Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi, New comics

Three new comics this week!

Ironheart 11

I’d be down with Riri staying in Wakanda forever.  This is an awesome team:

Harleen 2

Simply phenomenal.  Between Sunstone and this, I haven’t read anything less than stellar from Stjepan Sejic yet.  

Awesome interpretation of Harvey's new vision.

This is the comic I want to read.

Sunstone flashbacks.

Final submission.  Beautifully done by Sejic.

Superman Smashes the Klan 1

I passed on this last week.  The art (Gurihiru from Unstoppable Wasp.  So nice to see them again!) is lovely, but I wasn’t in the mood to read about white supremacists and discrimination against a Chinese family.  But I picked it up this week after a glowing review on iFanboy.

Turns out both things are true - The high praise is well warranted, and I still dislike reading about racism.  My stream-of-consciousness problems with it as a comic book plot point: 1) I want to be entertained when I read comic; Racism isn’t entertaining.  It’s far too real to be escapist, regardless of the presence of Superman. 2) I already know this problem exists, and I’m on board with it as an evil that would ideally be eradicated.  I don’t need to read examples of why it’s horrible.

Given that, I’m still glad I picked this up.  This is (surprisingly) my first exposure to Gene Luen Yang’s work.  His reputation is deserved, if this is any indication of his body of work.  And let’s be honest, I really would like to see Superman smash some Klan assholes.  

Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi: Freedon Nadd Uprising 1-2

Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi: Dark Lords of the Sith 1-6

Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi: Sith War 1-6

Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi: Redemption 1-5

Bullet point thoughts:

Ulic Qel-Droma is one of the best names ever.  

Nomi Sunrider is a great character.

Main artist Chris Gossett fluctuates wildly in quality from page to page.  Some of his highlights below:

Sweet dual wielding pose.

Just a really solid drawing of Ulic Qel-Droma

How is this the same artist?

I wish the interior art for these comics was as great as the covers.

Double-bladed lightsaber years before Phantom Menace.  It caught my eye on the shelf, to say the least.

Redemption is the best part of these issues, a quiet epilogue to the sweeping vision of the previous arcs.  (The art is also stronger. Better coloring?) Alas, it’s marred by the worst example of the fool trope, the bumbling out-of-his-depth idiot who does stupid things and gets away with it because he isn’t worth the trouble to kill.  I’ve never liked that type of character, and he mars an otherwise solid story.

Hate this fucker.

Generally, this is an epic saga that could have benefited from better execution, but it holds up pretty well from when I first read it.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Fine.  Nice for Redemption