The Clone Wars: Defenders of the Lost Temple

Of the final few, Clone Wars graphic novellas, Defenders of the Lost Temple was my favorite. No familiar characters in this one (at least protagonist-wise); it's about two Jedi and a squad of clones sent to secure an ancient artifact. Justin Aclin's story has some nice beats, with a strong character focus, as the story's padawan befriends a dopey clone who thinks he might have the Force in him. Decent art from Ben Bates, a bit more expressive than is the norm for this series.

It does suffer a bit from being clone-focused: four identical characters in identical outfits are a tough thing to pull off in comics, and I sometimes lost track of which one was which. But this is the kind of one-off action-focused story this series excels at at show more its best.

(One of the other reviews here on LT says this is a dialogue-free comic, but that's not true; I think they must have seen an unlettered preview copy.) show less

*This is a review of an advanced copy provided by NetGalley*

WTF were they thinking with this. This is a dialogue free comic and whilst that can work here it just failed. I had no idea who they were, what they were doing, why they were there. In dialogue free comics the artwork has to portray everything but the artwork just wasn't detailed enough to do it. It felt disjointed and confusing. It's a sad state the Star Wars universe has become.

An interesting concept that is too far out there to be explored in anything else. The idea of a force sensitive clone trooper brings to mind the Ralph McQuarrie concept art for the storm trooper. If this story or something like it happened in a more serious form of media, like in the actual show, it could be very interesting.