Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Star Wars Dark Times Out Of The Wilderness #5Star Wars: Dark Times – Out of the Wilderness #5 of 5
Dark Horse Comics
Stradley, Wheatley & Jackson

The latest arc of Dark Times wraps up with a bit of a happy ending for a change. The theme for this book is that bad things can and will happen to the cast and death is constantly stalking the characters. However, this book manages to advance the book in an unforeseen direction, but still manages to create a cast that is very much on the run and still in great danger. This isn’t the best arc for Dark Times but I liked this arc and this comic, particularly, a lot. This issue leads us to believe that there will be more from Dark Times and that is a good thing.

Jedi Dass Jennir is attempting to rescue Ember and to the surprise of no one, Jennir’s droid, H2, dresses up like Jennir as bait. The assassin is then taken by surprise by Jennir. However, things go badly for Jennir, as things always seem to for the surviving Jedi.

As I was reading this issue a few thoughts went through my head as to what I was expecting to happen. I certainly assumed that Ember would die and the crew of the Uhumele would not catch up to Jennir. Or if they did, I expected some of them to die, potentially Bomo. I also expected one of the Jedi to die and for Vader to show to deal out justice on the assassin and maybe one of the Jedi. Thankfully, I was very surprised with the direction of the actual ending. I’ll say nothing more.

One aspect of the book that is clear is that Jennir is failing as a Jedi. Never strong in the force to begin with, this issue illustrates that Jennir can’t even save those he feels strongest for and that is a big statement on his abilities as well as his long-term survival prospects, if he survives this issue.

Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle ReviewsWheatley is doing his best work in these issues and this issue contains the most emotion yet. There are plenty of events in this book that portray a wide spectrum of feelings, such as: fear, surprise, heartache, curiosity and physical pain to name a few. The entire art effort brings an amazing view into these character’s emotions and feelings. That, and Wheatley draws a great Darth Vader.

Dark Times takes a break for a little while which is the perfect time to catch up on the twenty-plus issue run. This issue is the perfect place to dovetail a lot of threads and that is exactly what happens in this issue. Some of the characters are safe for now, but what Vader does next will greatly impact the lot of them. I enjoyed this issue and series immensely.

4 out of 5 Geek Goggles