Comic Book Review - Star Wars: The High Republic #9

Rob reviews Star Wars: The High Republic #9...

The High Republic is fastly becoming my favourite comic out right now. So far writer Cavan Scott has brought a fairly unknown time within the grand Star Wars mythos to life with a bang. The High Republic era is the Jedi - and the Republic - at the height of their powers. 

While the Sith are still nowhere to be seen, there has been plenty to test both the Republic and the Jedi's might. So far this has been both the Drengir parasite and the Nihil. For the last seven issues, Scott has had his Starlight Beacon Jedi fighting the Drengir as the parasite threatened the Outer Rim. Yet, as we learned after The High Republic #8 this was all a well-planned rouse by the Nihil which ended with the pirates attacking the Republic Fair on Velos. 

Now months later the Jedi have turned their full attention to the Nihil and Jedi Council Member, Stellan Gios has a plan. One that involves Keeve Trennis...

There's a lot to dive into in this issue and for the most part, the story centres exclusively on Keeve Trennis. In a daring act, both Keeve and Ter are sent undercover to infiltrate a Nihil. The setup is pretty simple - Keeve and Ter - in a stolen Stormship - send a distress signal to the Nihil. To make the distress signal real, the duo is then attacked by Kriss and Sskeer. This battle does draw in the Nihil who then "rescue" Trennis and Ter and escape back to relative safety. The rest of the issue deals with what comes next as Kreeve and Ter tested on who they are and what it truly means to be a Jedi

To fully integrate into the Nihil group Kriss mentions to Keeve in a flashback that she has to do it as herself and not a Jedi. And as such she's most certainly going to do something that takes her away from both her morals and that of the Jedi. It's an interesting premise that Cavan Scott utilises incredibly well to bring some pretty tense scenes. The issue ending (which I won't spoil) is certainly shocking and while its conclusion is sort of spoiled by the image on the issue back cover - it's great nonetheless.

The High Republic #8 is a superb start to this new story arc. There's a lot of stories brought across within this issue and it's crammed with plenty of goings-on. It's a bit of a mixed bag too as we get some internal politics of the Jedi and the Nihil - which are in stark contrast to each other. There are also some fantastic space battles, which feels like classic Star Wars through and through.

The Nihil is also shaping up to be quite the enemy. Considering they had the guts to attack the Jedi just to lure them away from the Republic says a lot. Imagine how different things would have been if the group had been around during the movie era!

Rating 9/10 

Rob Lake - For more comic book and video game chat why not follow Geek Culture Reviews on Twitter and Facebook @GeekCultureRev