more star wars scans!
Apr. 14th, 2012 11:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedlamsbardThese are from volume 4 and volume 5 of the Clone Wars arc from Star Wars: Republic, "Light and Dark" and "The Best Blades." "Light and Dark" is another John Ostrander and Jan Duursema one: all Quinlan Vos and Aayla Secura, with a heavy dose of Count Dooku and some follow-up from his Vos and Secura backstory from previous pre-Clone Wars comics. Lots of moral ambiguity.
Needless to say, this is very image-heavy.
So in the beginning of "Light and Dark", Jedi superspy Quinlan Vos is supposed to be selling Jedi transmission codes on the black market, when abruptly his meeting is interrupted by the arrival of another Jedi, Agen Kolar (badass! also a G-canon character: he gets killed by Palpatine in RotS). They fight; Quin's girlfriend Khaleen (the purple-haired lady in the fishnets in the sixth scan down) briefly gets away before being arrested by the clones Kolar's brought with him. Quin, smart guy that he is, leads Agen Kolar straight into the middle of a bar full of his, as we're going with Star Wars parlance here, scum criminal friends.
Nothing particularly illuminating in these two scans: I just like to see Jedi kicking a whole lot of ass. It's when a Jedi extinguishes his lightsaber that you really ought to be worried.
In the midst of this, Quinlan escapes, and the next thing we know, he's gone over to the Confederacy. This happens to be a plot by the Council to get a spy in amidst Dooku's inner circle, but most Jedi don't know this, including Quin's former Padawan Aayla Secura.
Flashback to when Quinlan chose Aayla as his Padawan. BASICALLY THE MOST ADORABLE THING EVER. With bookends of Quin's message to Aayla about going over to the Confederacy.
Aayla has an ongoing not-a-romance-because-Jedi-don't-do-that thing with Kit Fisto, a Nautolan Jedi. That's Tholme, Quin and Aayla's former Master and currently the spymaster of the Jedi Order, in the background. He is a total badass.
They have other problems besides Quinlan's seeming defection at the moment, and are on the planet Devaron trying to find a traitor to the Republic, along with two other Jedi, T'ra Saa (a tree! a shape-shifting tree! and Tholme's girlfriend) and the Dark Woman, who gave up her name to show humility to the Force. She's a real character. I was trying to find a good scan for her, but I was trying to restrain myself. Also on the planet: Jedi killer, bounty hunter, and assassin Aurra Sing, a former Jedi Padawan who was kidnapped by star pirates and abandoned by her former Master, the Dark Woman. She's got a whole lot of rage. She sets a trap for Tholme and the Dark Woman, and hunts Aayla when Aayla goes after them. There's a really great fight scene between them, but I've only got one page from that because it goes on for a while:
Because Aayla Secura is amazing, that's why.
While the fight is going on, Tholme and the Dark Woman remove themselves from the Force to allow Aayla to concentrate on Aurra, instead of worrying about them. T'ra Saa comes after them. For a pair of Jedi, T'ra Saa and Tholme have absolutely blistering chemistry. Also, I love Dark Woman's comment at the end there: "Yes. That was his cunning plan. Play dead. Terrible plan."
Meanwhile, Quinlan Vos is undercover with Dooku. Mostly, it doesn't go well, though Quin is trusted (more or less) by Dooku, and Tholme has sprung Khaleen from prison so that she can report to him on Quin. Just some scenes about what goes in on Dooku's side.
Torturing captured Jedi spies.
And recruiting new planets to the Confederacy. Then there's some moral ambiguity and some people getting murdered, you know, normal Clone Wars stuff, while the Jedi Council wonders if they've gone too far and Quinlan has truly gone to the Dark Side.
*
"The Best Blades" is, in my opinion, the most so-so of the nine Clone Wars TPBs. Three of the five stories in it are rather blah -- there's a decent one about Bail Organa and how the political arena is another battlefield, one about how Palpatine is a manipulative bastard sending his Jedi friends to the death, and the eponymous one about Yoda trying and failing to play politics. I thought about scanning that one just to show y'all the Padawan in knee-highs, leather boots, a mini-skirt, and a crop top (because that's totally what you wear into battle!) but decided against it. It does however have two really good stories, "Hate and Fear" and "No Man's Land", the follow-ups to the Battle of Jabiim arc. I am not terribly keen on the art -- it's the floating heads, and Giorello's not great at action -- but I love the story.
From the prologue: "Missing in action and believed killed during the Republic's failed defense of the planet Jabiim, Obi-Wan Kenobi and the clone ARC Trooper known as Alpha were actually captured by Dark Jedi Asajj Ventress and taken to her homeworld Rattatak..." because Ventress has an obsession with Obi-Wan. It's been three weeks, and after torturing both of them and failing to get any information out of either of them, Ventress throws Alpha in with Obi-Wan in hopes that seeing how the Jedi has been treated will weaken Alpha's resolve. Things do not go as planned.
I would like to show this scene to anyone who does not think that Obi-Wan Kenobi is a complete and total badass. OBI-WAN KENOBI HAS HAD A BAD FUCKING DAY. "You think I'm unarmed? Even without my lightsaber, I am still a Jedi!"
Afterwards, he and Alpha escape, making their way through twenty-six of Ventress's soldiers before fighting Ventress herself and escaping the planet. Meanwhile, Anakin has been assigned as temporary Padawan to Master Ki-Adi-Mundi and is spending his time moping and disobeying orders.
Also having visions of Obi-Wan's stolen starship crashing. This is why I don't like Giorello's art, guys! FLOATING EYES AND EYEBROWS.
Obi-Wan and Alpha are fighting their way through the planet, against Ventress's men (sent to capture them) and have run into a crowd of bounty hunters, who want the bounty on Obi-Wan. Anakin, post-vision, has taken off for Riflor with an increasingly beleaguered Ki-Adi-Mundi in tow. I cut a lot of his impatient, urgent panic, where Ki-Adi-Mundi is like, "Wait, we're going to get permission to land," and Anakin goes, "WE HAVE TO GO RIGHT NOW."
I told y'all that there was a scene where Anakin rushes into combat screaming Obi-Wan's name. (Also, floating heads! Eek.)
AND THEN THEY EMBRACE AND STARE LOVINGLY INTO EACH OTHER'S EYES AND SNARK. Although I've just realized that Obi-Wan shouldn't be taller than Anakin. Bad form, Mr. Giorello! There's another panel where Obi-Wan looks smokin' hot, but...I left it out. Because I'd already scanned a pretty significant chunk of "No Man's Land."
Next up: more Quinlan Vos, more Quinlan and Obi-Wan (YAY!), and Obi-Wan being a crazy, crazy badass and Anakin being a badass crazy person. Also Padme's sole appearance in the comics. (On some level I prefer SW:TCW to the comics, because we get the Padme we see in TPM and AotC, instead of the Padme we see in RotS. Padme's appearance in the comics is not particularly impressive: I wish that she appeared in the Bail Organa issue along with Mon Mothma. But I digress.)
Needless to say, this is very image-heavy.
So in the beginning of "Light and Dark", Jedi superspy Quinlan Vos is supposed to be selling Jedi transmission codes on the black market, when abruptly his meeting is interrupted by the arrival of another Jedi, Agen Kolar (badass! also a G-canon character: he gets killed by Palpatine in RotS). They fight; Quin's girlfriend Khaleen (the purple-haired lady in the fishnets in the sixth scan down) briefly gets away before being arrested by the clones Kolar's brought with him. Quin, smart guy that he is, leads Agen Kolar straight into the middle of a bar full of his, as we're going with Star Wars parlance here, scum criminal friends.
Nothing particularly illuminating in these two scans: I just like to see Jedi kicking a whole lot of ass. It's when a Jedi extinguishes his lightsaber that you really ought to be worried.
In the midst of this, Quinlan escapes, and the next thing we know, he's gone over to the Confederacy. This happens to be a plot by the Council to get a spy in amidst Dooku's inner circle, but most Jedi don't know this, including Quin's former Padawan Aayla Secura.
Flashback to when Quinlan chose Aayla as his Padawan. BASICALLY THE MOST ADORABLE THING EVER. With bookends of Quin's message to Aayla about going over to the Confederacy.
Aayla has an ongoing not-a-romance-because-Jedi-don't-do-that thing with Kit Fisto, a Nautolan Jedi. That's Tholme, Quin and Aayla's former Master and currently the spymaster of the Jedi Order, in the background. He is a total badass.
They have other problems besides Quinlan's seeming defection at the moment, and are on the planet Devaron trying to find a traitor to the Republic, along with two other Jedi, T'ra Saa (a tree! a shape-shifting tree! and Tholme's girlfriend) and the Dark Woman, who gave up her name to show humility to the Force. She's a real character. I was trying to find a good scan for her, but I was trying to restrain myself. Also on the planet: Jedi killer, bounty hunter, and assassin Aurra Sing, a former Jedi Padawan who was kidnapped by star pirates and abandoned by her former Master, the Dark Woman. She's got a whole lot of rage. She sets a trap for Tholme and the Dark Woman, and hunts Aayla when Aayla goes after them. There's a really great fight scene between them, but I've only got one page from that because it goes on for a while:
Because Aayla Secura is amazing, that's why.
While the fight is going on, Tholme and the Dark Woman remove themselves from the Force to allow Aayla to concentrate on Aurra, instead of worrying about them. T'ra Saa comes after them. For a pair of Jedi, T'ra Saa and Tholme have absolutely blistering chemistry. Also, I love Dark Woman's comment at the end there: "Yes. That was his cunning plan. Play dead. Terrible plan."
Meanwhile, Quinlan Vos is undercover with Dooku. Mostly, it doesn't go well, though Quin is trusted (more or less) by Dooku, and Tholme has sprung Khaleen from prison so that she can report to him on Quin. Just some scenes about what goes in on Dooku's side.
Torturing captured Jedi spies.
And recruiting new planets to the Confederacy. Then there's some moral ambiguity and some people getting murdered, you know, normal Clone Wars stuff, while the Jedi Council wonders if they've gone too far and Quinlan has truly gone to the Dark Side.
*
"The Best Blades" is, in my opinion, the most so-so of the nine Clone Wars TPBs. Three of the five stories in it are rather blah -- there's a decent one about Bail Organa and how the political arena is another battlefield, one about how Palpatine is a manipulative bastard sending his Jedi friends to the death, and the eponymous one about Yoda trying and failing to play politics. I thought about scanning that one just to show y'all the Padawan in knee-highs, leather boots, a mini-skirt, and a crop top (because that's totally what you wear into battle!) but decided against it. It does however have two really good stories, "Hate and Fear" and "No Man's Land", the follow-ups to the Battle of Jabiim arc. I am not terribly keen on the art -- it's the floating heads, and Giorello's not great at action -- but I love the story.
From the prologue: "Missing in action and believed killed during the Republic's failed defense of the planet Jabiim, Obi-Wan Kenobi and the clone ARC Trooper known as Alpha were actually captured by Dark Jedi Asajj Ventress and taken to her homeworld Rattatak..." because Ventress has an obsession with Obi-Wan. It's been three weeks, and after torturing both of them and failing to get any information out of either of them, Ventress throws Alpha in with Obi-Wan in hopes that seeing how the Jedi has been treated will weaken Alpha's resolve. Things do not go as planned.
I would like to show this scene to anyone who does not think that Obi-Wan Kenobi is a complete and total badass. OBI-WAN KENOBI HAS HAD A BAD FUCKING DAY. "You think I'm unarmed? Even without my lightsaber, I am still a Jedi!"
Afterwards, he and Alpha escape, making their way through twenty-six of Ventress's soldiers before fighting Ventress herself and escaping the planet. Meanwhile, Anakin has been assigned as temporary Padawan to Master Ki-Adi-Mundi and is spending his time moping and disobeying orders.
Also having visions of Obi-Wan's stolen starship crashing. This is why I don't like Giorello's art, guys! FLOATING EYES AND EYEBROWS.
Obi-Wan and Alpha are fighting their way through the planet, against Ventress's men (sent to capture them) and have run into a crowd of bounty hunters, who want the bounty on Obi-Wan. Anakin, post-vision, has taken off for Riflor with an increasingly beleaguered Ki-Adi-Mundi in tow. I cut a lot of his impatient, urgent panic, where Ki-Adi-Mundi is like, "Wait, we're going to get permission to land," and Anakin goes, "WE HAVE TO GO RIGHT NOW."
I told y'all that there was a scene where Anakin rushes into combat screaming Obi-Wan's name. (Also, floating heads! Eek.)
AND THEN THEY EMBRACE AND STARE LOVINGLY INTO EACH OTHER'S EYES AND SNARK. Although I've just realized that Obi-Wan shouldn't be taller than Anakin. Bad form, Mr. Giorello! There's another panel where Obi-Wan looks smokin' hot, but...I left it out. Because I'd already scanned a pretty significant chunk of "No Man's Land."
Next up: more Quinlan Vos, more Quinlan and Obi-Wan (YAY!), and Obi-Wan being a crazy, crazy badass and Anakin being a badass crazy person. Also Padme's sole appearance in the comics. (On some level I prefer SW:TCW to the comics, because we get the Padme we see in TPM and AotC, instead of the Padme we see in RotS. Padme's appearance in the comics is not particularly impressive: I wish that she appeared in the Bail Organa issue along with Mon Mothma. But I digress.)