STAR WARS LEGACY: VECTOR CONCLUSION (ISSUES 28 – 31)
March 15th 2009 21:47
Category: Graphic Novels/Comics
“We take what we are given. We do what we must.”
Cade Skywalker to Celeste Morne
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Production Team: John Ostrander – story/script, Jan Duursema – pencils/story/cover art, Dan Parsons – inks, Brad Anderson – colours & Michael Heisler - letters
Cost: AU $7.95/US $2.99
Four thousand years have passed since the tumultuous events that occurred on the ice world of Jebble during the days of the Mandalorian Wars. In that time both the Sith and Jedi have risen and fallen several times, now it is the reign of Darth Krayt, the new Dark Lord of a new Sith, one no longer dedicated to the rule of two but Krayt’s rule of one, a rule of a unified Sith imposing order upon the chaos that is galactic society. It’s an impressive ambition and one that looks to be in position to succeed as Krayt rules a large portion of the galaxy, his political enemies – namely the Galactic Alliance Core Forces (GACF) and former Emperor Roan Fel are scattered whilst his traditional enemies the Jedi Order are but a former ghost of their influence and strength. Dark times, dark times indeed you’d be inclined to think that things could not get any worse. How wrong you would be…
Concluding a story that has covered all of Dark Horse’s Star Wars series the Vector storyline is a finely tuned effort of cross generational and cross series story telling. One wonders just how much effort it all took to bring things together as well as the coordination necessary to keep things relatively seamless and smooth, after all nothing can kill a major undertaking likes this quicker than just a tiny wee continuity error. Kudos must go to all those involved in the project including the final chapter’s storytellers which are revealed in these four issues. Just to recap in the earliest days of the Sith, and we talking at least twenty thousand years here, a nascent Sith Lord known as Karness Muur craved immortality. Now he wasn’t to fussy about his body, what he wanted to continues existing was his intellect, to do this he created a talisman and infusing it with dark side energy it became a container for his disembodied and potent will.
Not a bad idea eh? Ah but like all Sith Muur was not simply satisfied with his talisman being a vessel for his consciousness once his flesh and blood had gone the way of all such things. No he decided to put in some extra features into his gewgaw, namely the ability to transform individuals into rakghouls and the ability to control said rakghouls as well as allowing the transformed to utilise the skills and abilities they possessed before their transformation. Thus his talisman in addition to serving as a vessel also became an instant weapon of mega destruction, allowing its master to create vast hordes of ravening rakghouls to be unleashed onto an unsuspecting and unprepared galaxy.
Fortunately on Muur’s demise the galaxy was spared this rampaging horde sweeping from star system to star system although it was not due to any altruistic motive on behalf of the Sith, the talisman was lost and for millennia it remained hidden. Naga Sadow, the Dark Lord who instigated the Great Hyperspace War between the Republic and the Sith Empire even sought the talisman but to no avail. Eventually though some one did find it, the Mandalorians during their occupation of Taris at the height of their advance into Republic territory. From there it was taken to the staging post of Jebble by Pulsipher, a Mandalorian researcher who was keen to work out just exactly what the talismans functions if any were. He unfortunately ended up dying as a result of his attempting to delve into the mysteries of Karness Muur’s work.
Celeste Morne, agent of the Jedi Covenant eventually ended up with the talisman being bonded to her and as a result of this it passed down through the ages as the prison of Muur and his talisman to at last she again surfaces in the era of Darth Krayt’s resurgent Sith. Most of Celeste’s time was spent imprisoned in a suspended animation device known to the galaxy at large as the Jebble Box after the planet on which it was found. So she has only been effectively active only for a hundred or so years, but now is the vital point, her will power is being gradually eroded and Karness is slowly, ever so slowly taking control. As he is constantly reminding his flesh and blood host it’s only a matter of time, either she will submit or else a more powerful force user will kill her and in turn be possessed by Karness Muur.
The big problem though with Karness Muur’s estimates is that he hasn’t taken into account the Skywalker factor, although to be fair to the old codger he has no idea about the Skywalkers but even so you should never count your chickens before they hatch. As she drifts in deep space aboard the Pallaeon class star destroyer Iron Sun, somewhere in the deep core the continuing struggle between her and Muur continues until a unidentified vessel is seemingly brought out of hyperspace by the vessels mass shadow and into a collision course. Happy coincidence? There are no coincidences where the force is concerned and even though Celeste has met two Skywalker’s previously the third time is the charm as they say.
Cade Skywalker isn’t too sure what to make of this, but its not as if he doesn’t recognise a golden opportunity when he sees it and that is exactly what Celeste Morne is. Unfortunately there are others within his party who see a similar golden opportunity, in particular the Imperial Knight, Antares Draco who feels that by killing Morne and retrieving the talisman for his emperor he will finally be able to marry his love the Princess Sia. Others such as Shado Vao are also tempted by Muur’s whisperings, fortunately though it is only Draco who seems to be besotted with the blandishments of the ancient Sith. Things do not look good, but let’s consider the scenario of the very first Star Wars movie, the film that started the phenomena; Leia, Luke and Han are on Yavin IV with the Death Star literally hot on their heels not exactly a happy situation to be in. So pressure seems to be when the scions of the Skywalker line perform to their best.
It was only after I had finished reading these four issues that I realised how very clever the team who work on the Legacy series have been, they have used the preceding issues of the Legacy series to build up this whole story starting as far back as Cade’s escape from the Sith temple on Coruscant. The whole effort of Cade’s to kill Darth Krayt has also been one of the aspects that has lead the story towards to this particular weaving of the Vector saga as its whilst they are en route to deal with the Dark Lord that they make their discovery of the drifting Iron Sun and the ageless Jedi Celeste Morne. Of course things are all coming to a head, the meeting between Cade and his crew and Morne and he monstrous minions will not only seen an end to Vector but a major shift in affairs within the Legacy era. All I can say after finally reading the last chapter of Vector is cue theme song, let roll the credits and congratulations all round to all and sundry involved.
Cade Skywalker to Celeste Morne
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Production Team: John Ostrander – story/script, Jan Duursema – pencils/story/cover art, Dan Parsons – inks, Brad Anderson – colours & Michael Heisler - letters
Cost: AU $7.95/US $2.99
Four thousand years have passed since the tumultuous events that occurred on the ice world of Jebble during the days of the Mandalorian Wars. In that time both the Sith and Jedi have risen and fallen several times, now it is the reign of Darth Krayt, the new Dark Lord of a new Sith, one no longer dedicated to the rule of two but Krayt’s rule of one, a rule of a unified Sith imposing order upon the chaos that is galactic society. It’s an impressive ambition and one that looks to be in position to succeed as Krayt rules a large portion of the galaxy, his political enemies – namely the Galactic Alliance Core Forces (GACF) and former Emperor Roan Fel are scattered whilst his traditional enemies the Jedi Order are but a former ghost of their influence and strength. Dark times, dark times indeed you’d be inclined to think that things could not get any worse. How wrong you would be…
Fortunately on Muur’s demise the galaxy was spared this rampaging horde sweeping from star system to star system although it was not due to any altruistic motive on behalf of the Sith, the talisman was lost and for millennia it remained hidden. Naga Sadow, the Dark Lord who instigated the Great Hyperspace War between the Republic and the Sith Empire even sought the talisman but to no avail. Eventually though some one did find it, the Mandalorians during their occupation of Taris at the height of their advance into Republic territory. From there it was taken to the staging post of Jebble by Pulsipher, a Mandalorian researcher who was keen to work out just exactly what the talismans functions if any were. He unfortunately ended up dying as a result of his attempting to delve into the mysteries of Karness Muur’s work.
Celeste Morne, agent of the Jedi Covenant eventually ended up with the talisman being bonded to her and as a result of this it passed down through the ages as the prison of Muur and his talisman to at last she again surfaces in the era of Darth Krayt’s resurgent Sith. Most of Celeste’s time was spent imprisoned in a suspended animation device known to the galaxy at large as the Jebble Box after the planet on which it was found. So she has only been effectively active only for a hundred or so years, but now is the vital point, her will power is being gradually eroded and Karness is slowly, ever so slowly taking control. As he is constantly reminding his flesh and blood host it’s only a matter of time, either she will submit or else a more powerful force user will kill her and in turn be possessed by Karness Muur.
The big problem though with Karness Muur’s estimates is that he hasn’t taken into account the Skywalker factor, although to be fair to the old codger he has no idea about the Skywalkers but even so you should never count your chickens before they hatch. As she drifts in deep space aboard the Pallaeon class star destroyer Iron Sun, somewhere in the deep core the continuing struggle between her and Muur continues until a unidentified vessel is seemingly brought out of hyperspace by the vessels mass shadow and into a collision course. Happy coincidence? There are no coincidences where the force is concerned and even though Celeste has met two Skywalker’s previously the third time is the charm as they say.
Cade Skywalker isn’t too sure what to make of this, but its not as if he doesn’t recognise a golden opportunity when he sees it and that is exactly what Celeste Morne is. Unfortunately there are others within his party who see a similar golden opportunity, in particular the Imperial Knight, Antares Draco who feels that by killing Morne and retrieving the talisman for his emperor he will finally be able to marry his love the Princess Sia. Others such as Shado Vao are also tempted by Muur’s whisperings, fortunately though it is only Draco who seems to be besotted with the blandishments of the ancient Sith. Things do not look good, but let’s consider the scenario of the very first Star Wars movie, the film that started the phenomena; Leia, Luke and Han are on Yavin IV with the Death Star literally hot on their heels not exactly a happy situation to be in. So pressure seems to be when the scions of the Skywalker line perform to their best.
It was only after I had finished reading these four issues that I realised how very clever the team who work on the Legacy series have been, they have used the preceding issues of the Legacy series to build up this whole story starting as far back as Cade’s escape from the Sith temple on Coruscant. The whole effort of Cade’s to kill Darth Krayt has also been one of the aspects that has lead the story towards to this particular weaving of the Vector saga as its whilst they are en route to deal with the Dark Lord that they make their discovery of the drifting Iron Sun and the ageless Jedi Celeste Morne. Of course things are all coming to a head, the meeting between Cade and his crew and Morne and he monstrous minions will not only seen an end to Vector but a major shift in affairs within the Legacy era. All I can say after finally reading the last chapter of Vector is cue theme song, let roll the credits and congratulations all round to all and sundry involved.
| 13 |
| Vote |
