Review: Star Wars: Fire Carrier #5

In spite of my previous reservations, I’m pleased to say that the “Fire Carrier” series is ending on an unexpectedly satisfying final note. In the wake of Order 66, Master K’Kruhk guides the last surviving Jedi younglings, now the precious, irreplaceable future of the Jedi Order, on the final leg of their flight from the systematic extermination of refugees by rogue Imperial elements.

As some of you already know, I wasn’t especially optimistic about this series during the earlier issues. It wasn’t that the story was bad; the story was there, but it didn’t really do anything exciting with the material and kind of fell flat for me. This concluding issue addresses my previous concerns on the matter, bringing all the threads together into something that finally builds a more unique narrative flow.

While we still have a lot of narrative regarding Imperial activity, there’s no Darth Vader cameo in this issue — which is just about always a plus to me. While I do like the occasional character tie-in, I feel like a lot of opportunities are missed by adding big players to the mix. It’s a bit of a trade-off in writing style, but I suppose it all comes down to personal preference in the end.

It’s a shame the story took this long to start throwing us the interesting twists. We see a pleasant subversion of the idea that Imperial officers and soldiers are all made of evil, and we also see a similar subversion as the passionate, death-dealing actions of one young padawan begin what we can only assume is a the beginning of a slow descent into the Dark Side. If anything, this is great material for anyone building an argument for the “benevolent Empire” and “Jedi are assholes” theories that float around the web.

In our review of “Fire Carrier #4”, we got RSC writer Mischlings’s take on the comic. As someone who’s better read in comics than me, his thoughts have brought up some good talking points that I think I’ve left unaddressed in my other reviews.

While the art direction is solid and consistent, the main point I’d like to address is the use of “little yellow boxes” as a narrative device. I agree that they tend to be a little unwieldy; just about anything they tell can be effectively conveyed by other means in most cases. However, we have a few complications in this case. The key thing to remember is that Star Wars is a franchise now mainly targeted at children, especially material with the Jedi or pertaining to the world of the prequels. There’s nothing wrong with that, really. It just means that some things that are obvious to adult readers will be lost on a lot of younger readers. This quickly compounds with the fact that we don’t have established emotional cues, expressions, or body language for many aliens in the Star Wars universe. The less human they look, the harder it is for the brain to extrapolate complex emotions. All of this together means that the yellow boxes, while jarring, are probably a necessary feature in this story.

I don’t particularly want to spoil any of the neat character moments, so I’ll go ahead and jump my thoughts on “Fire Carrier” as a whole.

Parting Thoughts on “Fire Carrier”

You know how when you eat a snow cone, it’s pretty okay for the most part, but then you hit the tasty syrup that sunk to the bottom? Reading “Fire Carrier” is kind of like that. Overall, I rather enjoyed the series as a whole. Not my usual cup of tea, but still quite enjoyable by the end. Definitely a recommended read for fans of Jedi literature and the pre-Rebellion Empire.

That said, I do wish it had started with its narrative twists a little earlier than it did. I will admit that this could easily be because I had no previous investment in the characters involved; however, by the end of it all, I did feel some investment in the goings-on of the party. There are many directions the overarching series could take, and I will happily admit that I am looking forward to seeing where these new threads lead us.

As far as what I liked, I really enjoyed how they showed the faults of the Imperial chain of command. We get the impression that there isn’t some sort of evil tendency behind the Galactic Empire itself. While there’s the corruption of Papaltine and Vader, most of the Empire seems to do pretty well for itself through a rather flexible network of bureaucracy. However, the wiggle-room given by this system makes it ideal for forces of corruption, which leads to rogue elements using Imperial capital to achieve their own unsavory ends. This is something that we see come up a lot in other stories, but none of them examine it in quite this much detail.

My only complaint of note is that I’m still not entirely sure why the Wild Men were a necessary addition. In a way, it kind of raises more questions than it answers. They recognize Jedi, which is fine. No real problem there. However, in a world where extremely diverse humanoid races are the norm, why call them Wild Men? Why not something a little less innocuous, like wildlings or wild apes? Are we using the term “Men” in the Tolkein-esqe sense of “the race of Men,” or are we referring to the fact that they appear to be anatomically male? If they do more stories in this setting, I hope the nature of these creatures is something they go into later.

In any event, this is good stuff for the $2.99 cover price. A bit drawn out and some missed opportunities, but still a neat read. This is definitely worth a read if you’re into the Force-y side of Star Wars. If the whole Jedi/Sith thing is your kind of deal, go for it. If not, there’s plenty of other Dark Horse Star Wars material out there for you to check out.

Doc Watson is a writer, editor, and official “resident Star Wars nerd” on the Red Shirt Crew. Got questions or remarks? Leave a comment below or send him a tweet at @DocWatsonMD.

Review: Star Wars Dark Times Fire Carrier #4

Star Wars Dark Times: Fire Carrier #4 (written by Randy Stradley and illustrated by Gabriel Guzman) is very obviously a Star Wars book. I’m not exactly a big Star Wars fan. I like the movies well enough (my thoughts on the series are probably something for another article), but I’ve always loved the promise that the universe had for stories outside of the original and prequel trilogies more than the actual movies. That is why I chose to review this comic–to see other stories they’re telling in that universe. And…it’s a decidedly mixed bag.

First, I’ll talk about the art. I’m not sure what to say about it; outside of a couple questionable looking facial expressions that were drawn for Sidirri, I don’t really have any problems with the it, but nothing jumps out at me as memorable. I don’t want to blame the few things that bothered me on the artist, since it’s possible that the design work was done by someone else. For example, the main character of the story, K’Kruhk, has a face that reminds me more of General Grievous, a cyborg, than something living, but since I don’t know who came up with that design, I can’t blame it on the artist.

Then we get to the writing. There’s nothing really wrong with the story in this comic. It doesn’t have plot holes or other story problems, but the writing itself is another story. The first is a problem that I associate more with Silver Age comics than modern ones: the overabundance of yellow text boxes. These are everywhere in the book as a narrator tells us the characters’ thoughts. These might be excusable or even work if they were presented as the characters themselves, but it’s frustrating and a little odd to be narration. And while not as bad as ones that spell out what’s being shown, they do explain what should be the subtext of the scene that we’re seeing – when a character is making what could be a life-altering decision, we can read it in their face and actions. The book should give us enough credit to let us figure out what is going on in their minds and tell us the story with the visuals instead of spelling it out in narration. Unfortunately, that same problem spills over into the dialogue, with characters spelling everything out, leaving nothing to subtext.

Another problem is the Jedi, which is something that has bugged me throughout not just this comic but the entirety of Star Wars: they’re boring. Proper Jedi are boring characters. They show no emotions, which is essential to relating to a character. Luckily, K’Kruhk manages to mostly avoid that pitfall, but Zao, another major Jedi character, runs into exactly that problem, and therefore I don’t care about him, and I really wouldn’t mind if he stayed out if the story completely.

So I don’t spend the entire review being negative, I should mention the things in the story that I like and think worked. Like I’ve mentioned before, I like the overall story. A Jedi trying to save the younglings (they should just be called children) in his care after Order 66 from Revenge of the Sith is interesting, especially with all the little turns the story has taken in their dealings with and attempted avoidance of the Empire. This issue ends on a rather large cliffhanger related to that storyline, but that’s expected, given that this is the second to last issue of a story arc.

The next thing I liked is the handling of the Empire itself. Though he’s not the central focus of the story like you might expect him to be, Darth Vader is a presence just outside of the main story (plus a major part of what I expect to be another continuing plotline that’s never really explained in this story arc), which serves well to remind you of just what is supposed to be going on in the background of this story. Related to that is one of the officers for the Empire, Lieutenant Gregg (who feels like a reference to Clark Gregg, who played Agent Coulson in the Marvel movies), who serves as a good source of comic relief. As a Lieutenant, he’s involved in a lot of the higher operations for the Empire, but isn’t important enough for anyone to take seriously, leading to multiple scenes of him trying to talk to Vader and just being completely ignored, a running gag from earlier in the series that somehow doesn’t get old to me.

Overall, it’s really a wash on this book. I probably wouldn’t recommend spending $2.99 on it, but, again, I’m not the hardcore Star Wars fan for whom this book was intended. There’s nothing exceptional about it that would have me recommend it to someone who isn’t already following the story, but it might be worth looking at when the entire arc is collected and available for a lower price.

Zac Kandell (known mostly on the internet as Mischlings) is a lowly newbie writer here. Follow him on Twitter at @Mischlings to read his thoughts in bite-sized pieces when he actually has any worth sharing.

Review: Star Wars: Fire Carrier #3

The story continues in Fire Carrier #3 exactly as you would have expected upon reading “Fire Carrier #2.” Our group of Jedi refugees continues its plight from the genocidal acts of the Galactic Empire following Order 66. Jedi Master K’Kruhk and company are witnesses to Imperial atrocities and pursued by hostile patrols. Imperial officials calculate their next move, Vader personally distances himself from the officials involved, and Sang continues his stay as an Imperial captive.

What’s perhaps the most disappointing thing is that it takes no particular liberties with the plot at hand. It’s still a WWII Holocaust story. The problem isn’t really uncanny interchangeability of the sci-fi and World War genres. It’s more that this is a story we’ve heard so many times before that it’s almost diluted by the Star Wars setting. It feels like the story is constantly trying to remind us that we’re reading Star Wars stuff. We already know that, though. We don’t need the story to tell us that. Why are we making the story more generic and less accessible? It doesn’t seem like a winning combination.

On a deep psychological level, we identify better with characters that are more like us, both in the physical and emotional senses. We find ourselves identifying with the humanity of Darth Vader and the Imperial forces, yet the alien species of the protagonists continue to distance us from the core narrative, doing little more than adding needless complication of no consequence that makes the story more inaccessible to the reader. Jedi Master K’Kruhk is a Whiphid, yet his unusual race contributes nothing to his character. He could just as easily be replaced by a human or just about any other vaguely humanoid race at no real cost as a character. It feels like the only reason he, or anyone in this story, is an alien is simply to remind us that we’re reading a Star Wars book, almost as a novelty of some sort. This lack of cultural empathy for the non-human characters takes away from the story by (probably unintentionally) trivializing the most interesting things about the alien characters.

That’s enough about the characters, though. The only thing that really puts me off with these kinds of stories is how implausibly stupid the soldiers are. I don’t mean the “Stormtrooper Tactical Academy” kind of stupid, but the “complete lack of personal awareness” kind of stupid. In this issue, the Jedi protagonist brings down a large ship using the Force, pulling the ship into a sharp dive. We cut to the pilot, who is panicking about how there’s something wrong with “the controls.”

Look, dude. You’re a pilot in the Imperial Navy. This is immediately after your allies and comrades helped you execute Order 66. You’re in pursuit of Jedi refugees who bore witness to your multiple iterations of mass genocide. Dealing with Force adepts is something that is probably covered on his basic debriefing before any missions involving their extermination. You’d think that this guy would be able to piece together that he was attacked by a Force user of some sort. I understand that the format of a serial comic provides some limitations to the methods of narration, but it’s simply implausible that he’d be that stupid.

Look at it this way. Let’s say a Humvee with US Marines is travelling down a road in Afghanistan. An IED explodes violently and destroys one of the vehicle’s wheels, spinning it out of control. The driver’s first reaction isn’t going to be “I don’t know what’s wrong! I’ve lost control!” It’s going to be something along the lines of “Oh balls, we just hit an IED!” It just doesn’t make sense that mook soldiers can so consistently forget their training and objectives at the drop of a hat. See what I mean? I know it’s “just Star Wars” or whatever, but that’s a poor defense for flawed plots.

In any case, there are no real surprises in this issue. Fire Carrier #3 is not bad, by any stretch. If you’re already invested in “Fire Carrier” series or Star Wars: Dark Times in general, the $2.99 cover price isn’t bad, but you were probably going to get this anyway. That said, I don’t know if I can currently recommend the “Fire Carrier” arc to someone who isn’t already a fan of any of its tangential arcs. Maybe they’ll do something crazy with this in the final two issues, but right now I’m just not seeing it. It just failed to do anything particularly new so far, and I don’t think it’s established enough narrative framework to do anything particularly crazy any time soon. 

Doc Watson is a frequent writer for the Red Shirt Crew and is holds the title of “Resident Star Wars Nerd” on the crew. He thinks the Jedi in the prequels and the EU are kind of lame, so he may be a bit biased. Feel free to validate his internet existence by following his Twitter account at @DocWatsonMD

Review: Star Wars – Dark Times: Fire Carrier #2

The solicitation says it all: Darth Vader grooms a new tool for the Empire—a new assassin. Meanwhile, Jedi Master K’Kruhk flees across the countryside with a group of young Padawans. His hope is to find a safe haven and prevent the impressionable younglings from experiencing any more tragedy. But tragedy is exactly what awaits them…

For those of you late to the party, the “Fire Carrier” storyline takes place in the aftermath of Order 66, the covert order from Papaltine to execute the Jedi leaders of the Grand Army of the Republic. Jedi Master K’Kruhk is able to save himself and a party of Padawans from the slaughter, managing to find shelter in an offworld refugee camp. Tangentially, the doings of Darth Vader ties up some loose ends from the “Out of the Wilderness” arc.

I enjoyed the story, thinking it set up a pretty strong framework for the upcoming issues. It was rather lacking in action, but the story it’s telling doesn’t really need action this early. This builds emotional stakes for the characters involved that makes future encounters hold more weight, giving them a certain frailty when compared to characters constantly surrounded by danger. The story also doesn’t make the Jedi shtick such a huge deal, seeing that they’re supposed to be in hiding after Order 66. The focus of Jedi segments is entirely on a personal level, keeping even force use to a minimum to ensure they stay under cover. Less space cop, more space monk. Good stuff.

The only mark against I have against the series so far is that the parallelism between the Empire and the Nazis is a bit heavy-handed. There’s always been a pretty strong aesthetic correlation, like crisp uniforms, use of Sturmtruppen, and high contrast palettes. However, the Empire has always been deeper and more developed than space Nazis. They take refuge in audacity when it comes to their politics, but so much of their evil stems from corruption and the sheer vastness of the Empire. While totalitarian, the fascist state just isn’t there. If anything, it’s more like the British or Roman Empires.

But I digress.

Anyway, “Fire Carrier” is building into what is ostensibly a Holocaust story in space, but there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a good basis for a story, combining a familiar narrative with a familiar setting. This lets us focus on the personalities, relationships, and conflicts of featured characters. That said, they didn’t really put any spin on it aside from Jedi genocide; the overall arc feels like someone filled out a mad lib for a 70’s World War II movie. I reiterate, there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a good issue, and I enjoyed it. Just don’t expect too many surprises if you’re big on WWII cinema.

Overall, it’s a good read that definitely keeps in the spirits of the preceding issue, which makes it more than worth the $2.99 cover price. If you enjoyed the first issue, you’ll definitely like this one. It’s starting on fairly predictable notes, but there’s a certain comfort to that for introductory issues. Be sure to stay tuned if you liked “Out of the Wilderness,” because there’s no way they’re leaving that thread to hang there halfway through. Crossovers? I sure hope so.

Doc Watson is one of three editors for the Red Shirt Crew and is the resident Star Wars nerd on the blog. Feel free to validate his internet existence by leaving a comment or sending him a tweet at @DocWatsonMD.