Customer Reviews

Battleground: Tatooine (Star Wars: X-Wing Rogue Squadron, Volume 3)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I really enjoyed reading this story, especially since it actually develops each of the characters. For instance, in most of the books, Winter is something like a cyborg: no feelings, just there with the perfect memory. In this she actually seems to have feeling and love. Another great plus is the abundance of action, both off the ground and on. It's great that they have more space fighter action than in Phantom Affair. Overall a great comic/story, with interesting plot twists. Plus for people who've read Tales from Jabba's Palace, good old Bib Fortuna comes back. So far, I've loved every X-Wing book and comic I've touched and read them again and again.

Thi sisn't even for die hard fans unless they have money to throw away. The art was passable but the story was weak, devoted mainly to action with little support. Even the characters who weren't created just for the comic (Wedge Antilles, Bib Fortuna, et al.) all acted about the same. I recommend picking up Dark Empire if you want a good Star Wars graphic novel instead of this.

Battleground: Tatooine is the third story arc of the X-wing Rogue Squadron comic series, and the second to see publication in TPB collected form. Picking up not too long after The Phantom Affair ended, this adequate sequel delivers the goods. While the art's not quite as good as the previous volume, and the story's a little more basic, there are more characters, just as much great dialogue, and many classic scenes -- plus, of couse, all the obligatory action scenes of a Rogue Squadron story.

In this volume, the Rogues must travel to Tatooine to reconnoiter the place and hopefully find a hidden Imperial super-ship and weapons cache. Unfortunately, a Twi'lek who's been conspiring with Bib Fortuna's brain has found out about these too, and is also after this prize, knowing that if he finds it he'll be the ultimate power on Tatooine. When he goes rabbit, taking with him the location of the stuff, the Rogue must follow him to Ryloth, where, you guessed it, the Imperials are also headed trying to get the information.

This book brings back Winter, whose character was somewhat mangled in The Rebel Opposition, and fixes her up some, while putting her and Tycho together some. It also gives us a ton of secondary characters who we'll meet later in the novels -- Huff Darklighter, Kapp Dendo, and Sixtus, not to mention some Twi'leks, familiar and new. Also, this collection has a two-page written intro by Tim Zahn, which is amusing and somewhat enlightening to the Star Wars afficionado.

Overall, while this book isn't quite as good as The Phantom Affair, it is still a very amusing and emminently readable addition to the series. Recommended.

I'm a Star Wars fan but I didn't care for this so I can't even say this is for die hard fans. Maybe it's for die hard fans who would like to throw their money away. I found the plot on this very thin with most of the pages devoted to action. The story includes some characters who are "new" in the comics but includes some older ones like Bib Fortuna and Wedge Antilles who appeared to act just like any other character. The art was passable but I found the story and writing very lacking. If you want a really good Star Wars graphic novel I would suggest getting Dark Empire.

This is actually the second TPB of this series collecting issues 9 to 12. volume 1 was poorly done and never made a TPB. Volume 2, The Phantom Affair, TPA, had as its only real flaw a drab cover. Battleground Tatooine, BT, has a spectacular Cover and then the rest is a slight drop off in comparison with TPA. Nadeau's pencil work lacks some of the detail and there are many more lazy artist panels in TB vs TPA.
Story gets a 4, Cover a 5, Pencils 3.5, ink and coloring a 3.5 for a grade of 3 stars.

Key players in this comic areCapt wedge Antilles, Lt. Tycho Celchu, Elscol Loro, Admiral Ackbar, Lt. Wes Janson, Dllr Nep, Plourr Ilo, Hobbie Klivan, Windmere Wellen, the blond after wedge, Winter, with grey hair who is interested in Tycho, Huff Darklighter, Ko'Shak, Cazne'olan, Sixtus Quin, and Kapp Dendo.
The story here sets but some events in the Bacta War book.

The story here sets but some events in the Bacta War book.

Battlground: Tatooine is the third part of the X-wing comic series, and you'll see why it has strong ties to the X-wing: The Bacta War novel, and why its description of Huff Darklighter as Huttlike is spot on.

After the spectacular art of The Phantom Affair, I found B:T to be shocking. The art has a sketchy, half-finished look that just was unacceptable. After all, people buy comics for the visual aspect, to see what they read. The Twi'lek faces were blurry and hardly varied at all, rendering facial expressions difficult to decipher. Background features were few and far between, and if at all, also vague and fuzzy. Who'd have thought Cazne'olan was that "photogenic"?

Unlike Masquerade and Mandatory Retirement, for example, the flow of frames and scenes were rushed and tumbled one after another. Where a scene should have ended at the bottom of the page, it often concluded mid-page, with the next scene the next immediate frame. While not confusing to follow, it wasn't good.

That notwithstanding, the dialogue was as you'd expect from fighter jocks and Intel agents: quick, witty and great, with some truly memorable lines. The Sullustan Rogue head-butting Dendo's midriff with a "They always forget the little people" comment just grins your face broad when Dendo knocks him back with a "Thanks for reminding me". Tycho's exasperation to Winter's indifference to his romancing attempts was another, when she quips how others have worked that out, he just took longer.

There were also some excellent touches in this comic: that brief POV from Fortuna's spider-droid perspective was fun, and the way Winter shoves Wedge on the floor at the end funnier still.

Overall, aside from what was poor art quality, a fine storyline and commendable dialogue, Kapp Dendo's scenes are just too good to pass up on this Rogue Squadron comic.

Battleground: Tatooine was the first X-Wing comic I had read after reading the X-Wing novels, and I was not disappointed. The art and coloring could be just a little better, but overall, it's a strong style that works well with the story.

The story itself is about the Rogues going to Tatooine to support Winter as she searches for a weapon cache that could place whoever finds it as the ultimate power on Tatooine. They do some running around chasing Imperials, and it has great fight scenes. The action is pretty consistant and evenly spread along the course of the story, so it definately isn't boring. My favorite thing about this graphic novel is that it begins Tycho and Winter's relationship. The artwork is the only thing that detracts from the rating of this story, and it's definately made up for in the strength of the plot.

`Battleground: Tatooine' obviously goes back to the roots of the Star Wars saga. The Rogues are sent to Tatooine to try to get a grip on the large amounts of illegal weapon trading and gang warfare in the wake of Jabba the Hutt's death. This story is pretty important, as it introduces Winter and Devaroinian operative Kapp Dendo to the group, who will come to play roles later on in the second half of the series.

Penciler John Nadeau begins his long stint with XWRS here, and starts off well. His work is a bit more defined here, although still maintains an overall `sketch'-type look to it. His machinery is, as usual, perfect and highly detailed, and his people well done as well. The colors by Perry McNamee are okay, but not up to the high standards set by David Nestelle, the series' usual colorist.

`Battleground: Tatooine' was obviously influenced quite a bit by Stackpole's novels, as characters such as Ko'shak, Cazne'olan, Huff Darklighter, and Sixtus Quin make their debuts here, not to mention setting Elscol's role in `The Bacta War'. The script itself was done by Jan Strnad and was pretty well done, although not up to the standards of the series' other scripters.

One of my qualms with this arc is the villain, Capt. Semtin. He would have been perfectly fine without those weird mechanical cat-like eyes and cybernetic implants, as they have no effect on the story itself. I guess after Loka Hask in `The Phantom Affair', they wanted to make all their villains deformed or something. It worked better with Hask. In any case, it sets up people like Kapp for later in the series and starts off the relationship between Tycho and Winter that picks up again in `Masquerade' and `Mandatory Retirement.' A good all-around read and recommended.

Micheal Stackpole has outdone himself with this book. If you read it and you read bacta war theres alot of familiar charecters in it.

thie art work is great, some minor detials where wrong, but it was the 1st issue so that is to be expected. a must get