Dark Time #5 The Path to Nowhere part 5 (of 5)

Holy hell.

 

Wow.

Human.




Separatist Steak, anyone?

 

It must be like eating a young tender dinosaur that walks and talks.

 

because we have all had that experience

 

Just think of it as eating Little Foot

 

I love how that is a spoiler in the context of Dark Times. If you posted that as the title of a new thread, no one would be spoiled or have any idea what you were talking about.

-The Rebel Gungan

 

Solid Snake is.

 

Actually it looks like Bomo and the crew of the Uhumele left the planet without Dass. In the last two pages he appears to leave Esseles on a different ship.

 

Ah, you guys are right. Sloppy me, I wasn't looking carefully enough!

 

I can't BELIEVE how dark and gruesome this comic was! It really, REALLY shocked me to see the comic end this way! The truly sad part is that there isn't really room for vengeance because Jass denied that to poor Bomo. I haven't been this disgusted by a comic book - ever! It was a nice little twist, but very DARK! There needs to be a comic called, "Light Times"...too much sadness in all Star Wars EU right now! Hahah. Tag & Bink, WHERE ARE YOU?

 

Dass did the right thing by Bomo.

 

Dass did the right thing by Hannibal. Things would not have pleasant for him...

-The Rebel Gungan

 

That brings Dass's shot-in-cold-blood-but-they-deserved-it count to two so far. I like that he didn't throw away his saber at the end of the issue. That would have felt a little cliched. Instead it shows that despite what he's done, he's still trying to stay true to the Jedi way. I almost feel it would have been more effective if there was no closing dialogue, and it just showed him making his desicion in silence.

Did I mention yet how much of a treat for the eyes the early pages of this are, where Dass, Bomo and crew are chowing down at the resturant? The costumes are almost the rival of the ones KOTOR.

 

So,So they didn't kill Dass. Still wish I found him interesting though. That dino-gluten sure was feeling suicidal admitting to eating the mans child. I would never eat a species that can shoot.

 

Dude, you're actively suggesting that murdering the man who ate your daughter is psychologically healthy when all indications are that carrying out these acts only compounds the horror. Does it give Bomo "closure"? Yes, it does because the man is dead. However, it doesn't compound the horror of the situation any further.

And no, Dass did it to spare his friend pain.

 

There are a lot of great viewpoints here, but I think the real question is...Do Nosaurians taste like chicken?

 

Right, because killing soldiers in war is ANYTHING related to slaughtering the guy who killed your family.

This is how psychology works.

Or do you think that it's better to allow the families of Murder Victims to throw the switch on killers?

That seem psychologically healthy?

 

Frankly, the guy did a pretty horrible thing but he didn't do anything ILLEGAL it seems, just immoral. In normal times, I don't think that a Jedi would have exacted the type of revenge that Jennir did nor do I think a Jedi would have allowed Bomo to do it.

The way I see it is that Jennir came to the end of the road and when he found he could not justify the bad things he had already done by producing a happy ending....he fell victim to his own emotions and did another bad thing. I really don't feel as though he played the Martyr...bearing the cross for Bomo.

Carnage

 

After eleven months, The Path To Nowhere has wrapped up. Issue Five delivered everything that's been great about this arc so far --- the GORGEOUS artwork, the compelling story, and the stunning characterization. Doug's art was beyond incredible, and I'm glad to read that he'll be back for Issue 11 (The Vector arc!). The amount of detail that Wheatley puts into his backgrounds is amazing. The scene in the city where the crew of the Uhumelé is eating, the gardens at the palace, the interior of the ship --- wow. The characters are drawn fantastically, too --- did you see the closeups of their faces? Wheatley is byfar the best artist that Star Wars has ever had. Not to discredit Duursema or anyone else, but this art is magnificent. I feel like Wheatley could illustrate for those epic children's books that go on sale for like $30 at the book fairs your elementary school has, and you really want them because the illustrations are amazing, but you content yourself to read your classroom's copy during silent reading time.

The storytelling in Dark Times has been very well-done. The narrative that accompanies both Jennir's and Vader's actions serves as a wonderful parallel, and is a much more effective and original narrative than in comics of the past. The narrative boxes are deep, philosophical, and emotionally powerful. I've been reading Tales of the Jedi lately, and the narrative boxes from 1995 are very basic, and often even cheesy. "Exar Kun releases the power of the Sith amulet ---" "--- as the savage beast attacks!" "Exar swings his lightsaber ---" " --- and the Beast falls dead, due to Exar's dark power!" And other obvious statements that hardly seem necessary to drive the story forward. Today's comics use the art and dialogue to do that, and when narrative does appear, it's far from stating the obvious.

I really enjoyed the conclusion to this story. The slaver having eaten his slaves, even the children, was an unexpected dark twist, and Jennir's followup triple-shot leaves the morally ambiguous question of whether his sparing Bomo the deed was right or wrong up to the reader to decide. The crew of the Uhumelé will no doubt wonder whether leaving Jennir behind was the right thing throughout the Parallels arc, and I find myself really hoping that we'll see Jennir again soon.

Jennir lives! The cover shot of Bomo... with a gun! seems to be from that panel where he shot the IG droid. He also got a bit of double-fisting in this time, foreshadowing Issue #10, no doubt?

Despite the delays, everyone involved with Dark Times deserves a big round of applause for this first arc. The excellent story involved wonderful characterization, fantastic narrative, stunning art, and portrayed the Dark Times as desperate, frightening, and a time unlike any the Jedi have ever seen, in way that Dark Lord failed to do. With Doug Wheatley becoming a father, the delays are understandable --- keep this man on the team!