Star Wars: The Clone Wars Graphic Novellas #6–8

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The Starcrusher Trap

Published: 2011
Acquired: November 2012
Read: January 2026

Scripts: Mike W. Barr, Ryder Windham, Jeremy Barlow

Art: The Fillbach Brothers, Ben Dewey, Brian Koschak
Colors: Raymund Lee, Mae Hao with Marlon Ilagan

Lettering: Michael Heisler

I used to be a big fan of Dark Horse's Clone Wars Adventures series, which were digest-sized comics containing three or four stories in the style of the 2-D Clone Wars cartoon. A lot of people must have been, because while the show ended in Marsh 2005, the comics lasted all the way until December 2007; in fact, four of its ten volumes came out after the show was over! But the comics did finally come to an end. Once the 3-D The Clone Wars began, Dark Horse replaced them with a series of graphic novellas (some original stories, some reprints of stories originally released serially). These were still digest-sized, but each volume told a single 75-page story, in the style of the new show. Even though I didn't really watch the new show, I liked Clone Wars Adventures enough that I kept collecting these; the last six, however, I never got around to reading until now.

One of my reasons for loving Clone Wars Adventures was the art of the Fillbach Brothers, who I think are cartoonists par excellence; their work on the series was kinetic and delightful. Unfortunately, their style I think suffers a bit when forced to conform to the style of the 3-D cartoon, which is in the case in The Suncrasher Trap, a story of Obi-Wan, Anakin, Ahsoka, and company trying to stop a Separatist superweapon. It's basically fine; as a big fan of DC in the 1980s, I was glad to see Mike W. Barr on scripting duties (I had no idea he was still writing comics!) but it's a bit staid. I think the flat coloring of the 2-D series suits the Fillbachs' art style much more than the shaded coloring attempting to mimic the 3-D series. (In some later novellas, the artists don't seem to have to conform to the show's art style as much; I wish that had been true here.)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Strange Allies

Published: 2011
Acquired: November 2012
Read: January 2026

Of the six volumes I read across January and February, Strange Allies, scripted by Ryder Windham with art by Ben Dewey, is by far the worst. It focuses on a young Chiss Jedi with a group of loyal clone soldiers and a friend who is a burly swoop bike racer; the story tries to simultaneously tell us he's inexperienced and he's been on all these different adventures. The plot jumps around a lot, like the writer made it up as they went along, and there are threads that don't go anywhere. Only once I finished it did I discover that the main characters originate in a series of YA Clone Wars tie-in novels, which I guess explains some of my issues, but while this may work for someone who has read those stories it didn't work for me.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The Enemy Within

Published: 2012
Acquired: November 2012
Read: January 2026

Lastly, there's The Enemy Within, by Star Wars comics stalwart Jeremy Barlow with Brian Koschak on art. This story has no Jedi in it; it focuses on a platoon of clone soldiers on a secret mission. I enjoyed the writing on this one a lot; unlike many of these novellas, which seem content to deliver a frothy action story, Barlow gives us a story of character and complications. It is slightly let down by the art; Koschak does well with action but struggles to draw convincing faces, which is a definitely downside in a story that not only needs to convey a lot of characterization via facial expressions, but needs to differentiate a bunch of characters who have the same face!