In The Footsteps Of Their Fathers (Star Wars: Empire, Vol. 6) 
asked by work on November 4, 2006 12:45 PM
Luke Skywalker confronts the legacy of the Jedi father he never knew in an epic story involving Princess Leia, Darth Vader and the fate of an entire planet! When Luke and Leia travel to Jabiim recruiting allies for the fledgling Rebellion, they unwittingly set into motion events that will ignite one man's betrayal of his people, pit rebel hero against rebel hero and attract the attention of the Empire's deadliest enforcer - Darth Vader!
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You needn't have read Clone Wars Volume 3, recounting the First Battle of Jabiim, to enjoy this volume. You will be required, though, to be forgiving of the editors at Dark Horse for handing off the final chapter of this story to a less skilled back-up artist.
Brazilian artist Adriana Melo handles the fist four chapters in journeyman fashion. She seems most skilled at portraits, but also does a good job of framing, mixing up angles and panel sizes and shapes. Her facilities are especially evident when they all but disappear after Canadian artist Michel LaCombe shows up. The framing and angles become fixed and static, and the characters are deadly stiff, exhibiting no sense of motion, quite an irony for a penciler with a background in animation. (For examples of their contrasting styles, please see accompanying images.)
The switch in artists is unfortunately not the only disappointment, though it is by far the biggest. Writer Thomas Andrews keeps things tight and does a good job weaving together the various strands of the story, but the end feels rushed, a major claim is unsupported, and a significant point in the plot is left unresolved.
Fans of the Star Wars Expanded Universe will recall the First Battle of Jabiim was fought during the Clones Wars (chronicled in Clone Wars Volume 3: Last Stand on Jabiim). This Second Battle of Jabiim takes place some 22 years later in the months following the emergence of a new hero in the Rebel Alliance, Tatooine farmboy and slayer of the Death Star, Luke Skywalker.
The young force adept still knows little about his real father, but he's about to learn a horrible truth. It was on this planet that a young Anakin Skywalker gave the order to retreat, to abandon the forces loyal to the Republic, an army that was subsequently and summarily crushed by a separatist droid army supporting a nationalist faction of Jabiimi.
Now two decades later the Alliance is on Jabiim to assist a guerilla resistance active against the Empire. Happy as they might be for whatever help they can get, many of the Jabiimi rebels are not happy that the son of Skywalker is now among them - including one high-ranking leader who wants to sell Luke and Leia to Vader in return for Jabiimi independence.
[SPOILER] In the end, Luke flees to take Imperial pressure off the Jabiimi. Like his father before him, he leaves the resistance in the lurch. Scripter Andrews tries to put a positive twist on Luke's decision by claiming Anakin never cared for the people of Jabiim, an interpretation not born out by events recorded in the first story. But to his credit, at least Andrews makes a stab at resolving this issue (however cheesy it sounds), which is more than can be said for how the tale is concluded, leaving the reader to wonder what happened to Vader's order for his Star Destroyer to scorch the planet surface. You'll have to buy a forthcoming volume to find the answer to that question. [END SPOILER]
Despite some glaring weak spots, In The Footsteps Of Their Fathers is not a horrible graphic novel. What's most frustrating about it is that, like the First Battle of Jabiim, the problems it has could have easily been addressed to make it a better than average book.
Brazilian artist Adriana Melo handles the fist four chapters in journeyman fashion. She seems most skilled at portraits, but also does a good job of framing, mixing up angles and panel sizes and shapes. Her facilities are especially evident when they all but disappear after Canadian artist Michel LaCombe shows up. The framing and angles become fixed and static, and the characters are deadly stiff, exhibiting no sense of motion, quite an irony for a penciler with a background in animation. (For examples of their contrasting styles, please see accompanying images.)
The switch in artists is unfortunately not the only disappointment, though it is by far the biggest. Writer Thomas Andrews keeps things tight and does a good job weaving together the various strands of the story, but the end feels rushed, a major claim is unsupported, and a significant point in the plot is left unresolved.
Fans of the Star Wars Expanded Universe will recall the First Battle of Jabiim was fought during the Clones Wars (chronicled in Clone Wars Volume 3: Last Stand on Jabiim). This Second Battle of Jabiim takes place some 22 years later in the months following the emergence of a new hero in the Rebel Alliance, Tatooine farmboy and slayer of the Death Star, Luke Skywalker.
The young force adept still knows little about his real father, but he's about to learn a horrible truth. It was on this planet that a young Anakin Skywalker gave the order to retreat, to abandon the forces loyal to the Republic, an army that was subsequently and summarily crushed by a separatist droid army supporting a nationalist faction of Jabiimi.
Now two decades later the Alliance is on Jabiim to assist a guerilla resistance active against the Empire. Happy as they might be for whatever help they can get, many of the Jabiimi rebels are not happy that the son of Skywalker is now among them - including one high-ranking leader who wants to sell Luke and Leia to Vader in return for Jabiimi independence.
[SPOILER] In the end, Luke flees to take Imperial pressure off the Jabiimi. Like his father before him, he leaves the resistance in the lurch. Scripter Andrews tries to put a positive twist on Luke's decision by claiming Anakin never cared for the people of Jabiim, an interpretation not born out by events recorded in the first story. But to his credit, at least Andrews makes a stab at resolving this issue (however cheesy it sounds), which is more than can be said for how the tale is concluded, leaving the reader to wonder what happened to Vader's order for his Star Destroyer to scorch the planet surface. You'll have to buy a forthcoming volume to find the answer to that question. [END SPOILER]
Despite some glaring weak spots, In The Footsteps Of Their Fathers is not a horrible graphic novel. What's most frustrating about it is that, like the First Battle of Jabiim, the problems it has could have easily been addressed to make it a better than average book.
reviewed by astrofizzy on November 28, 2006 1:02 AM