After a one-month stint showing us the final fate of Finis Valorum, Republic returns with the return of Anakin Skywalker to Obi-Wan Kenobi. Or vice-versa. Now under the temporarily tutelage of Ki-Adi-Mundi, young Skywalker, his new master, and a few other Jedi hop in their starfighters to prevent a ship from being attacked by pirates. Obi-Wan and Alpha, meanwhile, escaped the cluches of Assajj Ventress and are about to crash land right in the middle of yet another conflict. Will they survive? Well, you've seen the cast lists for Episode III, but it's nice to see how they reunite a padawan with his master.

This issue, entitled "No Man's Land," finally ends the "so when the heck are those two going to meet up again?" arc started many moons ago. You know where the story has to go, so there's not much in the way of surprises, but it's told well and while it could have been spread over a few more issues I'm really glad they finally are getting back on track. Whatever that track may be, anyway.

Story & Art

John Ostrander continues his work on this series, showing a good ear for the kind of dialog that Lucas gave to Anakin. If this is good or bad, I'm not sure, but it does show that Ostrander has a handle on his source material, which is undoubtedly good.

Tomas Giorello and Brad Anderson do a good job on the art, and the characters come in bright and clear. There's no doubt as to who it is you're looking at, and Alpha looks more like Tem Morrison than Jango did in numerous comics. While some of the original alien designs aren't so hot, namely one bounty hunter named Rigo that looks like a Men In Black design, everything else is on the happy side of great. Although, I have to say I've seen my share of dusty barren worlds with fights on them at this point. Surely we can go somewhere that the skies aren't as brown as the ground. Overall, their works is nice and clean to the point where I would say I'd be disappointed if they weren't doing more.

Availability

It's at fine comic book stores everywhere as of last week. As such, get ye to the store and snag a copy. Cover price is $2.99 in the United States.

Fin

Dark Horse managed to do a story focusing on Jedi and make it interesting without having one of them almost turn to the dark side. This is no small feat. The character of Alpha has turned out to be far craftier than I would have expected when he was introduced roughly a year back, and I'm sorry to see that he won't be participating in the action now that his job has taken him elsewhere. There's enough nifty art and good storytelling here that readers of this era of the Star Wars Universe shouldn't be disappointed. For three dollars, you can do far worse, like any issue of Vader's Quest.

Our sample was purchased from a local Atomic Comics in Phoenix, Arizona.