Contrary to everyone's expectations, I return as promised. This time, I'm reviewing Knights of the Old Republic, Issue 36: Prophet Motive, Part 1 and Legacy, Issue 31: Vector, Part 12. (Whew! Star Wars titles grow longer every year!)

I realize that I've already missed the boat -- both comics premiered a couple weeks ago -- and that my opinions are far from mainstream in the fandom. Take 'em for what they're worth.

Knights of the Old Republic, Issue 36: Prophet Motive, Part 1

I suspect that fans' opinions of the Prophet Motive will correspond to their opinions of the original Knights of the Old Republic story arc, Commencement. If you found Commencement to be twee and unbearably absurd, well, Prophet Motive extends those qualities to new heights. If, on the other hand, you regard Commencement as one of the best things to happen to the Galaxy since 1977 (and I do), boy, has John Jackson Miller got the story for you!

I read hundreds of comics and graphic novels a year, so I can't in good faith endorse Commencement as the deepest or most artistic product on the market. On the other hand, it is one of the most technically solid comics I've ever read. There's an incredibly precise consideration in the layouts, in the dialogue, and in the moments of silence that subtly telegraph the characters' emotions. It was Miller's dialogue that first attracted me to Knights of the Old Republic: it's eminently natural not just in its sound but in its content; that is, the characters don't refer to one another by their full names or "infodump" exposition for the readers' benefit. Dialogue may seem a minor concern compared to plot and characterization, but in this largely visual medium, it's the single element of style that has the most immediate impact on the reader.

And Miller certainly treats comics as a visual medium. Regardless of how you feel about his over-the-top humor, you have to acknowledge that it takes skill to make sight gags and slapstick work on paper. Miller conveys emotion visually, too, eschewing internal narration in favor of perfectly-timed silent panels. In my preference for visual storytelling, I'm probably just a product of my times: I began reading comics in the post-Moore era, during which scripts began to trim the pulp-style narratives typical of earlier works. (Honestly, do readers need a text box that describes everything they can already see on the page?! I have a friend who compares reading Tom Veitch comics to "being stalked by Don LaFontaine".) Whatever my biases as a reader, I have very little patience for authorial guidance in any medium. Miller's minimalism appeals to my vaguely Modernist aesthetic. Add loveable characters and a plot that hearkens back to the best aspects of the Original Trilogy without seeming derivative, and you've got a surefire hit.

It couldn't last forever, of course. Knights took a nosedive with Daze of Hate -- not that the newer comics were universally bad, but true excellence was so intermittent that even the Exalted arc, mediocre in hindsight, seemed so wonderful at the time of its publication that I wrote the editorial staff an effusive fan letter. (It's printed in the letter column in Issue 26 or 27, I believe.) Miller's dialogue went from snappy to stilted to limp to agonizing, and he spared little time for character development. Even his famous (infamous?) humor took on a forced quality.

But Prophet Motive...Prophet Motive is so fresh, so energetic that it looks good next to Commencement and, I believe, will continue to look good for years to come. It is far and away the best issue the series has produced since Days of Fear -- maybe since Commencement itself. The use of narration is somewhat jarring and unprecedented in John Jackson Miller's career, but it's a welcome alternative to the expository dialogue that burdened Vector and Vindication. And as much as I love Gryph, I'm glad to see that our Villain of the Month was bright enough to figure out his schemes. Nothing kills a comic like a dumb villain. Best of all, the jokes are actually funny again! In a mere twenty-two pages, Miller has reasserted his position at the head of Dark Horse's Star Wars projects.

Try as I may, I can't find anything about which to complain besides a few individual panels. I don't like the fact that Zayne's clumsiness is so inconsistent, -- he's clumsy when the plot requires it but is able to demolish legions of assassin droids on all other occasions -- but that's been an issue since Flashpoint, so I'll let it slide.

Bong Dazo provides some fine pencils: not as awe-inspiring as The Force Unleashed, but approximately equal to Exalted, which remains his best short-form work. On the whole, the art feels more consistent and more physical than the amorphous cartoons in Daze of Hate. If there's one basic skill he lacks, it's the ability to render shadows. A thicker ink job would do wonders for his pencils.

Now that I've lauded this issue at length, I'll add that I'm certain everyone will hate it. Why? Because fanboys are far too self-serious to tolerate silliness on this scale. Eh, let them complain. Truth be told, I'm looking forward to reading about petty scams instead of enormous military campaigns. Long live Hierogryph!

Legacy, Issue 31: Vector, Part 12

Mind you, I am not one of the readers who was determined in advance to hate Vector. The idea of crossing over all four ongoing comic series sounded stupid and potentially disastrous, but since Dark Horse has published eighty percent of the good Star Wars stories in the last decade, I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Contrary to everyone's expectations, the device by which the authors intertwined the stories was actually quite plausible: a talisman that sustained the character of Celeste Morne across several millennia. The ramifications of Morne's activities on the various series were both unpredictable and significant to the development of established plot threads. Kudos to Dark Horse for shaking up the status quo in a manner that would be inconceivable in most major comic universes. Superheroes never really die, but Dark Horse seems committed to keeping the G.F.F.A. motile and suspenseful.

Now, the bad news.

Although the Vector plot was engaging, it enforced poor style on its four otherwise talented authors. I can only conclude that Dark Horse's editors overreached themselves in their attempts to make the series more accessible to all of those new readers they anticipated.

The Knights of the Old Republic issues saw John Jackson Miller make just about every mistake I praised him for avoiding in Commencement: expository dialogue, contrived sentimentality, and erratic pacing. The first issue of the Dark Times segment fared better: Mick Harrison demonstrated sensitivity and wit totally incongruous with his leaden scripting on Path to Nowhere and Parallels. Dark Times had been wandering the Galaxy in search of a plot, so the dramatic drive obviously helped. But Harrison's second issue degenerated into the monotony that characterized earlier issues of Dark Times. Rob Williams of Rebellion has always had issues with decompression, -- he uses so few panels that transitions feel abrupt and choppy -- and his ultra-brief two-issue Vector arc exacerbated the problem. Lacking the space in which to unravel his typically complex characterizations, Williams resorted to such astoundingly hoary clichés as the old soldier who grouses about how he's "getting to old for this" moments before sacrificing himself.... Legacy, meanwhile, surpassed even Knights of the Old Republic in expository dialogue; John Ostrander's strenuous efforts to make the characters sound hip made every speech bubble immeasurably more painful. Not even the artists fared well: Scott Hepburn, always inconsistent but astounding in his best moments, drew Knights of the Old Republic in a jagged, pinched style; Dustin Weaver brutally overdefined every contour of the human body; Jan Duursema, though more consistent than her colleagues, didn't seem to have much to draw at all; and Doug Wheatley was even more static than usual, a quality made all the more apparent by the use of Dave McCraig as colorist. I like Messers. Wheatley and McCraig both, but they're the most mismatched duo I've seen since The Last Command paired Edvin Biuković with Pamela Rambo.

I wish dearly that I had something better to say about Legacy 31, the final issue of Vector. Alas, the writing is just as mediocre as it was in preceding issues. The monumental character of the story makes its execution all the more disappointing. I'm not a vindictive fanboy, and I'd've liked to have seen this thing done well! At least the art was memorable.

Jan Duursema's pencils are definitely the high point of this whole mess. She combines the most striking qualities of realism and impressionism with a deft sense of visual storytelling. I've been reading comics since I was a preteen, and I've seen lots of realists come and go. What sets Duursema apart from all of them (with the notable exceptions of Tony Harris, Paul Chadwick, and J.H. Williams III) is her use of dramatic perspectives, economic linework, and expressive human bodies -- all more characteristic of cartoons. Most importantly, Duursema carefully chooses distinctive faces, bodies, and costumes for all of her characters where less talented realists randomly assemble generic physical traits. Looking through a Duursema comic, you will never see the exaggerated facial expressions and W.A.S.P.-y stock characters so common to modern comics. I have only two complaints about her work, and I could easily apply them to every comic she's drawn since the year 2000: first, she tends to omit background detail except in the most panoramic shots; second, the characters' fighting stances are ridiculous. As a fencer, I'm more sensitive to the latter problem, but it's still painfully obvious. But the worst problem with the art is not Duursema's fault at all.

Jan Duursema has always had bad luck with inkers: Rick Magyar adequately conveyed Duursema's precision but left her human figures static and had difficulty rendering shadow and contrast; Ray Krissing initially produced some of Duursema's finest work (see, for instance, Darkness and Single Cell), but the quality of his inking rapidly deteriorated until the scribbly Attack of the Clones adaptation. Duursema's current inker, Dan Parsons, is one of the poorest I've ever seen in modern comics (and yes, I've read The Sandman). I'm reluctant to make such an extraordinary condemnation, but I've seen Parsons' work on a number of different pencillers, and he consistently butchers their linework. (Weirdly enough, his own pen sketches are perfectly competent -- see www.danparsonsart.com.) His inks in Legacy are either so blotchy that they deform the shapes of Duursema's lines or so fine that they practically vanish. It's unfortunate that readers will judge Duursema's ability from Parsons' blacklines, because they totally misrepresent the precision and clarity of her pencils (and yes, I've seen her uninked pencils). It's a joke throughout the comics-reading community that Dark Horse has excellent pencillers, excellent colorists, and awful inkers, and Legacy justifies that stereotype. I've wracked my brain for inkers who would jive well with Jan Duursema, but can't think of any. She needs someone with both weight and line variation -- a heavier ligne Claire like East European comics. Alas, Edvin Biuković, The Perfect Inker, is ten years dead.... Tell me if you have any suggestions!

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In any case, there are my reviews. I don't particularly care whether anyone agrees with me, but I hope I've expressed myself articulately.

See you next week!

Force be,
~The Admiral