Review of
Star
Wars: Dawn of the Jedi, Volume Two, Prisoner of Bogan,
by John Ostrander & Jan Duursema ISBN 9781616551445
Three out of five stars
The creators of this series of graphics novels include
a timeline of the Star Wars saga. Like the dating of human history, there is a
before and after point. In this case it is BSW4 and ASW4, which stands for “Before
Star Wars IV: A New Hope” and “After Star Wars IV: A New Hope.” The history
goes back to 36,000 years BSW4, at a time before hyperspace travel and no
creature truly was with the force. This story is dated in that time, when the
knights were known as the Je’daii and they were limited to being the
peacekeepers of the Tython system.
With a great
deal of content, there is very little in the way of explanation, in the sense
that the reader is enlightened regarding the background of the planets and main
characters. Some of this can be discerned, but there is a vagueness regarding
how the characters are related to each other and their role regarding the Je’daii
order.
The problem is
that the emphasis is on fighting, with regular swords, blasters, forcesabers,
some kind of emitted beams and at times an old fashioned flying kick. With the
interludes between the battles so short, there is not enough ink to explain
what is being developed for 36,000 years in the future. What made Star Wars IV
so good was the tension between the characters and the growing significance of
their relationships.
