Comics Join Me In Rereading: Knights of the Old Republic

And Weaver's art amplyfies the fantastic writing. Great issue and arc.

 

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 16: Nights of Anger, Part 1

Notes: http://www.farawaypress.com/comics/swknights/swkotor16.html

So this is the start of the period with word blurbs on the covers. and I gotta say, really not a fan, I think they take away from the great art work far to much.

Regardless, we start with Raana Tey having a nightmare about the padawans. Her own padawan doesn't get any specific focus which probably says something about how much she actually cared about being a teacher. Of course this attempt by her self conscious to accept her guilt over the child murder just makes her double down on even more murder.

Seriously speaking, I don't think a single member of the Covenant deserves the title of Master. Like at all, and besides Xamar none of them even deserve to be Knights either. Krynda was a horrid master on every level. And mom, and investment banker.

Then we find Jarael getting a crash course in what her species homeworld is like. To get down to brass tax, it sucks, hard. The offshoots like herself are segregated into shanty towns and persecuted by there pure bred makers. And they are suspiciously more prone to disease then the "pure" Arkadians. Of course even among discriminated peoples you will find members who cop for there abusers which happens here with that poor grandma. We also find out Jarael's real name Edessa, and that her ears are weird even for offshoots. Not to mention that tattoos she has.

Demagol actually mentions it in Flashpoint, but they have tinkered with themselves so much that what even is a true Arkadian anymore? Of course using genetics to make lesser offshoots while giving your own enhancements goes along way towards believing in Master Race bollocks and such.

Jarael cosplays once again, (You can make a drinking game outta that) to try to get Camper help, but gets caught. by a charming young lord Adasca, and the issue ends with Camper and Demagol getting "saved" by his ship, while Jarael apologizes and Camper has another panic attack

Obviously, Zayne isn't actually in this issue, and its mostly focused on Jarael. Now in the threads for this and the next 5 issues, there were more then a few calling this arc "filler" But with hindsight of all the stuff that is set up here that will become vital to the plot after Vindication, it clearly isn't.

But even without hindsight So much stuff that actually matters happens, especially this issue. And the fact that JJM spends so much time delving into Jarael specifically as her own person, away from Zayne, is a big part of what makes her so great and superior to other SW comic female leads. While also making there dynamic even better because its between to equal characters of depth and importance, which adds more investment to there relationship*

* That post about Jarael is going to be lonnnnggggg

 

I agree, the blurbs on the covers were absolutely terrible, both from an art perspective and just from the standpoint of it being embarrassing.

I think I even got a letter published in the back of one of the issues complaining about them.

 

The blurbs were on all Jeremy Barlow's titles for part of a year -- his idea to try to go a bit retro, since all the DH covers had gotten into a routine of a single headline that was sometimes hard to write because of how involved the stories were: "Intrigue--in the Old Republic!"

The problem it ran into was that because of how far in advance our covers were drawn, it collided with the other feature of old comics covers: "this scene appearing nowhere in the issue," as was the case with #18. I think it was also, by 2007, too dated -- it wasn't something people were ever nostalgic for.

I didn't write either the cover dialogue or the headlines, though I did sometimes write the solicitations (and I always wrote the "opening crawl".) I thought they were worth a try, but didn't expect they'd last long; my innovation that year was really the text pages, which eventually ended because they were one more thing that had to be designed and run through approvals, and at the time they didn't think they'd be reprinting them.

(Unrelated: Not on topic, but pre-San Diego, the news broke today of my involvement with another comics project that I always wanted to do.)

 

I grew to enjoy the blurbs as being a bit comical. I can put it this way: I would rather have a cover with old school dialogue blurbs than a bunch of overpriced variant covers. When I was reading KOTOR, my impression was that the editors were trying to work in a range of art styles and create contrast from the 90s TOTJ run.

I actually prefer the cover dialogue to be a little bit inaccurate. That creates spontaneity and a funny factor. They kind of remind me of Superman comics where the cover dialogue suggests Superman will die in the issue or Lois Lane will die.

Issue #16 Cover dialogue: "I warned you. Now the dead demand revenge." That is funny to me in hindsight. It is more funny after reading the entire series than when I was at issue #16.

That is great news! I'm a fan of Battlestar Galactica as well. I will be sure to read the series.

 

I like the retro feel.

While it isn't a great argument still, I do think the Jedi Covenant really does explain why the Jedi started to develop their "attachments bad" rule.
* The Covenant is constantly reinforcing each other's bad behavior.
* Lucien coasts by on his family's money.
* Lucien coasts by on the fact he's a mamma's boy and the son of a Jedi hero.
* Lucien coasts by on the fact he's from the Core Worlds

I think the most understated and shocking moment for the series wasn't that Lucien managed to kill his padawan and get away with it.

It was when he BOUGHT a seat on the Jedi Council.

It's not even the Dark Times. This is supposed to be the Jedi's heyday.

 

Congrats on the announcement. Slight OT but just binge read the Lost Sith books and comics. I love the tie into the KOTOR comic with the Shadow and covenant. Well done! I love the world building on both Kesh and in KOTOR.


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I thought that the blurbs were fine and were intentionally reminiscent of the old Marvel covers

Congrats!

 

That's awesome! It's been a long time since I've read any of Dynamite's BSG stuff but I always felt their Original BSG comics were better than the Nu-BSG ones (though I did really like the Zarek mini). In any case, will be a definite pull for me!

 

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 17: Nights of Anger, Part 2

Notes: http://www.farawaypress.com/comics/swknights/swkotor17.html

The first Bong Diazo issue, he would end up with the second most issues in the series as main artist, behind only Brian.

His art improves quite a bit by his final issues, and he's great at filling scenes. But tbh, Zayne looks like an old man in these issues.

But regardless the first chunk of the issue is of course a followup up focusing on Adascacrop rushing Camper into intensive care while Adasca spins a reasonably believable yarn about Camper and his companies history.

"Reasonably" But the cracks still show, specifically the "Offshoot question" hits just about every alarm bell there could be from a real world perspective. But Jarael is feeling guilty and desperate, so it's know surprise she gets a bit sweeped up in his charm and tales, Especially with the obviously insanely high end hospital he has brought the most important person in her life to.

 

Oh, that's exciting news, I've checked up on the original BSG on and off over the years (though the grimdark reboot killed off a lot of my interest), but hearing about you writing for the anniversary sounds great. Although I lost track of how many attempts there were at continuing the storyline over the decades.

Anyway, yeah, the corny covers never agreed with me, too retro for my taste (and KotOR wasn't that old-fashioned). Maybe if they had done it as variant covers for one or two months, but for almost a year, a waste of cover space. They weren't horrible, but still.

Anyway, not bad first outing for Dazo (RIP), poor Jarael's out of her depth but she was out of ideas too. Fun to see that Zayne could have escaped earlier maybe, but this way works out great for him too. I still wish we could have seen more of Zayne's actions during the Mando war. Not like he would have fought on the frontlines, or at least not as much as the Jedi crusaders, but just like how he probably made a big difference at Serocco, he probably would have helped out here and there at least.

 

I don't know, that #17 cover looks pretty horrible to me. What's up with Karath's mouth?

 

Couple of notes: We're not up to Bong Dazo yet -- #17 and #18 are both Harvey Tolibao, the artist who filled in for Brian on the second half of "Reunion" (#12).

The cover artist, Colin Wilson, is best known for his work on Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper -- and I wouldn't be surprised if he was doing an homage to his friend Joe Kubert, who's regarded as the greatest war comics artist. Google "Kubert war covers" and you'll see one of his motifs is soldiers with twisted expressions amid the horrors of war.

 

Now that I look at it, the cover's copy's almost the reverse of Kubert's Our Army at War #250. Clearly Karath is no Rock!

 

Knights of the Old Republic 18: Nights of Anger, Part 3

Notes: http://www.farawaypress.com/comics/swknights/swkotor18.html

So here's where we really get into how far reaching and shameless the Covenant is with business and money. Using Jedi visions for stock market advice is really gross for rather obvious reasons. Though it does make me want a story about some force sensitive non Jedi doing it. Tis a really neat premise.

Lucien likes to get high and mighty with Haazan, but even from just this issue and 9 it's very obvious that he's under the latter's thumb. Helps that Lucien's mommy issues are so rampant and easily exploitable.

Adasca putting on the charm with Jarael again reminds me, when I was re reading the trade for this thread my immediate thought about him an his obvious and by his standards "wrong" attraction to someone "lesser" then him, and how much it reminded me of Amon Goth and his attraction to Helen Hirsch in Schindler list. Well looking and JJM's notes and lo and behold. that's exactly what it was. So good job getting that across.

Then "Rholan" impresses with science, and its at this point where R=D is pretty much accepted as fact in the release threads. Messages are sent, and meetings planned. Pure bloods and the aliens they let on there crown jewel ship are bigoted jerks.

Funny how Karath gets the invite while his battle group is 5 people and a prisoner.

Jareal's dinner dress is stunning, great design, and Adasca totally wastes it by letting the mask slip and the bigoted megalomaniac comes out. Pro tips fellas, talking about babies on a first date right after you call her race a genetic mistake but don't worry its no her fault isnt gonna get you to Second base, or First, or the Stadium. Seriously what a mood killer.

Really really appreciate the Exogorths as a new type of super weapon that isn't just another big gun.* Anderson really scarred the universe by populating it with half a dozen variants of the Death Star main cannon, and it got really played out. Hell its still played out even in the NEU with Starkiller base etc. A little actual creativity can always be appreciated and of course as I have endlessly expounded upon, Kotor has creativity in spades.

- Kotor as a setting is actually pretty good at that in general, both the Star Forge and Mass shadow Generator are super weapons with obvious incredible power and effects without being just giant pew pew lazers.

 

"This is the worst dinner I've ever had," one of my favorite Jarael lines, was nearly "This is the worst date I've ever been on," which sounded a little too Earthly.

Someone later described the scene, "He asked me to dinner but only wanted to show me his space slugs."

 

Doesn’t she say that later on in the Crucible arc after Zayne ditches her to do something with swoops?

 

Yeah, "This is the second worst date I've ever had"

Now the negative nancies out there may focus on the "second worst" part, but I of course choose to focus on the fact that she thought of it as a date<3. Lol, mostly cause its the first explicit verbal conformation that that type of relationship is in one of there heads

 

Ah, that would be me forgetting my later subreference.

The only thing I would change about the Marvel Epic Collection (which is otherwise wonderful) is the reprint of #18, where they picked up the "The End" caption from Dark Horse's first omnibus, rather than the "To Be Continued" caption from the first Dark Horse trade paperback. So it ends on a weird note. But Marvel includes the Taris Holofeed after that, so it at least goes into something that is very much implying another book.

 

This was an awesome series, John. Looking back, I miss these kinds of stories. I hope that Marvel soon starts doing stories like these. You know, the ones that you don't have to use famous character's all the time type stories.

 

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 19: Daze of Hate, Part 1

Notes: http://www.farawaypress.com/comics/swknights/swkotor19.html

Meet and great the issue. Also Bong Diazo's actual first issue on the series.

Funny that Karath still won't let go of his "Zayne is a mado spy" theory

Jarael realizing her date is a bigoted megalomaniac immediately beats down a bunch of HK's and points a blaster at him. But of course Camper also being under threat nixes that idea. And the guests start to arrive

And finally a reunion where Jarael, stunned to see Zayne again immediately runs to and plants one on him. (Awww, squee, etc) Of course she also does it to get close and pass over info to him explaining the situation, thus beginning one of Zayne's more common cover tactics. Now how much the kiss means besides the obvious Intel sharing, hard to say, at the time, but going by the notes and my own read, I think that's the point at this stage, lots of factors in play at the moment. Besides what's really important is that it makes Adasca super jelly and he sends Zayne off to a cell, poor kid.

Next to arrive is Alek, who Jarael is of course also happy to see. (But he doesn't get a kiss hohoho( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).) Demagol greets the 2, inquires about "Demagol" then advises to just let him die, which was anther mark on R=D in the release threads. Also nice that Alek doesn't believe Zayne did it. Only took one adventure to know the type of person Zayne is, the Covenant could learn alot from him, which feels ironic considering who there vision was actually about.

Speaking of which Lucien arrives and we learn that both him an Adasca ran in the same filthy rich circles as kids. Also him and Q'anilla have evidently been an item for a long time. No wonder he never could become a seer. He apparently has no danger sense either and is knocked out.

Meanwhile Karath can Adasca has higher ambition's, so does Alek actually, but when he says he mostly just wants to keep them outt anyone's hands I believe him. Like I said, Alek at this point still has his head screwed on mostly right. Which can't really be said for his host. But the panel of Karath tugging his collar when Manadalor shows up on the holo is art.

And finally Master and student are reunited bound together in a cell. Which for Lucien is probably very disorienting but I tbh I think Zayne always expected it to end up this way somehow, what with his luck.

- They point out Alek's lack of hair and yet both in the issue and as you can see on the cover he actually is drawn with some. More then he had on Flashpoint to. Very artistic license' we must assume of course.

-I wonder, is that Zayne's first kiss? He is only 19 around this time after all. Maybe him and Shel at some point?

-What about Jarael? 25 but most of her life didn't give her the time. Then again she mentions it being her "worst" dinner so maybe there were others?

-As you can see I am razor focused on the important questions, lol

 

I imagine Jarael has been on plenty of dates as she seems to have settled into a bit of normalcy on Taris.

Before?

Well, I doubt any relationship she had back then was great given her choices were her fellow slave lords or slaves.

 

Knights of the Old Republic 20: Daze of Hate, Part 2

Notes: http://www.farawaypress.com/comics/swknights/swkotor20.html

Mandalor likes being flashy, waving around that big new battleaxe and all. Also I love how he's evidently a fashionista who doesn't like the look Neo Crusader armor. Neither do I tbh, its very drab looking. I think its the helmets mostly, cause Clone/Storm armor is very Mando inspired but looks much better then neo armor's helmets. But there is still some variety in the armor at this stage outside the colors. And seeing the full transition through the whole series by the time of War is cool.

Ultimate's talk with Demagol is also interesting, cause its really the only time we see him as a character and not a plot element. And he comes off like a politician funnily enough. Using "Rohlan" as a martyr, the regimentation of his society through orders and standard armor, haggling with corporations etc. You can see why the True Sith would be able to use him, which was a thing ever since kotor 2, regardless of how swtor/revan novel used it.

Jarel's bracelet comes back and Camper lays it all out, how the Adasca's have been trying to purge the offshoots and his role in weaponizing the slugs. Of course Adasca catches her and lets the tattered remains of the mask drop, calling her a genetic mistake isn't going to get you laid bruh. At least Alek is there to be a good lad for the moment.

Zayne and Lucien take some time to actually talk, and Lucien is as insufferable as ever. But Zayne has good clapbacks, and by this point has been through enough to not be afraid of him anymore. Which is just what he says after they bust out and Lucien makes a play to kill him. The vambraces are so cool, makes you wonder why no other Star wars media ever used them.

So canonoically this is the first time Alek and Saul met, its funny how there the same height here, and Saul calling Alek son. "Were one and the same", "Are you?" with both reflected in Mandalor's visor is also a nice call forward to when they are the heads of a Sith Empire together.

Mandalore's idea haggling is given an economic monopoly. Which feels like even for a society like the Mando's would have long term problems, especially as a big part of his whole deal is making there society more regimented.

Carth also slinks off just as Eejee finds out something about Jarael that makes her special besides being an offshoot, but Demagol bashes that outta his brain quite literally* like any good obsessed and possessive mad scientist warrior.

-That's among the most gore ever shown in a star wars property I would think, yes?

 

It was hinted in the D20 STAR WARS KOTOR supplement and later confirmed (albeit, long after it had any relevance) in TOR that Mandalore the Invincible actually isn't a Mandalorian. He's an agent of the Sith Empire (Vitiate's) so while I don't know if John ever thought of something like that, it kind of adds an interesting twist to the fact this Mandalore is interested in things the previous Mandalores weren't.

* Conformity
* Military discipline
* Recruiting legions of non-Mandalorians
* Fighting the entire Republic and Jedi

So, it's very likely if that was true that this Mandalore doesn't care about giving Adasca a monopoly because he's answering to higher authority

 

I looked on Wookieepedia and I couldn't find any "Mandalore the Invincible". I believe the Mandalore who appears in these comics is Mandalore the Ultimate, and he's a Taung. So he WAS a Mandalorian, but he was manipulated/mind tricked by the Sith into attacking the Republic.

Anyway I always got the impression that Mandalore wasn't 100% behind conformity, recruiting outsiders, and other ideas pushed by Cassus and Demagol. BUT the fact that they got results made Mandalore embrace these radical ideas more readily, and made the other Mandalorians more and more uneasy. Of course the Sith manipulation probably DID push him further along that path . . .