– Spoiler Review –
Returning home to where he was created, Quinlan Vos makes his Dark Horse canon comic debut in Michael Moreci’s Hyperspace Stories #9, where he collides with notorious bounty hunter Cad Bane for an often funny, exciting issue, brought vibrantly to the page by artist Nick Brokenshire!
Once a random background character in The Phantom Menace, Quinlan Vos went on to become a prominent Jedi in Dark Horse’s run of comics, later being featured on The Clone Wars in a handful of episodes. I’ve only read a couple of his previous appearances in comics and I enjoyed his character in TCW, and later Dark Disciple, the novel adapting unproduced scripts from the show, even if I’m still not quite over that ending. Writer Michael Moreci captures the spirit of Vos wonderfully, as his banter, quips, and unusual methods for a Jedi are on entertaining display in Hyperspace Stories #9, making his return to where he was first created more than worth any hype. It certainly makes one not only want more of his character, if they can manage something fresh compared to what came before, but also reopens the questions and potential behind having stories detailing his time with the Path after Order 66, as revealed in Obi-Wan Kenobi. Also, pairing him off against Cad Bane, while also capturing the spirit of Vos’ earlier stories, means fans of the character, be them from Legends, canon, or a combination of the two, are catered to and have plenty to enjoy. Bane’s always been an entertaining, if not more skilled than most bounty hunter, and how he gave Vos and Kenobi a run for their money in TCW translates well to comics, especially thanks to Nick Brokenshire’s art, as the team uses the medium well to deliver on their fight for the target. From Bane whipping out the rocket shoes to Vos choosing unorthodox ideas to distract, their fight makes for good entertainment due to how matched they are at times. Hopefully we get another fight between the two one day, at least before Bane meets his end against Boba Fett.
As for the connecting story, once Vos gets Graygon Eckt to safety, who had a bounty on his head because he served under Count Dooku and stole some of his treasures and secrets and ran, their escape ship’s cargo hold contains a surprise: the doll! Just like Kylo Ren encountering it last issue, Vos can sense its presence, whatever the mysterious object the Wookiee Senator stuffed inside is, but unlike Kylo, he gets a glimpse of its journey thanks to his psychometry skills. And what does it reveal? Wrecker! That’s right, Wrecker of Clone Force 99 aka the Bad Batch, is seen holding the doll after it’s been lost. We already knew the group would feature in the series’ 10th issue, but it’s fun to have a preview like this! Next it shows Obi-Wan scooping up Viivveen, the Senator’s daughter, and carrying her away from danger, the doll being left behind; it’s not clear if this is from the same issue or not, as it doesn’t line up with anything in issue #1, when they were last together, and, as far as we know, Obi-Wan won’t be in issue #11 or #12, the finale.
As I mentioned earlier, we have Nick Brokenshire’s deft hand on this issue, with David Kennedy on colors, and Tyler Smith & Jimmy Betancourt as letterers, as always. Brokenshire and Kennedy establish a really strong sense of place with the planet Bavana, with Kennedy giving characters like Vos and Eckt a lighter coloring scheme, while those arrayed against them are more in the shadows, with darker shades, fitting with the crummier, dirty look to the planet. Brokenshire gives alleys and streets lots of debris, puddles and cracked walls, with plenty of space for long shadows for Kennedy to fill in. Even the clothes of the locals, or mainly the nefarious ones, are spotted, dirty, while Eckt and Vos look much cleaner. I like the little ways Brokenshire also tells us a lot about these main characters: Eckt still worked for Dooku for a time, so there’s a villain like moustache to accompany him and an always nervous look to his face; Vos always seems to have a smile despite the odds against him; while Bane’s got that signature sneer, with one panel even highlight his red eyes in a expertly spooky way. One of my favorite pages is when hostilities ignite between Bane and Vos, as the page before it is all classic Western, the showdown about to begin, their hands on or near their weapons, the subsequent panels zooming in, ending on their eyes, staring intently at one another, and then BAM, the fight erupts in a big splash page. On this angled page, Vos leaps into action, lightsaber lit yet Bane stands his ground, digging in, blasters out and firing, but Vos’ lightsaber has blocked them and deflected them harmlessly away. Smith & Betancourt’s sound FX are simple punctuations of how the two have erupted into a fight, wordless making the first moves. Overall, this page makes it feel like the fight is quite balanced and it’ll be tough for either to gain the upper hand.
Here are a few other things:
- For issues 11 and 12, Mace Windu and Yoda will be protecting Viiveen and we might learn what the Jedi artifact inside the doll finally is, while the finale will take place during the Battle of Endor as a way for the series to celebrate Return of the Jedi’s 40th Anniversary.
- I’m curious when we’ll learn what else Dark Horse will offer, beyond their High Republic output and the Tales from the Death Star, once this series ends in December. Will it be another volume of Hyperspace Stories with a new roster of writers or something completely different?
Hyperspace Stories #9 pits Quinlan Vos and Cad Bane against one another for a memorable and enjoyable issue!
+ Quinlan Vos and Cad Bane are quite the match
+ Great sense of place and fun battle scenes thanks to art team
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 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.
HYPERSPACE STORIES REVIEWS
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