STAR WARS: REBELLION (1&2) Mini Reviews

I read the first two volumes of this series for the Graphic Novel Challenge. The overall premise of the series is that it is set during the time of the original Star Wars trilogy, and features some well-known faces while introducing new characters who at least claim to be working for the Rebel Alliance. Treachery, however, is a big theme.

 The first volume, My Brother, My Enemy, was a bit iffy for me. There were various aspects of the story that I found confusing or inadequate. For example, the beginning of the volume sets up the friendship between Luke and Tank as if the reader is already completely invested in it. This either means that the prologue was a complete fail as far as I was concerned in getting me to immediately invest in the friendship, or that there's another storyline that leads into Rebellion that I don't know about. Either way, it seemed a sloppy way to start out an entire standalone series. I was also not huge on the Luke/Leia subplot, which was evocative of the incesty relationship they had back in the dawn of Star Wars in the 70s. However, I did become attached to Tank, the main protagonist of this volume, and I hope (I demand!) that he show up again. Rating 4/5 stars.

I enjoyed the second volume, The Ahakista Gambit, much more. The story was woven well between flashbacks of the protagonist, Wyl Tarson (who showed up in a small capacity in the first volume) and the present day, as opposed to the disjointed prologue of Volume 1 followed by the present-day chopped up with repetitions of said prologue. The weird Luke/Leia dynamic was nowhere to be seen and it focused on a handful of Rebellion-reject (I know, I thought they took ALL the misfits!) characters with backgrounds that are only hinted at. I look forward to learning more about all of them, and I thought Wyl especially was a much more fleshed out and interesting character than Tank. Rating 5/5 stars.

The art in the series is very well done so far, but nothing that stands out as unique; it's a similar grade to Legacy, Vector, and Knights of the Old Republic. The dialogue overall was well-written; often in graphic novels I find myself skimming dialogue and focusing on the images, but that wasn't the case here.