Darko Macan

Access a version of the below that includes illustrations on my blog.

The Star Wars series Knight Errant, which I worked my way through earlier this year, is set during the timespan of the "New Sith Wars," a millennium of on-and-off conflict that came to an end a thousand years before The Phantom Menace. Reading Knight Errant made me think of what (I believe) is the only other piece of narrative Star Wars content to be set during this period, the 2001-02 comics miniseries Jedi vs show more Sith from Dark Horse—which I remembered as being really quite good, so I decided to give it a quick reread.

The title of the book is pretty cheesy, and I wouldn't be surprised if the title came first, if some enterprising editor didn't come up with "Jedi vs Sith" as highly marketable and then cast about for an appropriate time period to set such a book in. Similarly, the book itself is one of those continuity fix-up stories Star Wars tie-ins love to do: the Phantom Menace novelization established that a millennium earlier, a guy named Darth Bane established the Sith when everyone thought they were dead, and an earlier videogame (Jedi Knight, I think?) established that there had been a big battle where a bunch of Jedi and Sith had died, and what if those were the same thing? (See also The Shadows of Mindor, which has a similar genesis.)

The end result of these two factors could be quite bad, I imagine, but rereading it confirmed my belief that it is surely the best miniseries Dark Horse ever published during its time with the Star Wars license. (As opposed to the best ongoing, which was surely Knights of the Old Republic.) It's a very different Star Wars, but successful nonetheless. There are two parallel stories here: ones about three kids with Force talent who end up essentially drafted by the Jedi for a last stand on the planet Ruusan; the other is about the Sith Lord Darth Bane returning to his fellow Sith after a failed assassination attempt and watching as they all fall, forming his own new ideas about how the Sith should operate as he does.

The story about the kids is great. It's very dark; it's about the horrors of war, and the difference between being an idealized "great warrior" and the realities of being an actual soldier. There's lots of tragedy and I had forgotten how harsh it was. (I don't exactly know when I read it before, but it's not on my reading log, which begins in September 2003.) Darko Macan does an excellent job with the kids, making them sympathetic even as they make bad choices, and the ending especially is terrific.

The Darth Bane plotline is more of a subplot, but Bane is great, a droll unstoppable killing machine, yet smarter than everyone around him. You can see how we would get from the many Sith of the Knight Errant period and this comic to Bane concluding there must only ever be two Sith. (Darth Bane would later star in a trilogy of novels picking up from the end of this comic, but they were quite terrible.) 

Ramon F. Bachs and Raul Fernandez do a great job on art. Some Star Wars comics set in time periods away from the films struggle to make the aesthetics distinct (this problem plagued Knight Errant, for example), but they give a mythological tone to the whole thing, with a Jedi lord who looks like a centaur and spaceships that look like sailing ships. I love Lord Farfalla; he's probably my favorite single-appearance Star Wars tie-in character. Bachs has a cartoony style that I feel like caused him to later be pigeonholed as a YA comics artist (the other work of his I've read is all from teen-focused comics: Legion of Super-Heroes, Monsters Unleashed!, Squirrel Girl & Ms. Marvel, Legends: Black Panther), but it's surprisingly good at evoking the horrors of war here. Overall, this is a great little package, underrated and undeservedly forgotten. show less

This one is rather bleak story.

After years and years of conflict Jedi and Sith are reduced to the small armies scavenging food and materiel on the devastated world of Ruusan. Although they speak between themselves as if they are mighty commanders and lords (you gotta love Bane commenting "Now everybody is a lord?") these armies are gutted by long attrition warfare on surface of Ruusan.

In order to deprive their opponents of any Force-wielders as reinforcements both sides heavily recruit show more everybody with Force talent they can find. They recruit everybody - both adults and kids. This might be off putting to some but it does make sense - history has shown that Dark Side is very adept at recruiting people to its cause so Jedi (although it makes their commander Hoth sick) are aware that Sith must not be allowed to reinforce their ranks.

And so we come to follow our "mighty" trio - Tomcat, Bug and Rain. Together they will experience both horrors of war (particularly bloody reception they receive when they arrive to Ruusan) and their failings as persons - some will fight to the death for their ideals, some will prove to be of traitorous spirit while others will find their calling in most unexpected places.

This is not story of hope but story where both sides - Brotherhood of Darkness and Army of Light - are aware that to break the stalemate everything needs to go. Both sides are aware that they are no longer forces fighting out of ideals but for mere survival and it is better to perish on the battlefield then to live with shame. And so from the utter destruction modern Sith and new Jedi order will rise.

Some will compare this book with novels of Darth Bane and story does complement the novels but if you expect Darth bane to play major role here you will be disappointed. He does appear but only in the background because he has his own agenda to attend to and decision of warring parties [that he utterly detests] to wipe themselves out he welcomes with his whole heart.

I liked it a lot, especially because of depictions of war and unnecessary sacrifices and the ways immature people see war - in songs and epics it is usually depicted as something noble, idealistic but on the ground, no matter if one is civilian or member of warring factions, war is nothing but constant worry about survival.

Recommended to all Star Wars fans. show less

Star Wars: Vader’s Quest collects the four-issue Dark Horse Comics miniseries of the same name written by Darko Macan with art and letters by Dave Gibbons, and colors by Angus McKie. The series takes place in the immediate aftermath of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, with Darth Vader learning the name of the pilot who destroyed the Death Star - Skywalker. While he begins hunting for Luke, a disgruntled Rebel pilot inadvertently gives away Luke’s location, leading to a showdown on a show more mining world under Imperial yoke. The story itself is fun and evocative of many of the lighthearted Star Wars works from the mid- to late-1990s. Gibbons’s art in particular stands out, with a distinctive visual style that matches the story’s tone rather than something photorealistic. A fun read that will entertain fans, but one that was quickly supplanted by other Expanded Universe content as the prequel films released. show less

In addition to the title feature, collected from a four-issue comics series, this volume contains the single-issue Tarzan: A Tale of Mugambi. I picked it up it more from curiosity about the Carson of Venus aspect than out of affection for Tarzan, although it's clear that writer Macan and artist Kordey have Tarzan as the star of their tales. The adventure on Amtor (Venus) is original, but very Burroughsian in its plot and pacing. If the character Carson is representative, though, he's a show more little more self-castigating than the typical ERB protagonist.

Igor Kordey's art seems to have been taken directly from pencils to digital processing, a technique that has become identified in my mind with this sort of pulp fantasy adventure. (I think I first encountered it in some of the early Dark Horse Conan books.) It works very well here, and on the whole I found the illustration appetizing and effective. There were some lapses, where things looked rushed and unformed, and unfortunately these tended to fall in what was originally the fourth and final issue of the series. show less