star wars legacy volume 4 alliance john ostrander

Bantha got out of the whole Skywalker destiny game a long time ago, and serves as a great foil to his heroic Jedi brother. Part of the hook is that Bantha isn’t some random guy, he is in fact Nat Skywalker, Cade’s Uncle. These characters are much more three dimensional, and despite the fact that sometimes I don’t care for their morals, I really like getting to see the crazy shenanigans they get up to.

It also helps that issue 23 reunites Cade with his pals Blue and Syn (not to mention R2-D2, we stan a legend). She set the style and tone of the series, and her confidence of vision shows in every panel. Despite some of the weird parts of Duursema’s style (everyone’s lips are so pouty!), it’s great to have her back. The second story, ‘Loyalties’ fares much better. So take that animated Clone Wars-style scene and fill it with dialogue from Schindler’s List. All of this is made even more egregious by the heavy themes of the issue, which focuses on Darth Krayt’s plans for a Mon Cal genocide. Robinson also runs into the problem of filling crowd scene with blank, blobby figures. Both have their place, but it doesn’t feel like the same movie. It’s like turning on The Force Awakens only to find out that one scene has been added in the animation style of Clone Wars. Robinson is even more cartoonish and the effect is even more incongruous. The art woes worsen in issue 22, when Alan Robinson takes over. Both artists have done good work (and also not good work) but put them one after the other and the clash becomes a major obstacle. It’s like one of those “X-Men” crossovers where you go from an issue drawn by Salvador Larroca and then an issue drawn by Humberto Ramos. His style is so much more cartoony, that it completely clashes with the tone of the writing. I’ve liked Fracia’s work in the past (particularly on “Mercury Heat”) but his style is jarringly different from regular artist Jan Duursema and the other fill-in artists.

I also think this story is hurt by fill-in artist Omar Francia. The story just hasn’t done the work to make me care about the dudes. But I couldn’t bring myself to care about this dude having a problem and then a knife fight with some other dude. I like the big political context, it gives the galaxy a lot of texture. We meet more members of their burgeoning rebellion, who spend a lot of time in interpersonal conflict. We begin following Admiral Gial (himself named after Admiral Ackbar) and his niece, chafing under Sith control. The broader politics are all pretty cool, but none of the characters really grab you.

Star wars legacy volume 4 alliance john ostrander