Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Star Wars: Dark Times #8
Dark Horse Comics
Harrison, Ross & Antonio

Part 3 of 5 of the story called “Parallels” shows some major colliding arcs that produce some very interesting confrontations for the last two issues. I have been very lukewarm about his arc as a whole, but I see some very good things set up for the end of this arc. And by good things I mean more pain, death and darkness for the “good” guys.

We left off with the crazy double cross battle between the crew of the Uhumele and some scum they were trying to cut a deal with. The battle claims the life of one of the crew and the “fake” case is taken away by some of the double crossers. It’s confusing, but basically, the crew of the Uhumele end up prisoners by the group they were trying to make a deal with that were double crossed twice. Confused? Yes? Well, just go back and read the recap prior to reading this issue.

The captain of the Uhumele, Heren, overplays his hand with his adversary, Haka, and basically reveals that his “case” was a decoy. Now, that means the double crossers left the scene with nothing of value and the real case is still around somewhere. Haka wants the case and decides to start torturing the remaining members of the Uhumele to find it.

Lumbra, the double crosser of Haka, is safe on his ship with his crew toasting their success. Later, one of the curious members of the crew opens the case and off goes the bomb planted by Heren. The question I would have is if this bomb was to go off upon opening the case then what did Heren expect happen when Haka opened the case when he presented it to him? What would have prevented the bomb going off then? Maybe this nugget can be explained away, but it nagged at me in the second half of this issue.

Heren gets tortured first. He won’t talk. He passes out. Next up on the rack? Bomo. Bomo doesn’t even know where the real case is, but he acts like he does to protect some of the other members of the crew, like Crys. Speaking of Crys she is showing a ton of skin and undergarments in this issue. It was a tad shocking for this comic. I wasn’t too crazy about it.

The bomb cripples Lumbra’s ship and he emergency lands on the moon where K’Kruhk is. Not only does he land on the moon, but right near his base with all the younglings. That ain’t good. K’Kruhk watched the landing and observes Lumbra leaving and heading for the younglings. He can’t warn them because his comlink goes out. Why can’t he reach out through the force to the other Jedi, Master Piru, with the younglings? If Luke could do it then I would think a Jedi master like K’Kruhk could. This annoyed me somewhat.

Where to begin? I like the colliding of K’Kruhk and the Lumbra faction a lot. I also liked the torture of Bomo and Heren. This arc has lots of darkness so far and this issue moves that theme along very nicely. I suspect more darkness is to come. I didn’t like the art at all. I had a hard time telling who was who from the previous issues with these characters. When you consider the crew of the Uhumele are all different species, this isn’t a good thing. I also felt like the comic was colored by two different people. The scenes prior to showing the ship and crew that Lumbra is on are very different than the rest of the comic. I found this distracting. Also, as mentioned above the fact that K’Kruhk needed a comlink to communicate with another Jedi master and issue with the bomb in the case bugged me too. I complain that the comic hardly ever ships on time and if it’s at the cost of the “little” things maybe I would prefer it to ship late.

As a whole, this story is more than satisfying and sets up some things that could make for a very edgey ending. I think most fans of this series will enjoy the action and the plot developments. I still can’t get used to K’Kruhk without his hat on.

3 out of 5 geek goggles.


Star Wars: Dark Times #8--Parallels part 3