Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures #8 // Review
Padawan Sav Malagán has been captured and stripped of her lightsaber. She was so close to saving Maz Kanata from the Dank Graks. She had a plan and everything. (Sort of.) She didn’t anticipate what would happen, and now things look bleaker than ever in Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures #8. Writer Daniel José Older concludes his series with artist Harvey Tolibao and colorist Michael Atiyeh. The final issue competently brings everything to a close with a fun sense of action, but Older never quite manages to develop the deeper emotional ground that he’d been trying to address with Sav.
She’s not a Padawan. She’s not a pirate. No blasters. No lightsaber. And she’s captured in a citadel that houses a massive army that she couldn’t hope to escape--let alone defeat in open combat. Sometimes unexpected allies pull through for heroes in moments of desperation, just like the one Sav is in at the opening of the final issue in her series. That just might be what’s going to happen at the end of the series, but it’s not going to be enough. She’s going to have to regain her trust in herself if she's to save Saya and justify the decisions she’s made.
Older closes out the adventure predictably. The action itself manages more than a few moments of enjoyment along the way to the final panel, but there isn’t much in the final issue of the series that hasn’t been seen throughout so many different iterations of the themes in so many different stories in the franchise. It’s a fun journey, but there isn’t enough novelty in it to mark it as being anything memorable within the massive narrative bulk that is the Star Wars universe. That being said, Sav DOES remain a fun character straight through to the final page.
Tolibao is given the tiny confines of a cramped little fortress. That’s what the artist is given as a backdrop to render the satisfying end of a big space fantasy epic. Surprisingly, Tolibao actually kind of makes it work with some dramatic framing and clever layout. The intensity of the action gradually increases over the course of the issue until it finally erupts in the big final showdown at issue’s end. There hadn’t been a whole lot of twists and turns in the process of getting to the end of the series, but Tolibao gives each bit of action its proper impact on nearly every page.
The lightsaber duel that serves as part of the big final issue is as competently executed as the rest of the series. It’s been a fun journey, but it’s populated by a bunch of characters who don’t necessarily seem very memorable. Sav is a pretty fun character to hang out with, but there isn’t a whole lot of background on the young Jedi. Only just enough to empathize with her on a surface level as the series draws to a generally enjoyable end.
