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.

Star Wars: Tales from the Clone Wars Season 1 by Pablo Hidalgo et al.

Star Wars: Tales from the Clone Wars: Webcomic Collection, Season 1

Collection published: 2010
Contents originally published: 2008-09
Acquired: November 2012
Read: November 2025

Script: Pablo Hidalgo

Art: Tom Hodges, Grant Gould, Katie Cook, Jeff Carlisle
Colors: Jeff Carlisle, Pablo Hidalgo

Letters: Grant Gould

During the first few seasons of The Clone Wars tv show, StarWars.com ran an official tie-in webcomic. The accompanying strips were collected in a limited edition trade paperback by Dark Horse, which I picked up not long after it came out. Back in the 2010s, I was still a devoted collector of Star Wars tie-in media. I didn't quite buy everything, but one of my areas of interest was the Clone Wars. Not because I was a fan of the show (in fact, I barely watched it), but because of the original 2002-05 Clone Wars multimedia project, where between Episodes II and III the war had been chronicled across comics and novels. Some of that enthusiasm still lingered. Me being me, though, it's taken a decade to get around to reading the actual book!

The book is very much not aimed at someone who didn't watch the show, to be honest. It's mostly made up of short strips, each 5-6 pages, operating as preludes to episodes of the show. Like, you'll get five pages of Anakin and Ahsoka getting ready for a fleet action—I imagine as a prelude to an episode about said fleet action. Or you'll get five pages of Ventress defeating the king of a planet and getting him to lowers its shields—I imagine as a prelude to an episode about our heroes taking back said planet. Or you'll get five pages about Anakin and Obi-Wan getting captured—I imagine as a prelude to an episode beginning with them captive.

So if you haven't watched the show... well there's not much of a point. Strong art might make the experience enjoyable, but I found the art pretty variable; it's very mid-2000s DeviantArt. Though Dark Horse did good work with this era in its digest comics, these artists struggle to render the show's style in 2D. Tom Hodges's work is the strongest; I was sorry that I found Katie Cook's work here so poor because I liked her My Little Pony comics a lot, but she really does poorly with people's faces.

The definition, I suppose, of a book that's for "completists only." Or maybe not even them; though Marvel has released some pretty comprehensive "Epic Collections" of the Dark Horse EU material, these strips were not included in them.