Review – The Old Republic: The Lost Suns #1
Bioware and Dark Horse have already given us two short runs of comics that act as prequels to The Old Republic. However their newest venture, The Lost Suns, is the first comic that takes place within the same time frame as the game is going to. This is Bioware’s chance to really give us a taste of the universe that we’ll be part of very soon. Did they succeed? Well, mostly.
In this comic we are introduced to Theron Shan, the secret son of Satele Shan and spy for the Republic. Theron is sent to Sith space to track down Ngani Zho, the drunkest Jedi Master ever, who disappeared some time ago. For whatever reason, Theron decides to take Teff’ith, his Twi’lek prisoner from a previous mission, with him rather than leave her locked up in a jail on Coruscant. Also joining the hunt for Zho is Darth Mekhis, the ugliest Sith Lady ever.
The script, written by Bioware Senior Writer Alexander Freed, was fairly decent as far as an intro story goes. I really like that story focuses on non-Force users. Too much of Star Wars media is Jedi/Sith centric. It’s always nice to get a look at the part of the Star Wars universe where the “normal” people live. But, I think that Freed’s inexperience with the medium of comics shows through. Panels don’t always flow together real well and the story feels somewhat disjointed at times. Oh, and he had a Gamorrean speaking Basic. Fail.
Dave Ross and George Freeman provide the pencils for this issue and they give us some really spectacular views of Coruscant’s skyline. Unfortunately, when they’re drawing people is where things kind of fall apart. Teef’ith’s lekku are as thick as a linebacker’s thighs and the characters never really maintain a consistent look. At one point Theron manages to look quite a bit like a girl. Michael Atiyeh’s colors, on the other hand, are wonderful, vibrant and really elevate Ross and Freeman’s pencils. They have an awesome watercolor feeling to them that is a welcome change from all the digital coloring you see in today’s comics.
This is by no means is it the worst artwork I’ve ever seen (for that go read Jurassic Park: Redemption) nor the worst writing (for that go read Chuck Austen’s run on Uncanny X-Men), but I really hope they tighten things up a little bit in the subsequent issues. All things considered, the issue was a pretty good start to the miniseries. The story isn’t exactly riveting, but since this is just the introduction, I’ll give them some leeway. The Old Republic fans will certainly enjoy this glimpse into the world of TOR, but it’s not going to entice any non-Star Wars fans into jumping on the TOR bandwagon.
-Leo Andrie
2 replies on “Star Wars: The Lost Suns Review”
After the deplorable “art” in Threat of Peace, the art in this issue seems positively wonderful. The story seems mostly calculated to generate “Ah ha!” moments when playing the game, when/if it is ever released.
I guess my hope for return of the art team of Dustin Weaver Dan Parson and Dan Atiyeh from Knight of the old republic was not answered. It seems interesting I do love the non jedi stories alot more in comic form.