Star Wars: The Clone Wars Graphic Novellas #9–11

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The Sith Hunters

Published: 2012
Acquired: November 2012
Read: January 2026

Scripts: Henry Gilroy & Stephen Melching, Justin Aclin
Art: Vicenç Villagrasa & Vicente Ibañez, Ben Bates, Eduardo Ferrara
Colors: Marlon Ilagan, Michael Atiyeh
Lettering: Michael Heisler

With these three graphic novellas, I finally come to the end of my journey through all of the Clone Wars–related content of the old Star Wars "Expanded Universe." (Well, EU content that I care about; there were many more tie-ins I'm sure!)

Of these three, I found The Sith Hunters the least interesting. This is about a recently resurrected Darth Maul and his brother (who, even by standards of Star Wars villain names, is a bit obvious: was "Savage Oppress" ever going to work in logistics?) going on the run from both Jedi and Sith while Obi-Wan leads a Jedi task force to hunt him down. It seemed to be a fairly close sequel to a Clone Wars episode I hadn't seen, which isn't really the book's fault, but negatively impacted my enjoyment nonetheless. As result, the story doesn't really begin... but it also doesn't really end, either, I'm assuming because things had to be left open for if Maul ever reappeared in the tv show. 

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Defenders of the Lost Temple

Published: 2013
Acquired: June 2014
Read: January 2026

A lot of these novellas will send a set of familiar Jedi characters on a mission (usually, Obi-Wan, Anakin, and someone from the movies) along with one original character. In theory, I appreciate the introduction of original characters... but the one in this story is plainly just Bruce Lee as a Jedi, and usually that's the issue with these original characters: there's so little to them it feels pointless. 

Of these final three, Defenders of the Lost Temple was my favorite. No familiar characters in this one (at least protagonist-wise); it's about two Jedi and a squad of clones sent to secure an ancient artifact. Justin Aclin's story has some nice beats, with a strong character focus, as the story's padawan befriends a dopey clone who thinks he might have the Force in him. Decent art from Ben Bates, a bit more expressive than is the norm for this series.

It does suffer a bit from being clone-focused: four identical characters in identical outfits are a tough thing to pull off in comics, and I sometimes lost track of which one was which. But this is the kind of one-off action-focused story this series excels at at its best.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The Smuggler's Code

Published: 2013
Acquired: July 2014
Read: February 2026

The Smuggler's Code is somewhere in between the two, quality-wise. Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Ahsoka are on a beach vacation when Obi-Wan notices a criminal who eluded his grasp years ago. He won't let Anakin and Ahsoka help, but ends up gaining the assistance of a suspicious smuggler.

It's basically fine. There's little to do with the "Clone Wars" here, but the story is competent enough, though a bit predictable. I didn't care much for the art style; I do think the 3D The Clone Wars show had a much less comics-friendly art style than the 2D Clone Wars show, but I also think Eduardo Ferrara hasn't really made it work. Too jagged.

All in all, this is a fun enough series, if not as good as the Clone Wars Adventures series it supplanted. They work well enough on their own; I will probably give them to my kid to read during the gap between Episodes II and III as we make our way through the Star Wars saga. 

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!

Star Wars: Clone Wars Gambit by Karen Miller

The last two novels of the five adult-audience tie-ins to The Clone Wars tv show form a duology, Clone Wars Gambit by Karen Miller: Stealth and Siege. Like with the third book, I was struck by how these seemingly try to play down their connection to the kid-audience show. The front covers depict Obi-Wan and Anakin as they appear in the live-action movies, not in the cartoon; the back covers use just images of CGI droids and spaceships which would look the same in either incarnation. The covers don't even use the tv show "The Clone Wars" logo!

Star Wars: Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth
by Karen Miller

Originally published: 2010
Acquired and read: December 2025

And like with the third book, the whole vibe of these doesn't fit with what I know of the show. (Admittedly, I have seen very little of it, but I have read all of the Dark Horse tie-in comics.) The premise of these two books is that the Jedi hear that the Separatists are creating a superweapon, a deadly virus. With few ships or people to spare, Obi-Wan and Anakin must infiltrate the planet where the weapon is being developed, and try to rescue or capture the developed, and ultimately, last long enough to be rescued.

As a plot goes, it's probably like a lot of other Clone Wars–era stories, but I very much enjoyed it for how the story was told. It's funny, because my memory of Miller's other The Clone Wars book, Wild Space, is that it was slow and tedious, but I found this book thoughtful and engaging. It's deliberate in its pacing, but Miller's very good at finding interesting character moments across the two books. She does very well in particular by the relationship between Obi-Wan and Anakin, these two men who are emotionally brothers—with all the weight that that carries. Anakin wants to live up to Obi-Wan's ambitions for him, but is also frustrated by Obi-Wan's somewhat constrained idea of what a Jedi can be. Obi-Wan wants his apprentice to succeed and is impressed by his abilities, but also worries about him. I was particularly impressed by the way Miller took a small moment from The Phantom Menace and revealed what kind of emotional impact it had on Anakin.

The book is also filled with lots of moments about the difficulties and compromises of war, which is exactly the kind of thing that I enjoy in my Clone Wars–era stories. A lot of other Star Wars wars are straightforward good-vs.-evil fights, but what makes the Clone Wars interesting is the compromised position the Jedi are put in by fighting in them, and I prefer Clone Wars stories to delve into that when possible. In a lot of ways, big and small, Miller explores how tough these fights are for Obi-Wan and Anakin from a moral perspective. I really liked the segments in the second book in particular, where they must defend a small community from Separatist attack, but struggle with the fact that this community would not be in danger except for them, and that they might be using these people... particularly a young girl with nascent Force skills who takes a shine to Obi-Wan.

Star Wars: Clone Wars Gambit: Siege
by Karen Miller

Originally published: 2010
Acquired: December 2025
Read: January 2026

There's a review of my Star Trek novel on Goodreads that says in part, "people got hurt a lot. I unironically love reading about people getting hurt." I couldn't help but think about that review a lot while reading Gambit, where there is a lot of emphasis on how hurt Obi-Wan and Anakin get; clearly, Miller is writing for that kind of reader. Even the Separatist scientist the Jedi must rescue gets her injuries lovingly detailed. (The Neimoidian torturing her is a character from the show, but I somehow doubt he was this gruesome there!)

Other notes:

• On one hand, we get a Melida/Daan reference; as an old-school Jedi Apprentice stan, I was delighted to see it. On the other hand, the book introduces a different female Jedi with whom Obi-Wan had a fling in his youth. Whither Siri Tachi? Actually, I liked this new character a lot; there's a very well done subplot about her and Ahsoka.
• I did think it was funny to realize that every time Darth Sidious goes to call Count Dooku, he has to throw a decrepit robe over his Palpatine outfit. Like, Dooku knows who Sidious really is, right? Why must Sidious do this? It's very goofy to visualize that between committee meetings, Palpatine is putting on this robe everytime he makes a holo call to a minion.
• Does Bail Organa have a thing for Padmé? Based on these books, I think so. 

So, overall, I really enjoyed these books. Obviously, I read a lot of tie-in fiction, and fundamentally what I want out of it is something that fits with what happened on screen, something that captures its vibe... but also manages to do something the screen material did not do, otherwise what's the point? Like Traviss in No Prisoners before her, Miller precisely hits that target here.

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.

Star Wars: No Prisoners by Karen Traviss

Even though I am not a big fan of the Star Wars prequel movies, I like the milieu they conjured and was (back in the day) overall pretty diligent about collecting tie-ins from the old "Expanded Universe" set during the movies. This included comic tie-ins to The Clone Wars tv show—a show I never really watched! I did watch some episodes of the first season about a decade ago, but I didn't get very far. But recently, the comics rose to the top of my reading list, and I decided to do everything I had left: not just the comics, but all the tie-in novels too. I did read two of those back when I attempted to watch the show, but there were three more I'd never gotten around to.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: No Prisoners
by Karen Traviss

Originally published: 2009
Acquired and read: November 2025

So the first installment on my Clone Wars journey is No Prisoners, a novel by Karen Traviss. There never were any more of these novels than the original batch of five, and looking at the book, I kind of feel like they didn't totally know how to handle them. While Dark Horse's comics are clearly aimed at the same child/YA audience as the show, this book seems to be avoiding any overt indication that it ties into a kids' tv show: there are clones in armor on the front cover, battledroids on the back, so we see no sign of the show's distorted, stylized art style, nor even a familiar character rendered in CG. Neither the front nor back overtly mention that this ties into a tv show. The focus of the book is clearly one aimed at old-school EU fans, not people watching the show: aside from Anakain and Ahsoka, the focal characters are Captain Pellaeon, an EU stalwart going back to the Thrawn trilogy, and Callista, a Jedi whose previous appearances were largely in a set of not-very-well-remembered 1990s novels. In fact, part of the purpose of the novel is clearly to explain inconsistencies between how the Jedi were depicted in those 1990s novels and how George Lucas wrote them when he made the prequels.

That makes, to be honest, a bit of an odd duck. It's not surprising to me there were no more books after this initial batch of five, because I'm not sure there was much of an audience for what they were doing. Who wanted something that tied into a kids' tv show but also told adult-focused stories dredging up bits of 1990s EU continuity?

Well, there is at least one person who wanted this: me. I mean, I didn't watch the show, so I don't care how much the book matches the feel of the show, I just care how much it entertains me. 

And Traviss, though I have very mixed thoughts about some of the books she wrote, was clearly one of the best writers of the old EU, with a strong grasp of characters and a clear ability to bring together complexity and themes. In this book, three things collide: Anakin's conflict over his ongoing relationship with Padmé (a violation of his Jedi vows), Pellaeon needing to go on a rescue mission for a Republic spy who turns to be his lover, and the appearance of the renegade sect of Jedi that Callista belongs to, ones who believe attachment is not the path to the Dark Side. The book is all about how we make life-and-death choices when our loved ones are on the line, who is ready to commit acts of violence and who is not, from the opening about Republic spy Hallena Devis to the pitched final battle to Captain Rex having to train a new complement of clones. The action is quick, the characters are well drawn, the themes are interesting. Traviss explaining the inconsistencies about Callista's group of Jedi could have felt like gratuitous retcons, but here it's fertile ground for showcasing Anakin's conflict between duty and desire.

I don't know that it's a great book, but it's a very good one, and it's hard for me to imagine there's a better tie-in novel to the new Clone Wars tv show out there. I wish I'd read it before, actually, because it actually seems to fit fairly well into Traviss's Republic Commando sequence, as a couple of its characters reappear in its last couple installments, Order 66 and 501st, and I imagine it reads better in that sequence than among the tv episodes it supposedly slots in between!

Review: Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Wild Space by Karen Miller

Have I been forgetting to mention all my Unreality SF reviews here? If so, here are the last few, all Doctor Who tales: Tenth Doctor Adventures, Volume 1, The Early Adventures: The Black Hole, and Criss-Cross, Planet of the Rani, and Shield of the Jötunn.

Mass market paperback, 342 pages
Published 2009 (originally 2008)

Acquired August 2014
Read September 2014

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Wild Space
by Karen Miller

This is the second of the two Clone Wars books I read in parallel to watching the television series before my viewing of the series sputtered out. Flipping back through it, I find that I remember nothing of it, save that Obi-Wan seemed out of character, and that it felt like the book went on blasted forever with nothing happening. This is Star Wars, people, throw me some action.

Review: Star Wars: The Clone Wars by Karen Traviss

Mass market paperback, 256 pages
Published 2009 (originally 2008)

Acquired and read August 2014

Star Wars: The Clone Wars
by Karen Traviss

A couple years ago, I decided to watch the Clone Wars cartoon from beginning to end, and read the tie-in novels and comics alongside it. I didn't get very far, but that wasn't really the show's fault. I did get far enough to read two of the novels, the first of which, simply titled The Clone Wars, novelizes the events of the film that kicked off the series. Quite frankly, Karen Traviss's talents are wasted on the pile of shit that was the film's script-- things like Jabba's gay cousin do not need any fleshing out, and like Diane Carey, she delights a little too much in having characters inwardly snark about how the events/dialogue of the story are implausible or bad. That doesn't rectify the problems, it just makes you think you should be reading a different book, given the book's own author doesn't even like it. Traviss's Star Wars books are distinguished for her depth of characterization, but there's nothing to pin that to here, and her dislike of significant components of the Star Wars concept becomes a little too obvious in places. Traviss writing clone characters is always appreciated, though.

Small-Scale Star Wars

Comic digest, 76 pages
Published 2010
Acquired January 2011
Read April 2012

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Deadly Hands of Shon-Ju

Script: Jeremy Barlow
Art: Brian Koschak
Colors: Ronda Pattinson
Lettering: Michael Heisler

This is an okay little story featuring Aalya Secura coming into contact with a Force cult that has forgone the lightsaber in favor of using their Force-amplified hands in combat: they punch rocks to break them, and so on.  A neat idea, but not fully explored because in a twist that will surprise no one, this non-Jedi group is EVIL.  As are all the bad guys, actually, none of whom who do things for reasons beyond getting their EVIL on.  Barlow has done better.

Archival Review: Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, Volume 9 by the Fillbach Brothers

Comic digest, 80 pages
Published 2007
Acquired October 2007
Read November 2007

Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, Volume 9

Writers: the Fillbach Brothers

Art: the Fillbach Brothers

Colorists: Ronda Pattinson, Pamela Rambo, Dan Jackson, Tony Avina

Letterer: Michael Heisler

When this series of short comic stories done in the style of Cartoon Network's Clone Wars cartoons started back in 2004, I was pretty tepid-- how much for a book that small? The first volume, by regular Republic writer Haden Blackman, didn't really impress either. But my determination to gather all literary incarnations of the saga of the Clone Wars demanded I go on, and so I did. Fortunately, the series improved with time, as the writers came to understand the kinds of stories the highly visually stylized art was best suited to tell.

And because of that, some of the best stories have been consistently penned by the Fillbach Brothers, who first began serving on the series as artists. This of course made the prospect of Volume 9, as an all-Fillbach spectacular, highly appealing to me. And fortunately, it did not disappoint. It features four stories of the usual types in this series-- a dialogue-light "giant creature" story, a clone trooper story, a spy story, and battling Jedi story-- and pulls them all off with aplomb. Mindless fun, but superbly done mindless fun. Though it probably took me longer to write this review than it did to read the book.