In another blog of mine, I praised the series of Hyperspace webstrips called Evasive Action. Evasive Action was just the kind of Star Wars Expanded Universe story that I like. Rather than being an epic tale of galaxy-wide conflict and galaxy-saving heroic acts, Evasive Action told the personal story of three padawans who survived Order 66 and set it against the backdrop of the tumultuous events in the Rise of the Empire Era, exploring its own little corner of that period of the Star Wars universe. The Rookies series, drawn and authored by Pablo Hidalgo, is a lot like that, as it tells the story of a group of three bounty hunters who, mostly by coincedence, team up with a Rebel prospect who is going to make her first rendezvous with the Rebellion when things go awfully wrong for them, and the quartet find themselves with the Empire on their tail.

There are two Rookies stories: Rookies: Rendezvous and Rookies: No Turning Back, the latter of which is currently being "published" on Hyperspace as daily webstrips. As mentioned, they are drawn and authored by Pablo Hidalgo, who proves that he is not just good with Star Wars content, but also an adept comics artist. Well, he already showed that with his funny comics contributions to the good old Star Wars Adventure Journal back in the 90s, but Rookies then, along with the adaptation of the short story A Hunter's Fate: Greedo's Tale, at least, reconfirms this. The style, like Evasive Action and Hidalgo's own A Hunter's Fate, is a funky fresh departure from the traditional drawing styles associated with Star Wars comics (though these have developed their own funky freshness over the last couple of years), which is much welcome to an enthusiastic, but unfairly critical, comics lover such as myself.

The main characters are an interesting mixture of more or less stereotypical Star Wars characters, or perhaps it's better to call them archetypical with reference to the almost universal mythologism of Star Wars. Firstly, the three bounty hunters are in stark contrast with the idealistic but somewhat impatient human woman Kestrel who is determined to join the Rebellion and fight the evil Galactic Empire. The leader of the bounty hunters is the sly but not always competent scoundrel Raal Yorta. Smiley the Squib is a typical annoying sidekick who nevertheless functions as the trio's problem crusher, though he sometimes ends up creating more problems than he solves. Finally, there is the colossal human mountain of muscles, Sammie Staable, whose character is probably best described as something in-between a gentle giant and a noble rogue, as he is just about the only one of the lot who has a sense of honor and nobility. This mixture of characters has given rise to a couple of very funny dialogues, such as in No Turning Back where Kestrel calls Smiley a gnatbrain. Sammie, concerned with the feelings of his Squib friend, tells her not to call him that, while Raal says that he has to remember the insult so he can use it himself in the future. The series is full of both humorous and serious dialogue. The dialogues among Imperial characters, including Darth Vader, as well as various well-known bounty hunters, tend to be more serious (especially in the inevitable torture scenes that remind us how evil the Empire is) than the lighthearted repartees that take place among the main characters. As mentioned, the style is kind of funky, which works great with the action sequences, of which there are plenty. It gives the story a very interesting touch of dynamicity.

The storylines are based on scenarios. I assume that what's meant is role playing game scenarios. If that's the case, then perhaps this is the secret to writing unepic tales of epic proportions. In role playing scenarios, a group of characters typically has to complete a mission or reach a goal or something like that. Typically, the universe is already set and merely serves as a backdrop or environment for the scenario. This means that, even though scenarios are about heroic deeds, they do not have the same epic galaxy-changing qualities that we see in many Star Wars novels these days. When adapted into other media, like comic books, there is great potential for exploring character development against an epic backdrop of galactic affairs, and thus produce both dynamic and entertaining tales of the type that I personally appreciate a lot. It is like the characters and the events associated with them are small pieces of a large epic mosaic. Hidalgo really manages to pull this off in his Rookies stories.

Another great thing is that Rookies are very well integrated into the Star Wars continuity and, apart from introducing our four new heroes, they contain a host of characters and locations, and references thereto, from both well-known and obscure canonical sources. For example, it was a great thrill for me to encounter Tay "Tiree" Vanis, whom I remembered from my reading of the Marvel classics back in my childhood, when they were still brand new and exiting (well, they still are exiting... they'll never cease to be). This really makes reading the Rookies series extra enjoyable. I find it great to see that someone with such a vast knowledge of the Star Wars continuity as Hidalgo being able to make use of it an create really enjoyable comics stories.

I'm really looking forward to seeing No Turning Back in its completed form, and I hope there will be more installments in the series after that, because the Rookies series is a really great addition to the Star Wars continuity. Like I have said about Evasive Action, I hope Rookies will some day be published in a form (like a TBP along with Evasive Action maybe) that is accessible not only to Hyperspace members but to the entire the Star Wars fan community.