Star Wars: Darkness

Rating:
Summary: Another good read
Review: Darkness is another success by the Ostrander-Duursema team that Dark Horse better keep around longer. With them in town, SW comics have never been better.

Though Darkness was published next, Infinity's End, a one-shot something called Starcrash, The Stark Hyperspace War and then Darkness actually follow after Twilight. Publishing chronology, it seems, was disrupted after Twilight; Darkness briefly mentions events of Infinity's End that would have readers curious. Myths whisper due to poor sales, but Vos's adventure on Dathomir still sounds interesting . . .

Like Twilight, solid art quality is of course delivered when you see Duursema and the Parson/Kryssing colourists. This is actually due to new computer inking techniques, which is shockingly superior to the "old comics" before it. With most of the scenery a Dagobah-like locale there on the prison world Kiffex, you can expect dank swamps, lawless inmates and more of Sheif Tinte's egyptian-like visage.

Dialogue felt a bit better here than Twilight, that's because more characters are featured. Effort was taken to give each new Jedi a different style of speech and persona voice, and it shows. Quinlin Vos's sidekick Villie returns . . . but he's not the same without his continual grinning. More of Vos's childhood is revealed, who actually would have missed Jedi training had his master Tholme not talked the Council into accepting him. Too old at 4yrs, eh?

As for the storyline, Aayla Secura---the blue-skinned Twi'lek of AOTC and Vos's amnesiac apprentice---has gone to Vos's homeworld to exact revenge against him . . . but finds its deadliest prisoner: Volffe Karkko, a Dark Jedi the Council imprisoned centuries ago for capital crimes. Now freed from his stasis cell, Karkko unleashes hordes of his fellow vampiric Anzati against the terrified population.

Dispatched to investigate, Vos and his master Tholme will need all the help they can get sans Villie's sarcasm. Zao and T'ra Saa provide interesting new Jedi: one a bunny rabbit, like that Podracer contestant, the other a humanoid tree Neti like Ood Bnar from TOTJ. Cool and creative, nothing is offered bland. Vos must overcome his Anzati childhood fear while freeing Secura's memories and confronting Karkko.

Once again, Darkness delivers the goods with style, expanding depth to known favourites and adding exotic new characters, it's well worth acquiring. The forthcoming Rite of Passage by the same team is late in publishing but eagerly anticipated.

Rating:
Summary: Jedi! How good for you to be seeing me, is Villie!
Review: Quinlan Vos and Vilmarh Grarhk (Villie) are united again on a mission to the twin planets (and home world of Quin) of Kiffu and Kiffex and the poodoo hits the fan. This comic follows the comic Twilight and I place it on the timeline at -32.11 (BNH).

Quinlan has been retrained by Windu but his Padawan (Aayla Secura) is still missing and her memories are still lost. Quinlan is helped by his master Tholme as they seek to discover what happened to the Guardians on Quin's home world, all the while Quin is learning to face his greatest fear.

While Twilight has brilliant writing and character presentation, Darkness is a small dropoff, but only slightly. Darkness is obviously a darker story, but Quin and Villie play off each other beautifully. The art and inks are spectacular because Duursema did the pencils. The cover art is very mediocre.

The Twilight and Darkness Comic's are Dark Horse at their best.

The binding on this comic is absolutely terrible. Without any rough handling, the pages separate from the binding just because the page was turned. I hope Dark Horse does something about this in the future, especially considering that they are binding together anywhere from 90 to 150 pages when they produce a TPB.

Rating:
Summary: Jedi! How good for you to be seeing me, is Villie!
Review: Quinlan Vos and Vilmarh Grarhk (Villie) are united again on a mission to the twin planets (and home world of Quin) of Kiffu and Kiffex and the poodoo hits the fan. This comic follows the comic Twilight and I place it on the timeline at -32.11 (BNH).

Quinlan has been retrained by Windu but his Padawan (Aayla Secura) is still missing and her memories are still lost. Quinlan is helped by his master Tholme as they seek to discover what happened to the Guardians on Quin's home world, all the while Quin is learning to face his greatest fear.

While Twilight has brilliant writing and character presentation, Darkness is a small dropoff, but only slightly. Darkness is obviously a darker story, but Quin and Villie play off each other beautifully. The art and inks are spectacular because Duursema did the pencils. The cover art is very mediocre.

The Twilight and Darkness Comic's are Dark Horse at their best.

The binding on this comic is absolutely terrible. Without any rough handling, the pages separate from the binding just because the page was turned. I hope Dark Horse does something about this in the future, especially considering that they are binding together anywhere from 90 to 150 pages when they produce a TPB.

Rating:
Summary: Memories Return
Review: Quinlan Voss and his Padawan have been suffering the effects of lost memories, and for each the consequences have been harrowing. "Darkness", is a very good graphic novel for the information it shares and the history that is filled with formerly missing detail.

The character of Quinlan Voss has an almost Native American look about him, and the enemy in this tale has a name that is very close to another group associated with a real people from many years ago. The form they take in this science fiction is something akin to vampires, and they make a claim for one of the creepier life forms in the Star Wars Universe.

There is an aspect of this tale that seems a bit out of step with what we have been told about a Jedi never knowing vengeance. A Jedi in this tale is judged, and judged very harshly by his fellow Jedi for his crime. He is not only held prisoner in a stasis field, he is left within sight of his lightsaber as a reminder of all he lost, and of those he betrayed.

This is one of the better graphic novels, although I would place the story ahead of the artwork.