Review: ‘Star Wars: Yoda’ Stumbles in Issue #7 as the Series Nears Its End
With every three issues, Star Wars: Yoda brings on a new writer and artist to tell a short story about Yoda’s past adventures. The past two storylines were personal favorites of mine. Coupled with heartfelt writing and some colorful, vibrant artwork to go along with them, the past issues were emotional, contemplative life lessons that were befitting of the character.
Issue #7 is the start of the last three-issue story arc. The team assembled this time around includes Marc Guggenheim as the writer and Alessandro Miracolo as the artist. While this is only the beginning of their story arc, Guggenheim’s writing and Miracolo’s penciling are my least favorite of the three writer-artist duos that have worked on this series.
Spoilers ahead…
Issue #7 sees Yoda investigating rumors of a secret weapon being developed by the Separatist army. The codename for this weapon is “Operation: Titan.” Master Yoda teams up with Anakin Skywalker during this investigation. Anakin believes that a recently commandeered frigate has information on Operation: Titan. Onboard the stolen frigate, Yoda and Anakin discover that Operation: Titan is being developed on a planet named Enthenium. Anakin and Yoda then devise a plan to sneak into the Separatist base on Enthenium using the commandeered Separatist frigate.
During Yoda’s investigation on Enthenium, he runs into General Grievous. Part of the reason why the past two story arcs were so engrossing was that the stories took place in timelines that were rarely explored before. The first story arc took place in the High Republic era. And the second story arc took place at a time when Dooku was still a kind and benevolent Jedi. The third story arc takes place in the middle of the Clone Wars. It’s hard to be engaged in the battle between Grievous and Yoda when the reader knows both of them will come out practically unscathed.
Unfortunately, Alessandro Miracolo’s artwork isn’t anything to write home about either. While there are some cool shots of Anakin, Grievous, and Yoda in combat, the close-ups and far-shots of the characters are not flattering. In the far-shots, the details of the characters look flat or washed over. In the close-ups, the characters’ faces — especially Yoda’s — look odd and disproportionate.
The sad part is that the past two stories felt like stories from the recent animated Tales of the Jedi. They didn’t provide any groundbreaking new lore, but they were emotional and filled in parts of the characters’ lives that weren’t seen before. This last story, instead, feels like an early The Clone Wars episode where the stakes aren’t high and no new lore or information has been added to the characters’ history. It’s disappointing considering how much I adored the past two storylines.
This issue’s plot and visuals are not up to par with the series’ quality overall. As it comes to an end, it’s revealed that Operation: Titan’s secret weapon being developed isn’t a new weapon, but a new droid army composed of mysterious “megadroids.”
It’s hard to see the quality improving with the series soon coming to a close, but I hope to be proved wrong when the next issue releases in June.
Rating: 4/10
Born and raised in Hawaii, Jay Goodearl runs the YouTube Gaming channel “Good Games, Dude” His channel aims to open up video games to beginners and immediate players and help them understand what makes games the art form that it is.
