"Star Wars: Rise of the Sith, Volume 1"

            The following is a review of the “Star Wars: Rise of the Sith, Volume 1” graphic novel as presented in Marvel Epic Collection format. This review will not focus on any of the movies or television/Disney+ series directly, but there may be some “Star Wars” history references for context. These stories take place before “Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace.”

            “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

            “Nearly a thousand years have passed since the Jedi defeated the evil Sith to end their centuries-long war. Prosperity has come to much of the Galactic Republic.

            “As the Jedi Temple of Coruscant, the Jedi now train their Padawan students in the way of the force under the guidance of the Jedi Council.

            “Despite the current galactic peace, trouble can still come – in many different forms, to any of the thousands of worlds that make up the Republic. It is the duty of the Jedi Knights to answer whenever they are called upon, to address conflicts throughout the galaxy.

            “Although it is long believed that the Sith have been wiped out for good, the Jedi Council is ever watchful for signs of the dark side of the Force. But they are unaware of the Phantom Menace lurking in their midst….”

            The Jedi are armed with a weapon called a Lightsaber that Jedi younglings build at the start of their training. Jedi Master Mace Windu, a late bloomer, didn’t build his until he was a teenager, but on his first solo mission, he found a rare purple stone to power his Lightsaber.

            As he grew older, Windu faced further challenges, including the heinous Uda-Khalid to administer justice.

            Jedi are trained in the use of the Force almost upon birth. Jedi are taken to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant and never have personal attachments, and are not allowed to have contact with their birth family until they have achieved the status as a Jedi. Windu is tested by Vianna D’Pow, who is hired by a family who wishes to have their birth child taken back to them.

            Windu also went to the Temple of Tet-Ami to prevent its secrets from being exploited, which includes many mysterious protections.

            Being accepted into the Jedi Council is the highest honor a Jedi can attain. Windu was eventually accepted onto the Council, which is led by Yoda, a wise and aged being. Another of Yoda’s species, Yaddle, is considered to be a Jedi, but must first prove that her difficult history will not seduce her to the Dark Side of the Force.

            After twenty-one years away from his birth planet Cerea, Jedi Ki-Adi-Mundi returns home to visit his family. Ki was not accepted into Jedi training until he was older, missing four crucial years’ worth of training in the use of the Force. Ki discovers that the thug Bin-Garda-Zon, a specter of his family’s past, has resurfaced.

            Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn has taken a Padawan in Xanatos. Xanatos has found issues with Orykan. Xanatos is afraid he will be replaced as Qui-Gon’s Padawan with Orykan. Orykan is accepted as Jedi Maser Tahl. This jealousy and a return to his home planet and estranged family meeting starts to lead Xanatos to the Dark Side of the Force.

            Following the loss of Xanatos, Qui-Gon is assigned Obi-Wan Kenobi as his Padawan. Obi-Wan fears of disappointing Qui-Gon, and is in danger of displaying emotions. Denying emotions is a key creed in Jedi training, and Qui-Gon finds he must educate Obi-Wan in the history of this creed.

            Upon arriving on Arorlia, Obi-Wan inadvertently finds himself in a life-and-death situation, further assuring Obi-Wan that path he is traveling as a Jedi is indeed righteous.

            Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi are assigned the task of protecting the Aurorient Express, but their mission becomes further more serious as illegal droid cargo is released and two bombs have been placed on the ship that threaten to endanger thousands of travelers.

            Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are dispatched to a planet not very fond of the Jedi. After the Baroness Omnino is attacked by an internal threat. The Baroness then decides she wants the Jedi’s protection, a task Yoda is not keen to involve Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan in. But on Ord Mantell, all is not what it seems, especially when the reason the Baroness’ request for protection is revealed.

            Meanwhile, activities of the Sith begin again, as Darth Sidious takes on Darth Maul as his apprentice, who is tested in the ruthless ways of the Sith, and how Lightsabers are considered nameless and used for great injury to foes of the Sith.

            Maul is tested for his mettle, going under horrors for Darth Sidious and banishing emotions.

            The Jedi Knights face a long forgotten threat thought eradicated a long time ago, the Yinchorri. The requiring Mace Windu to form an assault team to combat against the Yinchorri, including Micah Giiet, Plo Koon, Lilit Twoseas, K’Kruhk, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn. But the Yinchorri is also involved with the Sith, given a hand by Darth Sidious.

            The Jedi must make a deal with Vilmarh Grakrk to escape from a doomed planet.

            Plo Koon and Micah Giiet travel to Ord Mantell to rescue Slabba Drewl from Corpo the Hutt, and Giiet is forced to battle a droid in a cooking competition to secure the freedom of his friend.

            Darth Maul’s history as a candy thief is revealed.

            Artist Ramon Bachs is challenged to a Lightsaber duel with K’Kruhk.

 

            I will start by saying that all the rest of this review is my opinion and my opinion only. Therefore, I will not say if it was a good book or a bad book because we all have free will and can feel however we want about it, it’s all up to your own personal taste. We can’t all agree on anything. So if you want to read this book or have read this book, I welcome to feel however you want to feel about it, and if you disagree with what I say, truly that’s great. I’d love for anyone to leave comments or tweets about this if they have read this book telling me how you feel, you are THE BEST! Now that that’s all out of the way, let’s get to my opinion.

            When it comes to “Star Wars,” we all have mixed opinions about the movies and shows. Some we like, some we don’t. I’m one of the one who liked the prequel trilogy the best, but that’s because they were from my generation, so it resonated better with me. This book all took place before the first chronological film. That’s mostly the reason I got this book. If you’ve seen “The Phantom Menace,” you’ll probably remember Liam Neeson’s character, Qui-Gon Jinn, who (spoiler alert) meets an unfortunate fate, and therefore was only in one movie. I’ve always liked Neeson as an actor and enjoyed his portrayal of Qui-Gon, so a book of him younger was highly appealing to me. And Obi-Wan Kenobi has always been one of my favorite “Star Wars” characters, I thought Ewan McGregor was fantastic in the role, so him younger (and in this book, we’re looking at him being about twelve by the Aurorient Express storyline, they don’t exactly say) was also fascinating to me. As for the stories; there were a lot of different stories in this book, and regular readers know how that can have a significant impact on my enjoyment. A lot of different stories in an Epic Collection is dangerous to this blog because there are usually stories in the book I like and some I dislike. So, when it comes to these stories, I actually surprisingly liked all of them. Having background on a story I like already that wasn’t told before is often appealing to me. For example, the “Obi-Wan Kenobi” series on Disney+ gave more insight into the history of Obi-Wan and Princess Leia, and I highly enjoyed it (again, I thought McGregor was exceptional in the role) and I thought the show was brilliant (if you have Disney+ and have not watched the show yet, I highly recommend you do). I also enjoyed the Mace Windu stories (Samuel L. Jackson is one of my favorite actors), particularly the story where they revealed why his Lightsaber was purple (which I’d always wondered, but Jackson is so awesome he was the only one allowed a Lightsaber of that color. Watch everything “Star Wars” and no one else has a purple Lightsaber). And Yaddle revealed that every member of Yoda’s species (which she was, too) commits horrific passive voice (I had a college professor who was obsessed with passive voice and it drove me nuts and I never really learned how to stop using it, sorry Professor Gunther if you’re reading this!). All that said, though, I could find a few faults in this book, sorry to say. I’m a nitpicker, I can often find faults in everything. Also, we must remember that this is a “graphic novel” and the graphics are important as well. We could read the most amazing story, but the art just doesn’t do it justice, which actually describes how I feel about this book. A lot of the art was appealing to me, being from a period of comic book art I highly enjoyed (1999-2011), but there were some issues where the art was a little wonky, like a couple of the artists drew the characters where their body proportions looked unnatural (I’m nice, so I’m not going to signal anyone out, but if you penciled anything in this book, you probably know who you are), but in general, I thought the art was stellar (pun intended). Regular readers also know my terms “art” and “art of the time.” In other words, did I think it was good art in general, or if it was it only good for the time periods when the artists produced it? I’m happy to say that I thought the art was good in general. For me, the story and the art gelled well together.

            Next, I’m going to tell you if I recommend this book and to whom do I recommend it to. If you loved “The Phantom Menace,” I totally recommend it to you. If you’re a “Star Wars” fan in general, I think you should take a peek at this book. And, I also use the word “accessibility.” In other words, what I feel you have to know to optimally enjoy the book. I feel like this book is 100% accessible to anyone, since it’s before the first chronological movie, and I don’t think you need any background “Star Wars” knowledge, so if you’re interested in starting consuming “Star Wars” media, I think this book is an amazing place to start. So I guess, what I’m saying in general is that I recommend this book to anyone (which I don’t think has ever happened in the two-year history of this blog).

            Now, I know you’re all planning on me just getting to the point; how do I score this book? I score on a scale of one-to-ten. One means I thought it was trash, ten means this was amazing. All considered, with the stories I enjoyed and the art I enjoyed, but the bit of wonkiness in the art and a story that wasn’t always stellar, everything about the content of the book, I score this as an eight. I don’t think I’ve left out any of my reasons of why I score this book, so we can move on from here.

In fact, I think I’ve said pretty much all that needs to be said for this review, so I’m wrapping this up now. I’ll tell you that this blog gets a lot of reviews, and I post new ones every month, but I also write short fiction and nonfiction, as well as free-verse poetry, and articles, essays, editorials, and a few other things, so feel free to browse anything else already on the over one-hundred posts already there, keep coming back for more of my upcoming posts, and to finish this off, Tim Cubbin… out!