Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures #7 // Revie
Sav Malagán has failed. She’s failed as a Jedi Padawan. She’s failed as a space pirate. Even managed to fail as a friend. So there’s nowhere else to go but up, right? All that’s left for her is to call in the aid of the Jedi that she has been hidden from. She needs their help in Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures #7. Writer Daniel José Older reaches the penultimate issue of the series in a chapter that is brought to page and panel by artist Toni Bruno. Shade, depth, and luminosity are added to the visuals by colorist Michael Atiyeh.
Jedi Master Kaktorf is upset. Sav is, nevertheless, in need of a great deal of help. The Dank Graks have taken over Takodana. They’ve captured Maz Kanata. The Jedi are neutral, though. They can’t enter petty bickering between different forces even if life is on the line. So Sav is on her own...but she isn’t alone, as she DOES have the rest of her space pirate allies. They need to strike quickly if they’re going to get Maz out of the castle fortress without a scratch. They’re also going to have to be sneaky.
Older follows up a briskly-paced action issue with a final dramatic push into the climax of the eighth. Tensions rise as Sav realizes that she’s going to have to trust in herself. The overwhelming weight of the conflict DOES feel particularly heavy as the issue draws to a close. It feels a bit awkward to have the big hero of the series feeling so much doubt at the end of the penultimate issue. A crestfallen hero at the opening of the final issue? No. That’s something that should have happened earlier on in the interest of sweeping the action swiftly through the final couple of issues.
Bruno’s art is considerably cleaner and more breezy than the big, heavy detailing on Harvey Tolibao’s art in Issue #6. The leaner use of detail allows much more rendering of depth and texture on the part of Atiyeh. It also allows the reader to engage a bit more with the characters emotionally. This is kind of a big deal as the penultimate issue of the series is deep into the psychology of Sav. The complexity of the doubt that Sav is going through may not have a whole lot of moving parts, but it’s no question that she’s had a lot of failure for seven issues. There’s a lot of weight in that...and it’s an emotional weight that Bruno captures quite well.
The penultimate chapter ends at the beginning of...an assault on a fortress. It’s a pretty traditional action trope that is a variation of something that has been done in major movies in the Star Wars franchise on more than one occasion. It’s an okay way to end a series. The lack of anything truly new in the course of the series really begins to drag it down in the seventh issue.
