Comic Review - The Occupation of Naboo Reaches a Boiling Point in "Star Wars: The High Republic - Fear of the Jedi" #2
Today saw the release of the second issue in Marvel Comics’ Star Wars: The High Republic - Fear of the Jedi miniseries, and below are my brief recap and thoughts on this installment.
The High Republic - Fear of the Jedi #2 begins outside of Nihil-controlled space aboard the Republic longbeam Gios. Marshal Keeve Trennis is frustrated by having to deal with the GoNet reporter Rhil Dairo, so her fellow Jedi help her out by calling her to the bridge, where they soon discover that the Stormwall dividing the galaxy has suddenly disappeared. We saw that same major event happen (from a different perspective) last week in the pages of Dark Horse Comics’ Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures, but we still don’t know who or what exactly brought the Stormwall down. I suspect we will discover more about those circumstances in an upcoming novel, but for now it’s enough to know that the Republic fleet has access to the Occlusion Zone.
Keeve and her squadron use that fortunate turn of events to jump to Naboo, where we cut to Lourna Dee and her group of “Tempest Breakers" as they confront fear-fueled visions conjured up by the Child of the Storm Sister H’Tar. Lourna fights her own mirror image, as she appeared when she was still a Nihil Tempest Runner, while the others see Marchion Ro and a Nameless creature who are both not really there. Meanwhile in orbit above Naboo, Trennis jumps into a Jedi Vector starfighter and joins other members of the Order in space as they battle Nihil ships and scav droids. On the surface below, ordinary citizens of the planet begin fighting back against the Nihil as well, knowing they now have Republic support. The Tempest Breakers are indeed able to break free from their visions and expose H’Tar, but as soon as they do, the Nihil begin retreating into space for unknown reasons.
Then the Jedi intercept a hologram message recalling all Nihil forces to the planet Eriadu (where The High Republic Adventures has been taking place) and our heroes decide to follow, so it looks like that’s where the big final confrontation for The High Republic– at least as far as the comics go– will be set. Keeve asks Kelnacca if he would be willing to stay behind on Naboo and help clean up the Nihil’s mess, Lourna Dee refuses to stay there with him, and off everybody else goes into the breach. As the characters say in this issue, the conflict on Naboo was always kind of a distraction, so consequently this chapter in the story feels more like a stepping stone in getting everyone where they need to be for the climactic finale. But writer Cavan Scott and artist Marika Cresta are both still doing a really good job of keeping things tense and interesting. And as an OrbaLin fan, I’m very curious to see what happens when the Ugor Jedi Master divides himself too many times, as was teased here. Looking forward to next month!
Star Wars: The High Republic - Fear of the Jedi #2 is available now wherever comic books are sold.