VOLUME ONE: THE FREEDON NADD UPRISING

This must have been collected from the Star Wars stories appearing in the old DARK HORSE presents books. The story suffers due to it’s original format. Way too much exposition and far too many redundant caption boxes. It was hard for me to keep track of who was who.

The story does pick up steam near the end, but it ends up being tied down by it’s original format.

You can see a story synopsis here, because I don’t remember a lot of what was supposed to be going on: http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=14-574

Despite it’s weaknesses, I still found bits interesting in regards to way far back history of the Star wars universe. An interesting amount of objects in this book are somehow infused with the force too. In much the same way that cave in Dagobah was infused with the dark side.

The art is good, the technology is presented well, and still seems much older than what you see in the OT days. However, too many character designs looked more to me like GI JOE characters than Star Wars characters.

VOLUME TWO: SITH VS. JEDI

First off, a little disappointed in this one. I’ve just read the Darth Bane novel and this book doesn’t take us any farther past the events in the book. Jedi vs. Sith was published  about 5 or 6 years back, so I’m not really blaming it. Just wanted to warn anyone looking for more info on Darth Bane, this book won’t provide much.

I’m pretty unfamiliar with the comics, but maybe someone else will know if there were more comics with Darth Bane in them. If so, they don’t seem to be collected into a trade yet.

This is probably he best volume of the three so far. If you’ve read the Bane novel, you’ll still have plenty to enjoy, since Bane is rarely shown and you actually get the view of the war between the Jedi and Sith, from three kids who may or may not be potential Jedi.

Overview here: http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=14-613

Macan does a pretty good job writing here, though one of our leads character twist felt a little bit sudden and predictable. Still some nice ideas about the force, the horrors of war, etc.

I do have one big complaint about the design of a certain race of Jedi. You’ll know it when you see it. IT seems totally out of place in the Star Wars universe. They look more like outcasts form a Charles Vess book. I think with more grit and some more twisting, it might have worked. But as it is, this certain group of Jedi look like they’ve flown in from a separate book.

Still, overall, this one is fun and serious in just the right mix. Worth reading, but unless your collecting these hard covers, go track down the paperback.

VOLUME THREE: DARTH MAUL

The writing isn’t bad here, it’s practically non-0eistenet. We have only the vague inkling of a plot, as Darth Maul is set off on a quest to kill a lot of people and things.

I’m not being down on the book, because if you want page after nicely drawn page of Darth Maul being a badass, that’s what you get. The writer might have been smart to get out of the way here.

Overview: http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=14-614

The art is pretty, though it a lot of the time it felt a bit too posed. The writing isn’t embarrassing and as I said, it does a good job of staying out of the way.

Once again, there is an alien that doesn’t feel like Star Wars to me, though in this case it may just be my personal taste. I’m speaking of the feline alien, which looks a little bit too much like a heavy metal fantasy character, imo.