the Republic government, but I can see how this could look to the rest of the galaxy, how it could make the Jedi look fearful, as it would look to the commoners with no knowledge of the situation like the Jedi are abandoning them. Not all Jedi are heading back to Coruscant though, like Lily on Banchii or Sav Malagán, so they’ll have a presence out there, despite the Nihil exclusion zone, and I’ll be interested to see if any got caught out there before the returning to the summons. Either way, this is how EotS gives us glimpses of Phase III by peering beyond TFS and once again providing ample reason to love/hate Marchion Ro and his dastardly plans.
Guillermo Sanna has a surreal, almost dream-like quality to his artwork, able to switch between nightmare and lovely dream on a whim, be it the creepy, cloudy, and moody opening scenes of Master Obratuk chained and confused under the thrall of the Nameless in Marchion’s presence to the excursion to the Nameless’ living planet, a bright and dreamy looking place with fluffy clouds beset by monsters and its dangerous veil. Surrealist art is most fitting for the time on the living planet and Sanna’s usage of thin, page-height panels gives the scenes almost an epic, painting-like quality to them, as it frames the action of fighting off the planet’s creepy attack creatures in freeze-frames, as if we’re viewing it in frozen flashes from an action-heavy film or, like I mentioned, ancient artwork that captured epic, mythic scenes before the big screen. Antonio Fabela joins Jim Campbell on colors for issue #2, which is where much of Sanna’s work gets its ethereal quality, as they give the living planet a pastel shade, bright pinks and bird-egg blue, or the odd orange and yellow trees, giving it a truly alien look…or rather giving the Nihil, in their darker, earth-tone colors look alien on the planet. The shadows and darkness around the Republic-set scenes with Lina Soh, the Jedi, and her advisors paints a gloomy picture of the proceedings, first as they reel from Marchion and the Nihil’s destruction of Starlight Beacon and later the reveal of the new Nihil exclusion zone. Once again, there’s a lot of dialogue and narration for letterer Ariana Maher to deal with, but she makes sure it both pulls you along Sanna’s unique paneling structures and stays out of the works way, while the clean word bubbles for the Nihil on the living planet, and lack of SFX for anything from the planet, serves to add to the Nihil’s otherness there. A lot of Sanna’s action moments don’t need much SFX anyways, be it the explosively bright and packed amount of destruction stuffed into a page or there’s not much action, but when Maher steps in, it adds extra oomph to her choice.
Here are a few other things:
- Phase II kicks off in October, though I’m sure we’ll have plenty of news over the next few months as more details arise about its story and the entries within. Chris and I will have a big Phase I overview/retrospective before the next Phase starts, but we’re still figuring out what that will all look like, and hopefully some more interviews with THR creatives for you readers as well! It might not be until 2024 at the earliest for Phase III and picking back up the threads from Phase I, but I imagine this look to the past in Phase II will only make the long wait worth it.
The High Republic – Eye of the Storm #2 offers insight into the enigma that is Marchion Ro, unlocking secrets for Phase II and III to explore, while adding to the villain’s legend.
+ Glimpse behind Marchion’s motives
+ Living planet visit for the Nameless
+ Hints for future Phases
+ Art team brings an ethereal, ancient epic sized feel
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.
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