By John Jackson Miller, Dark Horse Books, $18.99, 152 pages
“Their masters killed them! They were standing right there–their sabers drawn!”
Set roughly 4,000 years before A New Hope, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Vol. 1 Commencement isn’t the Star Wars that you know and love… Or is it? The story concerns a young Jedi launching out on a quixotic odyssey across the galaxy, teaming up with a comic-relief alien, a mysterious beautiful woman, and a gnomic old man along the way. Does this seem familiar?
Jayce is a schlemiel of a Jedi whom none of his peers fully appreciate. Arriving late to class one day, he finds several of his friends slaughtered by their own tutors. From there, he’s forced to elude the authorities as well as his tutors as he searches for a way to clear his name.
That it resembles the films is by no means a bad thing. Actually, it’s rather refreshing to read a Star Wars comic that captures the films’ sense of adventure and derring-do. Bottom line: while this won’t revolutionize the way you think about Star-Wars, sci-fi, or comics in general, it’s a fun way to pass the time while you wait for what else Lucasfilm has to offer.
Reviewed by Corey Pung