KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC: DESTROYER PARTS 1 & 2 (ISSUES 45 & 46)

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KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC: DESTROYER PARTS 1 & 2 (ISSUES 45 & 46)

December 30th 2009 06:41

Category: Graphic Novels/Comics

Publisher: Dark Horse
Production Team: John Jackson Miller – script, Brian Ching – art, Michael Atiyeh – colours, Michael Heisler – lettering, Benjamin Carre – cover art (issue 45) & Jim Pavellec – cover art (issue 46)
Cost: AU $4.95/US$ 2.99

As the Mandalorian Wars still rage throughout the galaxy it seems that the conflict not only serves to further the militaristic agenda of the movement but also that of other more shadowy and sinister organisations, organisations whose existence has been hidden from common view for countless centuries. But more of that latter…Zayne Carrick in an effort to help his long time friend the enigmatic Arkanian offshoot, Jarael, has suddenly found himself thrust into something that could quite literally break him on both a physical and spiritual level. It seems that the somewhat elflike Jarael has a very dark and disturbing past, something that began many years ago when she was student at a special academy run by her mentor Antos Wyrick, a member of the Zeltron species, on the planet of Osadia.

Back in the day the academy seemed like a place of learning, fulfilment and joy for its students until an enigmatic organisation known as the Crucible decided to take things into their own hands. Apparently they attacked the academy and enslaved its students for their own nefarious purposes. Captured by the Crucible Jarael, or Edessa as she was known amongst the students of the Osadia Academy, finds that her life is turned entirely upside down by this sudden attack. Naturally though she has no real idea of just how much her life is going to change by this single catastrophe, hard to see the future is, always in motion it is.
Returning to the present day, Zayne Carrick in the guise of a lone Republic navy pilot in an Aurek starfighter finds himself captured by the slavers of the Crucible. It is part of a harebrained scheme that he and Jarael have hatched in order to try and bring down the Crucible, Zayne is bait for the slavers to take so that the others will be able to track him down to their lair and hopefully deal out some righteous smack down. Still as Marn Hierogryph, Snivvian con man extraordinaire has pointed out, you should not bait traps with someone you hope to see again. Certainly it seems as if Zayne’s back up is a little short in coming to rescue as soon as he is taken his comrades swiftly lose track of him which is not the kind of thing you want happening in a situation like this.

Our hapless protagonists isn’t aware of this initially, he thinks everything it’s going to plan, all though one he is captured by the Crucible he is not really prepared mentally or physically for what he has got himself into. Now one would think that with an organisation of interstellar slaves who seem to operate the length and breadth of the galaxy capturing those unlucky to draw their sights you’d be expecting something along the lines of the goons out of the original Conan movie. Hmmm well in a ways it is a little bit like that, although we don’t see our favourite padawan pushing away at some great mill wheel surmounted by a sun with two snakes looking at each other. What we do see is pit fighting, which is similar to the Conan flick, although unlike the brawny, pleasure loving Cimmerian Zayne is not really into enjoying inflicting serious carnage on those he is paired against in the pits. If anything he is more inclined to try and talk his way out of fighting, but in the pits of the Crucible this isn’t a tactic that can engender survival, if your opponent doesn’t kill you the slavers most likely will for being a laggard.
Of course Zayne isn’t the only individual undergoing this arduous treatment, it is what happens to all those who are unfortunate to be captured by those in the employ of the Crucible. Of course many of those who are actually employed by the organisation were themselves once slaves and once fought in the pits, this is part of the entire rationale behind the network that goes by the moniker of Crucible. They recruit from amongst those they capture, only after they have been proven in the pits and have had any qualms or weakness burnt from them after a turn in the fighting pits of the proving ground, just as the material place in an alchemical crucible has any impurities burnt from it before it can be used in another process.
When I finished reading these two issues my thought processes pondered on whether this group was responsible for creating the vast number of Sith soldiers and Sith assassins that you encounter in the game KOTOR II: The Sith Lords. Why would I wonder such things I hear you ask, well the purpose of the Crucible is to create, but not create mindless drones to labour in the fields of agrarian worlds for decadent landowners, no it serves to forge warriors and warriors who can fight en masse. It is a machine that serves to create slave armies dedicated to the whatever cause its masters deem suitable or is able to pay up, although the creator of the group, Ieldis, was a Sith Lord and he no doubt intended the Crucible to work for that society, to provide these masters of the dark side with an near endless supply of minions with which they could engage in campaigns of conquest and domination. Frighteningly the group is at least a thousand years old, if not older, and it has managed throughout the years to evade detection and continue in its relentless purpose.
All that seems about to come crashing down though, even though Chantique the rather slinky and sinister leader of the organisation believes she has turned the tables on her former comrade Jarael by twisting Zayne’s perceptions of his friend in fact all she has really done is sign her groups last will and testament. It seems to be a flaw of the villains in the Star Wars universe that they never really consider the implications of what they are doing, nor just how much of a spanner in the works a Jedi can be. Zayne may not be a mighty wielder of the force like Arca Jeth or Nomi Sunrider but then again if his record is anything to go by he doesn’t need to. He is an unconventional character backed up by equally unconventional friends who can make a villains day turn sour real quick, and often via the most innocuous means. KOTOR Issues 45 and 46 are well worth chasing down and reading, I suspect that they’re setting the stage for further momentous events in this era of the Star Wars universe…

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