Review Shooter: Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi 1
Dark Horse is coming out with a new series looking at the origin of the Jedi, aptly titled Dawn of the Jedi. The creative team is pretty fearsome, featuring a story by John Ostrander and Jan Duursema, and an art team including Duursema with Dan Parsons and Wes Dzioba. Both Duursema and Ostrander are titans in the field, probably best known for their work on the Star Wars: Legacy series, at least as far as the Star Wars universe goes. Itās definitely a pretty daunting task to undertake the origins of the Jedi, so itās nice to see a pretty proven group assembled to tackle that obstacle.
Being the inaugural issue, there are definitely some plusses and minuses worth taking a look at. The story itself seems pretty insistent on getting straight to the meat of the situation. Much like A New Hope, we are entering into a story that has already started and has a pretty rich past. However, A New Hope had a wall of text that scrolled by in about 30 seconds, where the first issue of Dawn of the Jedi goes on an expositional fiesta for very nearly half the issue. Itās not bad, itās not disconcerting, it is definitely necessary, but itās also pretty long. Oddly, to get to the meat of the story, you have to include a bunch of extra exposition at the beginning so that you donāt completely lose your audience. Itās not an ideal situation, but it was also executed well enough that Iām not upset, just anxious to get to meet our characters.
The good part of having such a lengthy exposition is that it allows the art team to flex their muscles a bit, since they are given such a wide and distinct array of locations and people to draw. The art is always in motion and feels very dynamic, which I like. The inks seem a bit heavy at times, but the art was definitely a highlight that helped me push through page after page of exposition.
We only get one page of (what I assume will be one/some) of the protagonists, who express a very interesting, although brief, reflection on what it is to be a Jedi. Itās almost Taoist in its examination, at least by the character that is clearly the master. We spend far more time with our antagonists, who definitely feel very Sith-oriented, but in a more directly and purely evil way than youād recall the Emperor being, for example. Iām not particularly surprised by this, as Ostrander had a similar task in Legacy, as he created not only a whole new group of Sith, but a new structure to their organization. The antagonists of Dawn of the Jedi donāt strike me as being as nuanced as those in Legacy, but itās also the first issue of the run, so thatās not a really fair comparison, as much as I wish to draw it.
Itās hard to gauge just where the series will go or how well it will be executed off of just a single issue, but Iām satisfied with the creative team on the task and have high expectations for good things in this new series. If youāre a serious fan of Star Wars, I probably couldnāt talk you out of getting this, which I wouldnāt try to do anyway. If you are a more casual fan, the detail involved in just how complex things are, including a pretty large number of races, planets, etc., you may feel a bit overwhelmed. Still, if you think youād enjoy reading a story about the origins of the Jedi, chances are you will.
New Reader Accessibility: 3
Recommendation: Buy it