Dave’s Pick
I want to start by giving a little background of the dynamic duo behind this epic series. John Ostrander is in the my opinion the greatest thing to happen to comics ever! In every comic I have read of his from Suicide Squad to his Star Wars titles, he has always gripped me with his exciting, well researched stories and brilliantly crafted panels that highlight the emotion and thrilling action portrayed by the talented artists he works with. Now Jan is the only comic artist that has made my eyes tear up just by looking at a panel. There is a panel in Star Wars Legacy: War #6 that gets me every time I see it. The way she visually captures emotion is like none other as well. I even named by youngest Aayla, after Jedi Aayla Secura who was a creation of this pair.
Now that the brown-nosing is done onto to the comic. Dawn of the Jedi starts where no other Star Wars story has … AT THE BEGINNING! This is a galaxy that has no Jedi, no Sith, not even a Galactic Republic. This can be extremely challenging for Mr. Ostrander as he has TONS of Star Wars stories that happen in the “future” that he must be careful not to contradict. Thankfully the team has done TONS of research and carefully pre-planned the environment, planets and characters that we will see and it shows for sure.
From the planet Tython to the moons, Ashla and Bogan; and from their swords to the fact that the Je’daii try to keep the force in balance instead of following just the light or dark make these stories feel both new and familiar at the same time. I think my favorite aspect of Issue one is that the villains seem to be the Rakata from the video game Knights of the Old Republic (familiar) and that their Force-hound Xesh (new) is using a weapon called a force-saber (new) that looks like a light-saber (familiar) but really isn’t exactly the same. Another brilliant blend of new and the familiar is the name Je’daii for our protagonists. Not quite Jedi but we can see the natural evolution.
When Disney acquired Lucasfilm last year I was afraid that Marvel would get the license and it would be all over. Marvel has in fact been given the license but not until next year which will give them time to finish the current stories I hope! The force is indeed with this pair and if Marvel knows anything they will hire these two to give us many more stories set at the beginning of “A LONG TIME AGO …” PLEASE MARVEL PLEASE!
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