Customer Reviews

The Best Blades (Star Wars: Clone Wars, Vol. 5)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a major Star Wars fan. I intially learned about Obi-Wan's "death" and his escape from Asajj Ventress with Alpha in a Extended Universe Databank entry for him on the Star Wars website. Afterwards, I practiclly tore through everything Clone Wars looking for this incident. When I finally got this comic in my hands (I rented it at the library) I was beyond excited.

Here's what I can tell you:

The first story in the comic is about Senator Bail Organa, and his struggles in the Senate. It is well-illustrated, and shows how far some of the corruption from the war has gone. I give it a 5-star rating (it's not every day that you get to see Senatoral action!)

The second comic is about a friend of the Chancellor's who had died fighting...the friend was a Jedi. This story deals with how the two met, and shows a bit of background info on the chancellor. The art is good, and I also give it a 5-star rating.

The next two comics are about Obi-Wan and Alpha's escape from captivity. The first comic deals more with Obi-Wan and Alpha getting off the planet, whereas the second is more about Anakin and how he finally finds his "dead" master. The art in the first one is so-so...some pictures look weird, and Alpha looks funny in about 95% of them. The art in the second comic isn't that great...the pictures of Alpha get REALLY weird, and the other characters aren't looking that great either. I give it 4.5 stars...I'd give it less, but the first part gives some very vital info about the notorious Asajj Ventress (and the plot is pretty darned good).

The final part of the comic is a story about another battle in the Clone Wars, this one with Yoda. The art, suprisingly, is done Japense-animae style (minus the sweat drops, swirly eyes, and other things that make Magna and such so funny). Despite this, the art is still appealing (though some pictures look weird), and the storyplot is very good. I give it 5 stars.

All in all, this is a pretty good comic book. If you want more info on the Clone Wars, then you should get this out at the library, or, if you want to spend around 15 bucks, buy it. I give this comic book 4.5 stars overall.

Even though this is a done in a comic book format, it flows and captivates you as much as a real novel. The story covers some important occurrences in politics dealing with Organa, Valorum, and Palpatine. There is also good stories including Obi-Wan, Anakin, and an excellent one with Yoda. Not to mention some great background on Asajj Ventress. It fills in a lot of gaps in the story and has plenty of action along with great artwork. Every Star Wars fan needs to read this.

I've been pretty majorly disappointed with the entire line of Clone Wars tie-ins. For such a major event in the Star Wars chronology, one would think that it would yield a great storyline. Instead, we've been feasted to yawn-inducing new characters and a majority of storylines only marginally featuring the main characters. This volume of the graphic novels is the exception to that rule.
Instead of the usual cliches about war, this graphic novel gets into essential events and scheming. Without spoiling anything, it features Bail Organa, the emerging Rebellion(!), a great Palpatine story, the origin of Asajj Ventriss (!!) - the only good character to come out of the fiction, and developments with the main characters as well as the peculiarly dodged central figure of Yoda. In other words, character development that has been missing from the novels. If you only get a few Clone Wars tie-ins, I would recommend this as one of them. Pretty good stuff. And this comes from a sceptic.

The best Clone wars graphic novel yet. Fantastic book (continues after Obi-Wan was "killed" in vol. 3), including stories about Assaj Ventress, Anakin, Palpatine, and Yoda. Great art (as is expected in Clone Wars novels). A must read.

This is the fifth volume of the Clone Wars TPB.

This TPB collects several issues:

-Dead Ends: a rather political story centered around Bail Organa, trying to get the Senate not to give more powers to Palpatine.

-Bloodlines: an absolutely chilling story about what Palpatine does to get rid of someone who is getting close to his secret. This story is told backwards, which makes it all the more interesting, and chilling.

-Hate and Fear: this is the original Asajj Ventress backstory.

-No Man's Land: this is the continuation of the previous part, detailing further Obi-Wan and Alpha's escape. This part illustrates the bond between Master & Apprentice, between Obi-Wan and Anakin.

-The Best Blades: Yoda goes on a mission and things go from bad to worse. This story illustrates how the war is affecting the Jedi, which is something you can see from one of the Padawans' reactions in this.

9.5/10. This is a very solid collection of stories.

So far, I think as an overall contribution to the Dark Horse Clone Wars series, this has been the weakest book. I really enjoyed everything but Yoda: The Best Blades at the end.

The first 3/4 helped advance the storyline with Obi Wan and Alpha, but then the entire story-telling experience changes with Yoda: The Best Blades. The style and tone of the story is dis-similar to anything so far in the series. There were basic elements that helped define Yoda and his support for the war, but I really couldn't get past the Japanese drawing. If I wanted that style of storytelling, I would've bought The Best Blades as a stand-alone.

Of course, whether I loved the book or not, it is book 5 of 9, and the story must continue. You can't leave out such big plot points as introduced here.

The whole Clone Wars series of graphic novels does a great job of filling in the space between Episode II and Episode III. Although there is are a couple of continuing storylines through the whole series, this one also includes a one-shot with Yoda exploring the ethics of the war.

This is a great series! Absolutely worth to begin an excellent Star Wars series! The art is great and there are a lot of details and things to watch in these magazines.

This TPB reprints Star Wars Republic 60-62 & 64 and Jedi: Yoda