More catch-up reviews again today.

We've just passed Episode I, and now we're stuck with a problem - Anakin needs to catch up on his basic Jedi education. He's a fast learner, but the poor boy ain't leaving the temple for almost 3 years. Obi-Wan's stuck there, too, helping with the teaching of his Padawan, and thus our main characters aren't available for galaxy-spanning adventures. So, we need to focus on some other characters for a bit. And, to do this, we rely on Dark Horse Comics, and their stable of writers, artists, and general good guys. And they come back with what turns out to be a fairly good chunk of material.

First off, the Clone Wars are coming. But it takes almost 10 years to clone up some troopers. And to do that, you need the best bounty hunter in the Galaxy. That's Jango Fett, and we learn all about him in Jango Fett: Open Seasons. Now, technically, this story begins in the Star Wars: Bounty Hunter video game, but I'll be honest - I've only played that once, and didn't beat it - I used cheat codes to see how it ended. It's not that it was a bad game, but I just had a hard time with it. Shooters just aren't my cup-of-blue-milk. Anyway, Open Seasons really just goes over the past of Jango Fett, and does a WONDERFUL job of clearing up the murky history of his son, Boba Fett. See, the EU had about 12 different origins for Boba back before we found out he's Jango's cloned son and so on. EU enthusiasts always found his past mysterious and difficult to clear up, but somehow Haden Blackman does a fantastic job of throwing in Jaster Mereel and the Journeymen Proctors, as well as half-a-dozen other Boba origins into this, giving us the final stand of the Mandalorians and showing us WHY Jango was the best choice for the clone army - he really was a fantastic soldier BEFORE he became a bounty hunter. Here, again, artwork by Ramon Backs brings us ANOTHER woman who looks like a barely-grown Rain from Jedi vs Sith, though this time it's in a brief, one-shot cameo. Still, I find myself thinking this is no coincidence (unless Bachs simply can't draw any other female faces. Honestly, there's not too many other females in the stories he draws...).

Anyway, Open Seasons' is a great read, especially if you're a Fett Fanatic (is that a technical term?). The only down side I can find is that there's no explanation into Count Dooku's history, and how the Clone Army was really brought about. Now, I know this was because it was theorized at the time that George Lucas might go into those details in Episode III, but he didn't, and now I want all that Sifo-Dias stuff cleared up. Why this hasn't been dealt with yet is beyond me. SOMEONE needs to tell THAT story.

Anyway, after Jango starts giving genetic material for our favorite soldiers in white, we head back to the Jedi Temple and start hanging out with the Jedi again. First up is Ki-Adi-Mundi again, back for another solo adventure in Outlander. This story is MUCH better than Prelude to Rebellion, despite it being another Star Wars story on Tatooine. Still, it introduces us to "Tuskan" Jedi A'sharad Hett and delves into the background of Aurra Sing. This story is a boatload of fun worth reading by anyone who enjoys a good Tatooine story (There are enough of them these days that I think you could fill a whole shelf with JUST Tatooine-based Star Wars stories). Ki-Adi and his new Padawan (A'Sharad) are back for more fun in Emissaries to Malastare, which starts off as a group of Jedi travel to Malastare for some peace negotiations, and end up with Mace Windu and Depa Bilaba on Nar Shadda. Despite the title, the Nar Shadda bits are actually more connected to the over-all arc of the Star Wars timeline, as it serves as important background information for the Clone Wars novel Shatterpoint.


And then comes Twilight. And here we get introduced to two of the best EU characters from this era - Quinlan Vos and Aayla Securra. Quinlan wakes up with no memory in a burning building, and goes on to learn he's a Jedi, had a Padawan who's also missing, and someone's trying to kill him. I'll be honest - I've always been iffy on Quinlan. On the one hand, he TOTALLY rocks. On the other hand, he's too much a "mirror of Anakin," in that he eventually goes to the Dark Side and comes back (though with considerably fewer limbs lost). But we'll go over that later towards the end of Quinlan's story. Right now, we're just meeting him, and his interactions with that rascal Villie is the stuff of legends. Right now, Quinlan is nothing but boatloads of fun, and he remains this way through most of his early adventures.

We switch back to Ki-Adi and A'Sharad for The Hunt For Aurra Sing, which pretty much is just another excuse for Aurra to kill come Jedi and then run afoul of her former master, The Dark Woman. But here's an interesting little statistic for you EU fans. Aurra Sing, who had nothing but a two second cameo shot in Episode I, is only a Jedi Padawan short of matching Darth Maul's Jedi Death Count. Aurra kills off two Jedi in the beginning of this story (she may have killed more in the past, that's never really clear). Both are at LEAST Jedi Knights, if not full masters. There's a VERY young Jedi Padawan that she spares. Now Maul, as we all know, killed our old friend Qui-Gon Jinn in Episode I, but then he met his end at the hands of Obi-Wan Kenobi. In the book Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter, he kills off Anoon Bondara (who really just sacrificed himself so his Padawan could escape), and then, FINALLY, he manages to kill Darsha Assant at the end of the book. She's just a Padawan, though, and only counts half. So, Maul - deadly, highly trained Sith Lord - is at 2.5 Jedi killed. Aurra Sing - barely trained former Jedi Padawan turned bountry hunter - rests at 2 Jedi killed, and survives (apparently) all the way past the Yuzhaan Vong invasion, some fifty years or so past her first appearance. YOU do the math and tell me who's more dangerous.

After this last jaunt with Ki and gang, it's all Quinlan, all the time. Darkness finds Quinlan back on his homeworld, where he catches up with the brainwashed (and almost gone to the darkside) Aayla. Now, as best I can tell, SOMETHING happens before Darkness that I don't have - some story involving the Witches of Dathomir, which stinks, because I'd love to read that story, just to see what happened. After Darkness, we flash back in time to remember the so-called Stark Hyperspace War, which is a rather weak story that I only enjoy because it has Qui-Gon Jinn alive in it. Here, again, there seems some confusion over how much military the Republic had BEFORE the Clone Wars (movies imply NONE, EU seems to think it must have had SOMETHING). This also introduces us to ANOTHER Tarkin (there are like 3 distinctly different Tarkins in the EU, and only one of them is capable of being the Tarkin we see in Episode I - it's not this one).

After we finish going over the Stark Hyperspace Burp (because, really, that's all it seems to be), we hit our final Quinlan story before the Clone Wars. Rite of Passage finds Quinlan and Aayla returning to Ryloth and battling out some Morgukai warriors. This is a fun story, and had it been the last we ever saw of Quinlan Vos, I think I'd totally put him up there permanently in the "ROCKS" category. However, the Clone Wars take Quinlan down a path a little too similar to Anakin's, and I find that... questionable. Still, he's too cool a character to ignore, and everyone should try and hunt down these comics. Dark Horse should consider putting out some ultimate editions of these babies, maybe even in hard cover. I'd buy it.

Next up, we see how young Anakin Skywalker's doing with this whole "Jedi" thing. Fun, fun.