Comic Review - Keeve Trennis's Crew Joins the Battle of Eriadu in "Star Wars: The High Republic - Fear of the Jedi" #3
Last week saw the release of the third issue in Marvel Comics’ Star Wars: The High Republic - Fear of the Jedi miniseries, and below are my brief recap and thoughts on this installment.
The High Republic - Fear of the Jedi #3 begins at the Battle of Eriadu, where Republic forces are being overwhelmed by the Nihil above the surface of the planet. Thankfully that’s when Keeve Trennis and her friends– fresh off the liberation of Naboo– arrive on the scene. Keeve orders all the starfighters off the Longbeam cruiser Gios and into the fray, fully intending to join them until she is stopped by Republic aide Velko Jahen. Velko convinces Keeve that she needs to stay aboard the ship and continue in her duty as commander, so Trennis puts Master Sskeer in charge of the fighters and retains the helm herself. Then outside in space we see Sskeer and the other pilots aghast as more Nihil reinforcements arrive.
Another problem arises when the blob-like Jedi archivist Master Orbalin begins to lose control of his reflexes thanks to having split himself into separate beings too many times. One of his “brothers" is killed in action, and Keeve is forced to remind him that that brother was actually part of himself. But again, fortunately for the Jedi, more help arrives when desperately needed the most in the form of former Nihil Tempest Runner Lourna Dee and her crew aboard the Tempest Breaker. Together, all these allies fighting on the side of the Republic begin to take out the Nihil fighters one by one. Sadly, another turn comes in the story when Lourna barks out an order for Tey Sirrek, who is suddenly nowhere to be found.
The droid Skoot finds his master Tey in his quarters aboard the Tempest Breaker, attempting to repair the dangerous Sith gauntlet known as the Hand of Siberus. So Skoot plays a hologram from the past to Tey, and we learn that Jedi Master Vildar Mac (from Star Wars: The High Republic Phase II) left the Jedi Order to spend the remainder of his life with his love Sirrek. Angered by the reminder, Tey smashes Skoot against the wall, immediately regrets it, and then is confronted by a different, much darker vision of Vildar– this time chastising him for his betrayal and zapping him with the gauntlet. On the bridge of the Gios, Keeve and Cibaba are also experiencing distress. But they figure there can’t be any Nameless creatures on the ship, which is proven true when they look out the viewport and see a half-dozen of the fearsome beasts– now with enormous bat-like wings– screeching toward them.
I thought this was a terrifically exciting issue overall and I would say that writer Cavan Scott and artist Marika Cresta (along with colorist Jim Campbell) are really outdoing themselves with this climactic miniseries so far. I’m especially interested in how they’ve filled in a bit of the gap of Tey Sirrek’s story between Phases II and III, but the more action-oriented scenes were also quite engaging. With only two issues left in Fear of the Jedi (and The Beacon finale one-shot following on its heels) I can’t wait to see how this creative team wraps up their side of this impressive initiative.
Star Wars: The High Republic - Fear of the Jedi #3 is available now wherever comic books are sold.