Product Description: General Obi-Wan Kenobi and his Padawan Anakin Skywalker find themselves in command of a regiment of Clone Troopers on the muddy battlefields of the rain world of Jabiim. With their supply lines stretched thin and reinforcements unable to land due to the perpetual storms, the Jedi and their army have become easy targets for the rebel Alto Stratus and his elite Nimbus warriors. The situation goes from bad to worse when General Kenobi is listed missing in action, and Anakin is teamed with a group of other masterless young Jedi on a doomed mission to hold the last line in the Republic's defense!
Great Art, Great Action Jedis are great and all, but I really enjoy the war aspect of this series. Vol 1 was good, Vol 2 started really picking up in the last section, and Vol 3 really gets to it--War! Its the volumes like this one that make me wish they had a series devoted to Clone Troopers, Republic Commandos, and ARCs (esp Alpha). Good inking and artwork. Straight-forward plot, almost near constant action, and it was good to see the Republic actually defeated here. Nice character development for Anakin. This volume has been my favorite so far...looking forward to getting Vol 4.
Great comic book!! This is a great series! Absolutely worth to begin an excellent Star Wars series! The art is great and there are a lot of details and things to watch in these magazines.
Jabba-sized hole in an otherwise excellent book This would have been a very good book if not for one very large blunder on the part of the editors at Dark Horse, who should have sent the script back to writer Haden Blackman with the following written on the cover page in red ink: Why doesn't Anakin feel Obi-Wan die in the Force?
There's a scene here where Obi-Wan is caught in a missile barrage and in the ensuing confusion of battle is never heard from again. He is presumed dead, a quite obvious conclusion under most circumstances. But as we are dealing with beings capable of "feeling" the presence of others in the Force; as we are dealing with Anakin Skywalker, the most powerful Force user in the living memory of the Jedi (which is quite long, as Yoda has lived for nearly a millennia); when we are dealing with two individuals tightly bonded as master and apprentice, and when these two are located only a short physical distance from each other, then the idea that Anakin accepts Obi-Wan's death so quickly and so easily is quite frankly ridiculous. At first I thought perhaps the pair had concocted a ruse enabling Obi-Wan to go underground on some secret mission. That seemed much more likely as we are never shown Anakin mourning the loss of Obi-Wan, even when we get plenty of scenes with other Padawan mourning the death of their masters and pondering on the meaning of life and sacrifice as they prepare to face the next battle in this long-running war.
Obi-Wan's supposed death turns out to be a lazy solution to a plotting problem - how to get rid of the master so that the student can take the lead. On the rain-soaked planet of Jabiim, the inhabitants have divided into factions supporting Republic and Separatist forces, and as the battle drags on the only Jedi left standing are the Padawan. Trained to accept orders from the Jedi, the Republic clone army must follow these apprentices into a last battle against a numerically superior enemy. But rather than waste their forces on Jabiim, Chancellor Palpatine orders a last minute retreat, leaving Anakin in the position of choosing to stay and support the Jabiimi loyal to the Republic, or leave them to be slaughtered by an army of droids.
How much more poignant the decision would have been if Anakin knew Obi-wan was alive in the Force, but missing in action, that when giving the order to evacuate the troops he would be abandoning not only the Jabiimi but his master as well.
As it stands, we're left with a huge whole in the plot that is never adequately explained, in this book or any of the Clone Wars stories that follow. Fortunately, the tale is not an entire waste. Brian Ching is on hand to provide some of the best artwork of the entire Clone Wars series, illustration that is realistic, fluid and cinematic. Where Haden stumbles, Ching soars and the book is almost worth getting for the artwork alone.
For those interested in a follow-up, there is a Second Battle of Jabiim, published as "In The Footsteps Of Their Fathers," which sees Luke Skywalker and the Rebel Alliance visiting the planet many years later to support the Jabiimi resistance against the Empire. See my review of that book on the "In the Shadows of Their Fathers" page.
Can't wait to turn the next page... Overall I really enjoyed this one. It moved as one story throughout the whole thing which I enjoy much more than a bunch of stories that are cut way too short. It concentrated more on Anakin and his mindset and actions, which I enjoyed. The artwork was done extremely well also. My only complaints that kept it from getting five stars, are that the main villain is way to powerful for a non-jedi, (he carries a regular sword, which should be the equivalent of carrying a fork into battle, give me a break), and that on a few instances, the jedi seem to die way too easily.
The second best of the first 4 A great Clone Wars novel which a much darker version of the war. Several battles on a muddy, rainy, planet with every Jedi master dead (or thought to be) and only Padawans and clones left to fight an enemy that has almost every advantage. This would get 5 stars if the short "Catspaw" wasn't included. This short was definitely one of the worst Star Wars issues ever. Apart from that, a very good TPB with lots of action. Also, good cliffhanger at the end.
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