Customer Reviews

When They Were Brothers (Star Wars: Clone Wars, Vol. 7)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What's cool about Obi-Wan Kenobi is that he's so cool. He's the "Negotiator." He's always in control and except for his bickering with Anakin never displays his frustration, annoyance, or anger. In fact the only time he loses it is when Yoda asks him in "Revenge of the Sith" to go after Darth Vader and again when he finally confronts his former Padawan, whom he doesn't have the courage to strike dead as he lies broiling in lava.

So it's a bit odd to see him in this story completely obsessed over Asajj Ventress, the lately deceased bald-headed villainess and student of dark Jedi arts from earlier Dark Horse Star Wars comics and the Clone Wars cartoons. For reasons never made clear, Obi-wan has a bee in his bonnet and her name is Ventress. He's convinced she's alive somewhere and waiting to pounce, so he goes and beats up a Black Sun don (the Black Sun being the mafia in the Star Wars universe), who says "right, you're obviously a better man than me, come have a drink and I'll tell you everything I know about the Confederacy."

Once you get past those two very improbable bits of the story, things get better, and that's do mostly to the fine work of artist Brian Ching, who illustrates some exciting action sequences that owe a great deal in framing and in detail to "The Revenge of the Sith." "Brothers" occurs just prior to the events of the film and was being written and drawn prior to its release. Ching obviously had access to the movie or the developmental artwork because this story features quite a bit of hardware from the film, from the ships to Grievous' Magna Guards. Much of the framing of the action sequences also appear similar in style to Lucas' work in RotS.

But after all the fighting's done, scripter Haden Blackman has to bring the story to conclusion, at which point the characters and events again become rather contrived. [SPOILERS] What we're presented is the Luke/Vader sequence at the end of "Return of the Jedi," with Obi-wan comforting a dying Ventress, searching for a glimmer of the "good" hidden below layers of evil. Any possible sympathy Blackman manages to evoke for the dying Ventress is thrown back in the reader's face two pages later when we find her contrition - and her death - were feigned and that thanks to Sith meditation techniques she is alive and now on the run from the Jedi _and_ the Confederacy, setting up what I'm guessing might be a possible return in the animated Clone Wars series now in production. [END SPOILERS]

Overall, "When They Were Brothers" is not a complete letdown, but it certainly doesn't live up to its hype as a "must read" story leading into "Revenge of the Sith."

The book finishes out with a 22-page story originally published for Free Comic Book Day, an annual marketing campaign by comic book publishers and retailers in the US. Nothing of any significance happens here, just Obi-Wan and Anakin crash landing on a Confederacy controlled planet, riding around on speeder bikes, and hacking and slashing their way through a battalion of droids. Good for what it's worth, but entirely forgettable.

This book has lots of action. i felt kind of confused with it because the clone wars tv series says that obi-wan kills durge on munnillist. it also said that anakin killed ventress on yavin 4, but in the book it said he killed her on corusant. but over all the book has many suprises and twists. i gave this book a 4 out of 5.

For a long time I've been waiting for the Obsession story-arc to come to Trade paperback format, seeing as Obsession has all these cool things in it like:
The fate of Durge, the bounty hunter from the clone wars series
The fate of Asajj Ventress
The fate of Alpha-17, the first ARC trooper we were introduced to
General Grievous

So, finally, they've compiled all five of them, but with them, they've added another comic. But before I go there, I had a few complaints about Obsession. One is, the artwork. While not bad in any sense of the word, the artwork has a very pencilled look, which makes it feel a bit rough, unlike the Republic comics.

The other thing is the story. Obi-wan is pretty much completely out of character here. He's obsessed with finding Asajj Ventress, for no apparent reason. Wouldn't he want to stay away from her?

The last comic, which has nothing to do with Obsession, if just a dumb "Free comic book day" comic with artwork that isn't very good, and a story that you should probably see in a Clone Wars Adventures book.

Besides those little things, the main comic is a very good read, and I definitely recommend it.

This book has so many things in it that a Star Wars fan like me would love, I probably wouldn't be able to fit it in just one review!*WARNING-SPOILERS AHEAD!* First of all, I would like to say two words: General Grievous! In all his four-armed glory! Of course, it should be noted that he only has four arms in a battle for about ten seconds. It is still cool though! Another thing that makes this book awsome: there is a great mini-battle between Obi-Wan and a villain with a vibro-whip. It is quite exciting. Seeing Anakin and Obi-Wan vs. Durge is great, too! Not to mention, a several-panel-long Jedi battle. It was neat to see them dismantle all those attle droids! Now, the part of the review that focuses on the woman Obsession (The first story in this book and the first portion of this review) is centerd around: Asajj Ventress! The minute you see her, be prepared for twists and turns at the end of the Obsession story! Now, I'll review the second story in this book. The main highlight in this story is seeing a desperate fight featuring Obi-Wan and Anakin vs. swarms of battle droids. It may not be a long story, and it may not add much to the Clone Wars, but it kept me on the edge of the seat and guessing what was going to happen next. Overall, I think this as an excellent book and every Star Wars fan should give it a try.

In the Clone Wars series this has to be the top collection, or at least next to it. Nearly everyone makes an apperance. We finally see Anakin and Padme together, alone. Anyone who owns a lightsaber gets to ignite it. Jedi and Sith alike learn that the cost of victory is so high sometimes, that it is a defeat. And Anakin figures out how to put Durge down so he stays down.

A Star Wars adventure set around about a few months before the last of the not very good movies. Jedi masters abound, and Obi-Wan is on the hunt for one of the bad variety, who he suspects is not actually dead.

General Grievious kills a jedi - Master Bayts, I kid you not.

Apart from that, a lot of killing clones and busting up of droids and Obi-Wan and Anakin just making it out of places.

One really cool double page spread of a space battle, too.

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.

The clone wars series is absolutely fabulous. It has a superb story and great art. It fleshes out Jedi characters that we don't see much about in the movies and does so in a very moving and exciting way.

This volume is unfortunately the weakest so far in the series. The story continues to be excellent, exploring the relationship between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. However, the art in this volume leaves something to be desired (particularly when compared with previous volumes).

Still worth the read, but don't expect to be floored by it.

Not the best entry in the series, but still pretty good. As others have mentioned, Obi Wan acts a bit out of character, and the art is somewhat sub-standard. Still, a decent story, and a necessary addition to anyone following the Clone Wars story.

Another excellent graphic novel from the Clone Wars series. Once again, great art, story, and dialogue. However, reading it, it felt like the story was unnecessary. The entire story doesn't bring any progress at all to the series. The main plot is Obi-wan becomes "Obsessed" with finding and turning Assaj Ventress from the Dark Side (hence, the title of this when it was in comic form). He then finds Ventress (who Anakin supposedly killed in Volume 6) and kills her. She then comes back to life, (again!)hijacks a Republic Medical Frigate, and says to the pilot:

Ventress: "But you will change course"

Pilot: "I'll change course. For where?"

Ventress: "Just far away. Far from the Jedi, from this war, from Count Dooku... Just fly as far away as you can."

Maybe she'll come back in Volume 8, maybe she won't. A very good cliffhanger to end this story. The negative to this story is it doesn't mention Quinlan Vos once, which leaves Volume 6's ending unresolved. Which is bad, since it's a long wait until Volume 8...