Comic Review: Star Wars Dark Times #1

 You think you are having a bad day…

By Jeffery Cox 

Star Wars Dark Times #1: The Path to Nowhere (1 of 5)

The Jedi Order has been destroyed and the few Jedi remaining have been scattered to the four winds. A Jedi-in-hiding, Dass Jennir, has cast his lot in with former foes of the Clone War, the Nosaurians of New Plympto, in their last stand against Imperial troops.

Jennir has already cast off most of the trappings of his Jedi life, save his lightsaber. He now lives as a guerilla fighter and general to the small rag-tag army of the Nosaurians. They hope to spend their lives against the Imperials to by time for the escape of their families and in this, they succeed. All of the Nosaurians except Jannir’s companion, Bomo, and Jannir himself are slaughtered.

Jennir and Bomo decide to try to catch up to Bomo’s wife and daughter. They travel to a spaceport, following Bomo’s family. Once there, they force their way on to a ship and receive a less hostile welcome that one would expect. It is here they discover the fate of all the refugees.

As all this is happening, inactivity is starting to get to Darth Vader. He has time to contemplate the results of his actions. His master has become less inclusive of late and Vader is wondering what all the sacrifice was for. His anxieties are amplified when he discovers what the emperor has ordered for the prisoners from New Plymto - an evil that Vader himself was once subjected to.

The creative team on The Path to Nowhere is bringing their A-game. Doug Wheatley masterfully conveys subtle human emotion in faces that are totally alien or, in the case of Vader, unchanging. The characters are three-dimensional. Jennir is hardly an invincible warrior. His strategies prove futile time and again. Toward the end, Bomo’s frustration with Jennir is visible. The story is the perfect hook to pull the reader into the next issue.

Specs

TITLE	STAR WARS Dark Times #1: The Path to Nowhere (1 of 5)
PUBLISHER	Dark Horse
BOOK RELEASED	November 2006
COVER PRICE	$2.99
WRITERS	Welles Hartley, Mick Harrison
ARTIST	Douglas Wheatley
LETTERING	Michael David Thomas, Michael Heisler
COLORIST	Ronda Pattison

*Image via Dark Horse Comics (Used with permission)

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