Lit Dawn of the Jedi: Force War #1 (of 5)

Pics?

Also- I would assume that after the Despot Wars that the Settled Worlds all have some sort of military forces.

--Adm. Nick

 

There are those warships Leg 0 mentioned, so I would assume so.

 

Different armor styles. Nice! I assume that the various worlds have their own unique symbols and uniforms, which is cool.

--Adm. Nick

 

Yeah, in the scene with Ceh'let's flagship, there are a few yellow Deathstalker-class fighters. No Deathblasters yet though. Looks like we've seen pretty much everything from Dawn of the Jedi 0 except for the CRSF27 space freighter and the Pteron glider.

 

Why would Disney care? It's so far in the past there is no way it would interfere with ep. 7.

 

I finally grabbed my copy today. I will be reading it tonight, but on first glance I am digging those Rakatan walkers!

--Adm. Nick

 

The Rakatan walkers reminded me of the robots from the TNG episode The Arsenal of Freedom for a moment.

 

Just read the issue. Am I the only one who didn't care for it?

The story feels incredibly rushed. So much so that I strongly suspect that Dark Horse pulled the rug out from under John & Jan (again) and gave them only five issues to wrap up the series. The first page of the issue gave us a year's worth of exposition --- the Rakata attacked, they captured several worlds, the Je'daii built Forcesabers, Daegen Lok was recalled from exile to lead the army. Why?? Why didn't we see any of that? That would have made a fantastic five-issue arc. Why was it necessary to fast-forward one year and reduce all of that story to telling rather than showing? What's the hurry?

Additionally, all of the series' different, unique Je'daii characters with their own contrasting and complementary strengths and weaknesses are all suddenly reduced to lightsaber-swinging Jedi Generals in the midst of a battlefield. What was all of that world-building for if it's all going to be for naught? Why did we get so many different Tho Yor Temples with so many different studies of the Force if in the end, everyone's a Jedi General?

Seriously --- the only way I can rationalize this huge rush and seeming waste of character development is by assuming that this is the series' final arc. Which would be a damn shame --- John & Jan spent the first ten issues constructing a vast world that could support stories for the next ten years. If I'm wrong, and this isn't by any means the final arc, then I'll be even more miffed at the waste.

 

That's more than 5 issues! That's more like 25 issues. Dark Horse mostly does SW titles in 5 issue runs now, it makes sense to focus on the important parts of the story. Better that than to get cut off before you've even reached the main event.

 

Five would be better than zero, which is what we ended up getting. Of course it makes sense to focus on the important parts of the story --- but how are the Rakata attacking Tython, the Je'daii building Forcesabers, and Daegen Lok being appointed leader of the Je'daii armies not important? It would be like Legacy skipping from Storms right to Legacy: War, and all that stuff about the GA, Empire, and Jedi forming an Alliance being relegated to narrative exposition. A story should never skip its middle third in a rush to get to the climax. To be honest, I'd rather have a narratively coherent unfinished story than a hurried, finished one that's glaringly missing large chunks and that turned its back on a lot of its worldbuilding and character development.

Granted, I'm probably overreacting after just one issue out of five, but things are not looking good.

 

While I did enjoy the issue, I can understand where you're coming from. Like I mentioned before, I hope it does span more than 5 isues. I hope Dark Horse isn't stuck in the frame of mind that their Star Wars story arcs should be limited and consolidated to strictly 5 issues. Surely, they must know that 5 issues is a bit short to cover something as epic sounding as The Force Wars. Maybe it's a budgetary issue?

That all being said, I liked the issue and the art. I'm very much looking forward to the second issue.

 

As at least one of the future issues focuses on Xesh and Daegen, hopefully we'll see flashbacks to the past year.

Also, I'm fairly certain that Dawn of the Jedi has always been established as being a series of 5-issue miniseries, so the five-issue-arc isn't anything new.

 

Finally got to this and I agree: the story seems rushed and it seems very different compared to the other arcs..some thoughts:

1) Flesh raiders are far more creepy here than in TOR.

2) tension amongst the Je'daii: everyone is exhausted from the war-- really love this realism. Reliance on dark emotions/forcesabers has changed these characters so much that it feels we don't even know them anymore...but Lok is a general..? And...why exactly?

3) Interesting that the other worlds didn't take the Rakatan invasion seriously at first...Hmm...

4) The "Moment" between Shae and Xesh: Xesh's face in the last panel is just heartbreaking.

5) We get a female rakatan leader which is super awesome....except she is so irritating... You insult your superior and expect to get away with it? Riiiight. Okay, I admit I was hoping her and Skal'nas to end up a pair because ...uh...everyone is doing it? (Trill/Sek'nos, Xesh/Shae)... and ..all those adorable destructive, cannibalistic Rakatalings? Still, I really hope we get another female(or male) leader because I do enjoy the diversity (and the outfits).

....by jumping a year in this arc, it does make the story very confusing and "messy", I think. So much could be explored in a separate arc or maybe just a separate "background information" issue. Maybe something is up on Dark Horse's part and this is not possible in terms of storytelling.

 

Yeah. That may be the most glaring example of the plot points that deserved to happen on-page. There's a huge leap from where he was at the end of the last arc ("Well, your vision may have been right, but we're still throwing your ass back in jail") to where he is now. That could have been great character development, and for more than just him.

 

About the time jump. Isn't that a big part of Star Wars, I mean we don't see the founding of the Rebellion or their 'first victory against the Empire'. So it's not like this is a new thing.

 

That's a false equivalency, though. A series that begins by throwing the reader right into the middle of the action is one thing, whereas a series that spends ten issues building things up relatively slowly and then suddenly skips over a good deal of what it's been setting up is another. It's not just the time jump, either; it's the seeming reduction of the complex and multifaceted Je'daii order into a bunch of lightsaber-swinging Jedi Generals. Granted, we're only one issue in, so I'm not ready to throw in the towel or anything, but I can't say that I'm thrilled with this first issue.

 

We should perhaps get an answer as to whether this is the last series or not in the March solicits, due in 2-3 weeks in all likelihood.

 

I'm sure we'd all love it if DotJ was a 100 issue epic with every beat recorded. Unfortunately, it's a licensed property in a competitive market. These sales figures from February 2013 give you an idea of what it's up against: their best selling SW title (Brian Wood's "Star Wars") ranked 117 with fewer than 20,000 issues sold; DotJ ranked 146 with fewer than 15,000 issues sold.We're lucky to be getting this at all, really. I think they did a good job at getting us up to speed in #1 of Force Wars; and there might be more to those "missing pages" than we suspect, better told through later developments than by simply chronicling the process that got us to the next important story beat.

http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales/2013/2013-02.html

Last month "The Star Wars" sold better than Brian Wood's "Star Wars" ranking 28 and selling over 50,000 copies; but new titles tend to sell better and decline as the run continues. I also think some people might have grabbed it thinking it was some kind of Episode VII related reboot, to be honest. But they're competing with books that average 70,000 to 100,000 issues monthly and high profile titles that can move 300,000 + issues. That's stiff competition. In short, I don't think they have the luxury to stretch this out as long as they want to. Maybe one day they'll go back and fill in the gaps or the novels will fill it in.

http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales/2013/2013-10.html

 

Completely agree. I really try not to complain about DOTJ because I know the sales are not the greatest due to lack of audience and competition in the market...The reality is that the general public is not really familiar with EU, so why should they care about some Star Wars pre-history never mentioned in the films before? People are generally hesitant of things that are different from the norm.

For example, I would love a whole comic/novel just about Rakata and the Infinite Empire explaining everything from biology to social customs...but...who would actually buy it? Probably just me So, no market obviously. We are getting some of that in DOTJ, which is awesome, and in addition a lot more about the other ancient species and Je'daii....and....there's another issue coming out in like two weeks...and the next month...and the next month after that....

 

Nah, it shouldn't be a hard sell to the public.

History of the Jedi - job done. And yeah, it's in the film, that line about Jedi protecting the Republic for generations etc.

 

Technically this is long before the Jedi Order and the Republic. I share your hunger for more but the 5 issue arc thing was clearly implemented to prevent DH from having a lot of continuing titles that get cancelled when the sales slump. Also, John's an amazing writing, look how much backstory was delivered in the first two arcs through flashback/monologues. Lastly, I love your sig, John Hurt was one of the best Doctors ever

 

Yeah but that's surely the point EH?

If I, as a prospective buyer, who knows nothing of the EU, but likes the films and the Jedi - and who doesn't like the idea of the Force and lightsabers - and I see a series that says its the origin of the Jedi, I'm not going really need to know anything more than that, am I?

And yeah, I really loved Hurt's take on the Doc hence....

 

Thought this issue was great. Hoping to see more of the local military forces in the coming issues as mentioned above, maybe some more space battles. Like the Into the Void, I think this is a great era to explore, plus the EU style is more fitting when restricted to a single star system.

 

The missing year would be far more than "simply chronicling the process that got us to the next important story beat." From the exposition we got, it's clearly full of important story beats of its own. I understand that this series is likely getting the axe after this arc (I've been musing on that in every post), but like I said before, I'd rather have a narratively coherent unfinished story than a hurried, finished one that's glaringly missing large chunks and that turned its back on a lot of its worldbuilding and character development. A lot of the war's most important stages reduced to exposition, ten issues' worth of building and developing a complex Je'daii Order with many unique talents all suddenly reduced to Jedi Generals rushing into battle with their lightsabers drawn --- to be honest, it seems like a mess. John & Jan did a fantastic job with the crappy hand that Dark Horse dealt them when they made Legacy War, but if these five issues are DOTJ's last, then it's not looking promising that they'll be able to do as well this time around. Again, I may be overreacting after just one issue, but I somehow doubt it.

 

You're definitely overreacting over one issue! There was just as much unchronicled back story in the first two arcs. Legacy started with a lot of "this is what happened before"; we didn't need to see ten years of Cade becoming a smuggler etc., it was self explanatory. Again, we didn't need to drop the needle on Lok's young years or, heaven forbid, show thousands of years of development starting with the Tho Yor dropoff! Sure, there's a slice of the pie missing but as I said, it was more like 15 or 20 issues worth of stuff, not 5. We pick up in media res, just like the original SW movie. Works for me. I'd say wait till you've read issue 5 before you say John Ostrander isn't capable of making the story satisfying. He's really good, y'know?