The High Republic Adventures #4 Review
Author: Daniel Jose Older
Artist: Harvey Tolibao
Colors: Rebecca Nalty
Letters: Jake M. Wood
Publisher: IDW
This series continues to shine, telling a much more engaging and important story than the primary Adventures series. The last few issues have seen two best friends, Zeen and Krix, separated and brought onto two sides of a new conflict. Zeen is Force-Sensitive and is traveling with Yoda and Lula Talisola, while Krix is with the big bad villain of the High Republic, Marchion Ro. The series started out with two split plots that made things a little confusing, but by this issue things are told linearly again and it makes the series all the better.
This issue opens up with a heartfelt scene between Lula, a Jedi padawan and Zeen's new best friend, teaching Zeen about the Force on Ord Mantell. This was my favorite part of the issue, but it left me wanting more of that. This series moves so fast, from moment to moment, I feel like it needs a little more room to breathe. But the next moment is also great, since it shows the contrasting other side of things, where Krix is being "mentored" by Marchion Ro instead.
This is another area the series is lacking, I feel like we need to see more of their dynamic the way there is for Zeen and Lula. There's just a bit of dialogue setting up the plot of this issue and the next one, and it moves on to the next scene, while I wish it would tell us a little more. Instead, it cuts to a battle between the Jedi and Nihil that breaks out (which leaves me even more confused because the series doesn't take time to give us any context). That said, it's cool seeing Yoda flying into battle the way he will be 200 years from now.
The last few pages of the issue finally do something meaningful with the plot and characters, having Krix lure Zeen to a junk planet on Marchion's orders, but even that's cut off by the end of the issue; it's a cliffhanger. Zeen is heading into an ambush, the padawans are all just behind her, having followed to try and stop her, and the Jedi masters all here of what's happening and do the same after wrapping up the battle. It actually caught me off-guard, since I didn't except the issue to end so quickly. We'll have to wait until the next issue to see how this arc concludes.
This series is... complicated. It's leagues better than IDW's other Star Wars series, but it's still lacking in some ways. These characters are extremely engaging and interesting (particularly how Zeen's story was seemingly an allegory for being LGBTQ and living in an unaccepting environment), but it's so barebones that it barely does anything with all that potential. The most consistent thing about it is the art, which is very good for an IDW Star Wars series. Harvey Tolibao and Rebecca Nalty are doing very well. I'm hoping the series gets better next issue, since it's pretty much locked in to actually doing something because of that cliffhanger, but we'll see.
Artist: Harvey Tolibao
Colors: Rebecca Nalty
Letters: Jake M. Wood
Publisher: IDW
This series continues to shine, telling a much more engaging and important story than the primary Adventures series. The last few issues have seen two best friends, Zeen and Krix, separated and brought onto two sides of a new conflict. Zeen is Force-Sensitive and is traveling with Yoda and Lula Talisola, while Krix is with the big bad villain of the High Republic, Marchion Ro. The series started out with two split plots that made things a little confusing, but by this issue things are told linearly again and it makes the series all the better.
This issue opens up with a heartfelt scene between Lula, a Jedi padawan and Zeen's new best friend, teaching Zeen about the Force on Ord Mantell. This was my favorite part of the issue, but it left me wanting more of that. This series moves so fast, from moment to moment, I feel like it needs a little more room to breathe. But the next moment is also great, since it shows the contrasting other side of things, where Krix is being "mentored" by Marchion Ro instead.
This is another area the series is lacking, I feel like we need to see more of their dynamic the way there is for Zeen and Lula. There's just a bit of dialogue setting up the plot of this issue and the next one, and it moves on to the next scene, while I wish it would tell us a little more. Instead, it cuts to a battle between the Jedi and Nihil that breaks out (which leaves me even more confused because the series doesn't take time to give us any context). That said, it's cool seeing Yoda flying into battle the way he will be 200 years from now.
The last few pages of the issue finally do something meaningful with the plot and characters, having Krix lure Zeen to a junk planet on Marchion's orders, but even that's cut off by the end of the issue; it's a cliffhanger. Zeen is heading into an ambush, the padawans are all just behind her, having followed to try and stop her, and the Jedi masters all here of what's happening and do the same after wrapping up the battle. It actually caught me off-guard, since I didn't except the issue to end so quickly. We'll have to wait until the next issue to see how this arc concludes.
This series is... complicated. It's leagues better than IDW's other Star Wars series, but it's still lacking in some ways. These characters are extremely engaging and interesting (particularly how Zeen's story was seemingly an allegory for being LGBTQ and living in an unaccepting environment), but it's so barebones that it barely does anything with all that potential. The most consistent thing about it is the art, which is very good for an IDW Star Wars series. Harvey Tolibao and Rebecca Nalty are doing very well. I'm hoping the series gets better next issue, since it's pretty much locked in to actually doing something because of that cliffhanger, but we'll see.
A Look Inside
