Star Wars: Jedi of the Republic — Mace Windu #4 review
By Thomas Bacon
Mace Windu faces the challenges of the Clone Wars, as his fellow Jedi begin to falter in Star Wars: Jedi of the Republic!
Star Wars: Jedi of the Republic — Mace Windu #4
Writer: Matt Owens
Pencilers: Denys Cowan & Edgar Salazar
Colorist: GURU-eFX
Marvel’s Mace Windu series is a fascinating one. The first new-canon comic to be set during the Clone Wars, it also seems to have launched a new range of comics. We’re expecting the “Jedi of the Republic” range to give us a sense of what it means to be a Jedi Knight. Will they all take place during the Clone Wars? Or will they explore other, unseen parts of galactic history?
We don’t know what Marvel has planned. What we do know though, is that this first miniseries is an intriguing arc.
Jedi don’t always agree. [Credit: Marvel Comics]
In the shadow of the Clone Wars
The miniseries is set in the early days of the Clone Wars. It sees the Jedi struggling to work out what it means to be peacekeepers in a galaxy at war. For Mace Windu, this struggle is a deep and personal one. He’s all too aware of his own inner darkness, and secretly carries more doubts than he would ever dare admit.
It’s an approach we’ve seen before. In the old Expanded Universe, Matt Stover penned the novel Shatterpoint, a similar character-piece — albeit more intense. Stover went on to write the novelization of Revenge of the Sith. As a result, aspects of his portrayal of Windu became a core part of the character’s Star Wars design. Conceptually, Matt Owens’s script follows similar themes to Shatterpoint, but handles them in a very different way.
At the same time, Owens takes the time to explore Windu’s history and backstory. The issue opens with a flashback of a previous mission, when Mace was just a Jedi Apprentice. He weaves this story through the comic’s narrative, linking past to present. As a result, Owens raises intriguing questions about what it means to be a Jedi.
When Jedi divide
Mace may be willing to take on the Separatists, but not all Jedi are willing to go to war. He’s assembled a strike team for a mission on the planet Hissrich. Unfortunately, Jedi Knight Posset Dibs has come to doubt the wisdom of the Jedi Council. Angered when he learns the Jedi didn’t give him all the knowledge he needed to know what was right, Dibs has drawn a lightsaber on his fellow Jedi!
The main arc is the story of two battles, one in the past and the other in the present. Each explores the question of what it means to be a Jedi, each shines a light on Windu’s philosophy. It’s a fascinating and timely approach. The Last Jedi promises to explore questions of the Force philosophy like no other Star Wars movie we’ve seen. When Mace insists that “there are no gray areas,” you can’t help wondering if Luke would agree with him!
Mace Windu as a Jedi Apprentice! [Credit: Marvel Comics]The whole creative team is tremendously impressive. Owens’s script is effective and enjoyable, with careful pacing. It’s complemented perfectly by the artistic team, and there are so many stand-out scenes. Action sequences and facial expressions are rendered wonderfully, and GURU-eFX’s coloring creates a rich sense of variety. You can tell at a glance when you transition from past to present, in large part thanks to the distinctive color schemes used for each time-period.
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The “Jedi of the Republic” banner is already proving to be a fascinating one. The Mace Windu miniseries raises fascinating questions about the Force, and the changing role of the Jedi in a galaxy at war. Many of Marvel’s comics have seemed only tangential to Lucasfilm’s ongoing Star Wars narrative. Given the questions of Force philosophy are so crucial to the future of the franchise, that reality has clearly changed.