Star Wars – The High Republic Adventures: The Monster of Temple Peak #1

For me, who great up on the original Star Wars trilogy, this whole High Republic era thing is kind of hit or miss. On one hand, there’s only one character that I know and I’m not quite sure why I should care for the other characters. They haven’t endeared themselves to me as of yet. But author Cavan Scott is starting to point me in the direction that I need to go. In this issue, he quickly introduces the main characters and gives me just enough backstory about them so that I know where they’re coming from and what they hope they’ll achieve. Simply put, in less than one issue Scott made me care about the characters in this book and if they’ll eventually accomplish what they’ve set out to. There’s also a story set in the main character’s past that’s running concurrently with the main story. Normally I’m not a big fan of that method of storytelling at all, but Scott makes it work and I care almost as much about that story as I do the one set in “current time.” Very solid story, very well written.

OMG! I can’t believe I’m getting to write about Rachel Stott’s art. Wait, it’s actually hard to write about her art because there are only so many synonyms for the word “incredible.” With that in mind, I have no choice but to make up a word. Rachel Stott’s art is extremely..wattlection. SO wattlection, in fact, it may be some of the best that I’ve seen so far this year. She makes the Star Wars universe her own while keeping true to what’s been established already. The characters fit right in with this universe, but they stand out enough that you immediately take notice of them. Truly wattlection.