Star Wars: Threat of Peace

            Whenever I tell someone that I’m not much of a fan of comic books they always give me a funny look; like it was the last thing they were expecting to hear from me.  And honestly, I can’t blame them because I do look and sound like someone who keeps stacks of comic books in his closet.  But in truth, I haven’t read that many in my lifetime.  I recall reading some kind of Hulk/Dr. Doom/Silver Surfer book when I was about seven, skimming through The Death of Superman while in Middle School, reading the Sin City book The Hard Goodbye in High School, and getting about of a third of the way through Watchmen later on.  That’s about it.  With that in mind it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I haven’t reviewed a single comic book throughout my time on this blog.  But I think I’ve finally found one that I want to give my thoughts on.   This is the Illusive One’s Review of the webcomic series, Star Wars: Threat of Peace.

           

            The series had three acts with each act containing nine issues and reached its conclusion on March, 2010.  It takes place before the events of the upcoming MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic and takes place about three hundred years after the events of the Knights of the Old Republic games.  The plot, more or less, revolves around various events that threaten to shatter a recent peace treaty between the Republic and the Sith Empire and a number of characters who will either preserve or shatter the peace.

            On the positive side I was pleasantly surprised by the plot.  It was a well thought out story of political intrigue and espionage and the pacing of events leading towards the climax was well done.  There were also a few twists towards the end that I really enjoyed and didn’t see coming.   It also had a really good collection of characters that ranged from Jedi Knights, to Sith Lords, to infantry soldiers, to bounty hunters and all were interesting and diverse and I honestly would like to see their stories expanded on.

            On the negative side, the written dialog was not that great.  It wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t top notch either.  I also didn’t care for the drawing style used in this comic series and the action panels weren’t particularly well done.  Granted I have seen a lot worse, but from what I know, the average comic’s drawing style is a lot better than this.  Even though I loved the characters in this comic, some of the interactions between them just didn’t seem right.  If you’ve read this series you’ll know exactly what I mean by that.  The final criticism I had with these comics is that at times it seemed rushed.  Some of the events in the series, such as the battle on Coruscant or the peace negotiations between the Jedi and Sith were omitted completely, despite the fact that half of the events of the series revolve around them.  It was something I found not only disappointing, but confusing as well as half the time you weren’t sure what was going on.        

           

            All around, I would only recommend reading this web comic series if you’re going to play Star Wars: The Old Republic because all it really does is serve as a direct prequel to it.  It doesn’t explain when this Sith Empire came from, how it gained so much power, nor does it explain what became of Revan or the Jedi Exile and I found that a bit disappointing.  But still, it’s good for what it is.  If you like Star Wars then you’ll definitely like this but don’t expect anything mind blowing.  If not, then don’t bother with it.  So until next time, this is The Illusive One and don’t expect too many more comic reviews.