Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic #33
Dark Horse Comics
Miller, Dazo & Pimentel
What we have here is a textbook origin story. We are in the middle of an arc that will finally resolve the three year story line and we get an origin story. Sure, it’s a main character, but one we have only seen sparingly in this entire series. However, this comic works and tells an excellent origin. I do question how it has disrupted the flow of this crucial story arc.
The issue opens with all out war. Zayne, taking cover, asks his former master, Lucien what the deal is with Haazen. He’s obviously Sith. From page two until the final page we take a trip through the past.
Haazen was the son of a servant. The servants were for the Draay family. He was friends with Barrison Draay, Lucien’s father, who got Haazen into the Jedi rookie class. Haazen eventually fails the trials and begs Barrison to keep him on as an assistant. This is mostly because Haazen is in love with Barrison’s girlfriend, Krynda.
Time passes and Haazen is relegated to clean up duty. Haazen finds some scum from his past who makes some promises about what he can gain by a simple act of betrayal. Everything goes wrong and in the end a burned out, crusty Haazen is left to serve the depressed and distant Krynda.
One of the better parts to this origin story is that it gives the basics, but leaves nice gaps for stories to be created later on in future stories. The parts presented here does nail down the character’s descent nicely.
The story is a good one and tells an interesting story. However, the story comes all at once and right in the middle of the arc. It just feels like we lost an entire issue for this background on a character that hasn’t been around long enough to generate much of a buzz or mystery.
The artwork is terrific. Haazen looks smitten with Krynda and creepy when he starts scheming. His facial expressions help push the character’s downward spiral. It’s a great story visually.
One other item that was a little nagging with this story was that it didn’t reveal why Haazen is doing what he is doing in the present. What’s his ultimate goal? We didn’t get much in the way of motivation from this story. Perhaps he’s just a lost soul bent on destroying everyone. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
This is a great origin and character introduction story. I can’t say this comic is essential because I’m not sure it is. I do know that knowing a character’s story is helpful and this one is as good of an origin as I’ve seen in a Star Wars story in a long time. I think followers of this series will enjoy this comic.
4 out of 5 geek goggles
