Star Wars: Tales from the Clone Wars Seasons 2–3 by Pablo Hidalgo, Thomas Hodges, et al.

The official Clone Wars webcomic continued to run through the end of the show's third season. While the installments for the first season were one-off prequels to episodes, the installments for the later seasons told a multi-part story in fifteen installments, set in parallel to the events of the show. Frustratingly, the webcomics from these seasons have never been collected even though they read much better on their own! Thankfully, though, they're still out there if you know where to look, and after finishing the season one webcomic collection, I went on to the later seasons.

The story for season two is Act on Instinct. Its main character is Tyzen Xebec, a Jedi padawan whose master is killed; Tyzen is assigned to a new Jedi master, Keelvine Reus. The other key characters are Ganch, the clone who commands the squad assigned to Tyzen, and Sanya, a member of the Jedi Agricultural Corps. (Various tv characters pop up here and there; Ahsoka tries to console a grieving Tyzen, for example.) Keelyvine and Tyzen are sent to defend the planet Ukio from the Separatists. Shenanigans of course ensue.

The story is fine. It's mostly action-focused; a character arc suggested at the beginning, about Tyzen and Keelyvine learning to adjust to one another, largely doesn't play out, since the two characters are separated for most of the Battle of Ukio. There's a lot of Star Wars goofiness, but it's decently well done. The story is definitely harmed, though, by the very variable art. It's jarring to have the art style change every five pages or so, but even worse is that some of the four artists are very much better than others. I think Thomas Hodges is most consistent. Some of the others' work frankly comes across as amateur hour.

The third season story is The Valsedian Operation. Thankfully, the art is all by Tom Hodges this time; thankfully also, the story keeps Keelyvine and Tyzen together. The master and padawan work together with Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Ahsoka to investigate a Separatist intrusion in Hutt space; meanwhile, Sanya is on Coruscant with Ganch, looking into sabotage. Unfortunately, the Hutt plotline isn't very interesting and I wish there was more stuff between Keelyvine and Tyzen again. The stuff with Sanya is more interesting, letting us see a different side to the clone army, though I wish it had been fleshed out more; the "Republic Service Organization" comes across as just "the USO... but in space!", not a thought-through organization in its own right.

That said, Keelyvine Reus is a great character in the Boba Fett mold: less about anything she actually says or does, and more just great visual design. Dig that coordinated green tunic, green lipstick, and green eyeshadow! It's too bad these two stories are her only appearances, I would have liked to have seen more of her.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Act on Instinct originally appeared on StarWars.com in fifteen chapters (30 Sept. 2009–7 May 2010). The story was written by Pablo Hidalgo; illustrated by Thomas Hodges, Grant Gould, Jeff Carlisle, and Daniel Falconer; and lettered by Grant Gould.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The Valsedian Operation originally appeared on StarWars.com in fifteen chapters (14 Sept. 2010–29 Apr. 2011). The story and art were by Thomas Hodges, with scripts by Pablo Hidalgo and colors and letters by Grant Gould.