Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Writer: Justin Aclin
Artist: Ben Bates
Cover Art: Mike Hawthorne
Pages: 80
Format: Paperback
Retail Price: $7.99
Release Date: March 13th
From Dark Horse:
On a mission with a Jedi general, one trooper contemplates his own worth as a clone of the great Mandalorian warrior Jango Fett. As mission leads through a booby-trapped, abandoned Jedi Temple, this one clone will discover who he is and also where he came from when the Mandalorian Death Watch suddenly appears!
One question came to mind after seeing the cover of this latest Star Wars TPB, “What is a Clone Trooper doing with a light saber?!?!?!” A Jedi in disguise perhaps? Maybe he forgot his blaster at home? Tsk, tsk… I hate when that happens; but it is a nice visual twist to strike plenty of curiosity especially if you’re a fan of Star Wars, or The Clone Wars television series in general, where this story is placed during season four. Let’s dig in to see what’s going on…
Master Jedi B’ink Utrila and her Padawan Rennax Omani, partake in a journey on Daray 2 (an outer rim moon) with four Clone Troopers, in search of a lost Jedi temple. To give you the proper setting, the beginning panels give you a sense you are watching the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark but, sorry kids, no Indy this time. However, you do get a ‘special’ and strange Clone Trooper named Glitch, who believes he feels ‘The Force’ as the Jedi’s do.
The Jedi and company find and proceed to enter the lost temple in hopes to locate the Sith artifact called The Gauntlet of Kressh The Younger, which “contains power to prevent anything from touching the wearer without his or her consent “, as defined on a Star Wars wiki source. An item powerful enough the Jedi does not want Count Dooku to possess it. As they proceed in the main hall, which has a very large statue as its centerpiece, they trigger a stepping stone trap that brings the statue to life, which ends up being a guard droid that is indestructible to their blasters and even lightsabers. Glitch attempts to use force powers (of course powers he does not possess) to stop the droid. However, Jedi Utrila notices Glitches attempt and uses her true force powers to rotate a spherical encased device on the droid’s waist (which looks to me like an energized hourglass) locking the droid back to its dormant state.
Shortly after their unforeseen battle, Padawan Omani discovers a strange wall full of holes. Jedi Utrila quickly recognizes this wall to be a mechanism of sorts, which works by placing a lightsaber in the correct slot. By way of The Force the Jedi selects the correct slot and runs the saber through, which opens up the secret passage they had been hoping to find. Here you will run into my favorite comical panel in this book, where Glitch has his hands reached out fearfully walking through the passage saying, “The Force flows through me, The Force flows through me”. I find this funny because I did the similar thing when I was walking through our dark house as a kid.
Hey now…don’t laugh I bet you did it too even if you want to admit it or not.
In the next room at the end of the passage, Glitch and the other troopers come to find a strange green lit up column. A curious Clone inadvertently touches it, where the column begins breaking apart into hundreds of very mean centipede looking creatures that are detaching from each other. While trying to fight off yet another indestructible defender, they come to discover that the creatures had formed the column defensively over the very Sith gauntlet they sought out for. As Jedi Utrila reaches for it, she is quickly succumbed by fear and panic, unaware the gauntlet itself is overwhelmed by powers of the dark side. The group quickly retreats and the creatures begin to reform into the column once again, protecting its sacred item.
When everyone is safe back in the main hall, (including Jedi Utrila yet still shaken and disturbed) they’re able to collect their thoughts and regroup. Somewhere away from the group taking first watch, Glitch and Padawan Omani briefly discuss ways of ‘The Force’, until they are ambushed and held captive by 5 nomadic Mandalorian warriors, known as the Mandalorian Death Watch led by Pre Viszla (from the Clone Wars series). The gauntlet is also of great importance to Viszla, where he would use it to seek revenge on Count Dooku, as they both had a fallout early on in the series. Bound and defenseless, Padawan Omani sneaks her light saber to Glitch, (so that’s where he gets it!) where he is better able to cut free from the binds and start running to the group, while Omani takes on the warriors head on so he can escape.
Pursued by the Mandalorian (like Boba or Jago Fett – flying with their jet packs) Glitch reaches the group. Soon after, he ends up using the very lightsaber that freed him, against the great Mandalore warrior Viszla. Outmatched and over powered as clones are not known for hand combat, Glitch finds himself backed up on the same stepping stone trap to awaken the previous guard droid the group had fought against before. In a last ditch effort to escape certain death against a stronger warrior and now the droid, Glitch inserts the lightsaber into the same mechanism that led them to the gauntlet. However, he chooses the incorrect one causing the wall to crumble, which makes him fall into darkness, as the entire temple begins to become unstable and collapse. After managing to escape the droid and the temple before it fully collapses, the Death Watch flee, the Clone Troopers and Jedi survive minus Glitch. They take a moment to remember their strangely unique clone. …But what ever happened to that gauntlet?
Leaving you with that – as I don’t like to spoil endings – this was a solid side-story comic for Clone Wars series fans. The art had a genuine comic book feel to it: nothing fancy or realistic. The Glitch character was quirky, which was really the only thing that kept me intrigued throughout. The lost temple setting was predictable with its traps and secrets. As in the Clone Wars series, they did a good job giving the clones personalities. With that said I find this to be an average story comic for either a Clone Wars series fan or a Star Wars fan who maybe hasn’t seen the series.
Interesting I would be happy to see glitch as a jedi and how awesome that would be