| Title | : | Star Wars: The Old Republic, Vol. 3: The Lost Suns |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1595826378 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781595826374 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 120 |
| Publication | : | First published March 1, 2012 |
Star Wars: The Old Republic, Vol. 3: The Lost Suns Reviews
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Special thanks to my goodreads friend
Mogsy for making me aware of the SWTOR tie-in comic series' existence.
Out of three volumes of the SWTOR tie in comic book trilogy, The Lost Suns was the one I was excited for the most by far. I had already grown attached to the characters of Theron Shan and Teffith through Drew Karpyshyn's underrated Star Wars novel
Annihilation And especially after two rather awful comics preceding it, I'm surprised, and more importantly, happy, to say that this one did not disappoint.
THE STORY: This comic takes place 1 year before the end of the Cold War, which is about 1 year before the player character starts SWTOR at level 1. That places it roughly 10 years after the previous volume of the SWTOR trilogy,
Threat of Peace, as well as 2 years before
Annihilation. Republic SIS Agent Theron Shan, the non-force sensitive son of Grand Master Satele Shan, is sent on a mission to recover his mentor, the legendary jedi master Ngani Zho. Having captured the foul mouthed smuggler Teffith in a previous op, he makes her come along. After he rescues Zho, however, the newly formed trio gets roped into a mission to take down a factory that churns out superweapons at an overwhelming rate.
THE BAD: There are a few pages that are a bit of an exposition overload. They are poorly placed, and broke my immersion into the story- as soon as I was getting sucked in these had to take me out of it.
THE GOOD: How is this written by the same person who brought us
Blood of the Empire???
Alexander Freed really surprised me with this, as everything is improved by about a hundredfold or more.
The writing, aside from those exposition dumps, was pretty good. There's narration, but most of it is used in the exposition pages that were already problematic. Also, the narration is not even that annoying because it is said by a person talking instead of just being spoonfed to us by the author. And when it is just focusing on Theron, Ngani Zho, and Teffith, it reads smoothly. Most importantly, there is plenty of great laugh-inducing dialogue to make up for the rough bits.
I really like the characterization in this comic. Theron is a total badass and has some pretty good lines, and from someone who read
Annihilation first, it is pretty interesting to see a younger Theron Shan. Teffith is as funny and snarky as I remember her, and she also gets to kick some imperial butt. Nghani Zho was the most interesting character by far, even if Theron and Teffith were both very entertaining. I liked how he was old and wise but a little bit crazy, kind of like Yoda when we first meet him in Empire Strikes Back. Darth Mekhis also makes for a pretty good villain being both intimidating and entertaining.
It is also a relief to see Satele Shan feel much more in character in the few scenes we see her in. The more I think about it, the more awful I find her characterization in Threat of Peace to be. Not only that, Satele looks nothing like Satele in that comic. Here though, we get her familiar awesome look with the double lightsaber and the battle-hardened, charismatic personality with the capacity for emotional moments I remember from the SWTOR trailers and Annihilation.
There is also some good lore in this comic. You get to see the origin of the Ascendant Spear from Annihilation as well as the Gauntlet from the SWTOR trooper storyline and the Silencer from the SWTOR sith inquisitor storyline. Port Nowhere from the SWTOR smuggler storyline also makes an appearance.
The art also works well in that the characters and backgrounds are nice to look at and the action sequences are fantastically done.
THE CONCLUSION: Final Rating is 4 stars.
It is really nice to have a tie in comic for the Old Repulic MMO that is actually GOOD. One of these days I'm going to reread The Lost Suns and follow it up with an exhilarating dose of Annihilation. This book has problems (heck the rating may even be a tad bloated) but I overall had a really good time with it. If you were ever interested in reading the SWTOR tie in comics, I'd just skip
Blood of the Empire and
Threat of Peace, and go right to this volume. This is the one comic in this series that not only captures the spirit of the game but also tells a very fun story on its own.
Overall, this is a gem in what is otherwise is a rather crappy comic book trilogy, so go figure. If you don't have the time to play the MMO but you want to explore the era, give this a read and follow it up with the Theron Shananigans in
Annihilation. -
Probably the best of the three Old Republic comics. It’s coherent, it establishes the plot clearly and effectively, it sets up the characters and situation before going for the payoff… in short it does everything right that the previous two comics got wrong. The cast of characters may be limited, but each one was quirky and well-drawn – both literally and in a metaphorical sense – and I’m a big fan of eccentric characters ever since the KOTOR comic series. Michael Atiyeh, who worked on the KOTOR comics, does the colours for this one too, and I liked the art style in this one – gets the point across without being either too garish or too thinly sketched, with every scene clarifying and serving the story. That said, I think this could have been even better with twice the page count – I sensed there was an interesting story, but it felt sparse and pressed for time. Oh, but I still think it’s a cop out to make Revan’s great menace just another proto-Empire.
8 out of 10 -
Star Wars Legends Project #28
Background: The Old Republic: The Lost Suns was released in 5 issues from June to October 2011. It was written by Alexander Freed and pencilled by Dave Ross and George Freeman. Freed also wrote the execrable "Blood of the Empire" comic for "The Old Republic" series (
my review), and did some writing for the video game, as well as an arc for "Purge" line of Star Wars comics. Ross drew an issue for Legacy and several issues for Dark Times. He has drawn for Marvel for quite some time, including several dozen issues of "Avengers," and done some work for DC. Freeman also has a long list of credits, mostly DC. This is his only Star Wars work to-date.
The comic is set during the beginning of "The Old Republic" MMORPG, 3,643 years before the Battle of Yavin, and a decade after the Treaty of Coruscant. The characters travel from Coruscant, to a deep-space outlaw base called "Port Nowhere," to the Imperial-controlled Vesla system. The main character is Republic spy Theron Shan, secret love-child of Jedi Grand Master Satele Shan (descendant of Bastila Shan and Darth Revan of the popular "Knights of the Old Republic" games).
Summary: Though it has been several years since the Republic and the Sith Empire were engaged in open warfare, the peace between them grows increasingly tenuous. The fledgling Republic intelligence service has found it nearly impossible to get any solid information about the enemy. So, when an old Jedi Master, long presumed dead, emerged suddenly from Imperial space, the Republic sees an opportunity it can't afford to miss and dispatches its best agent, Theron Shan, to meet him. Shan has a personal connection with Master Ngani Zho: Zho raised him while Theron's mother Satele was off fighting the Sith. But Zho isn't the mentor Shan remembers; he's lost his memory, and perhaps his mind, convinced that something terrible is brewing in the system he just escaped, though he can't remember what. With Zho and a small-time Twi'lek criminal in-tow, Shan heads out into the unknown to learn just what galaxy-shattering evil the Sith have gotten up to this time.
Review: Credit where credit is due, this comic was a far sight better than I had any reason to expect based on previous work in this series and by this writer. Freed's previous "Old Republic" work, as well as the other entry in the series, was an absolute mess of ridiculous, terrible plotting and dull, obnoxious characters. This story was more entertaining than not, and I actually liked most of the characters most of the time.
I suspect this may be because the previous two "Old Republic" storylines were originally published as webcomics, while this was released as an actual comic book in a couple of issues. Not that I don't love webcomics, because I do, but very poor use of the medium is the only way I can think of to account for what's going on here. Anyway, whatever it is, I'm glad.
Now, let's get the complaining out of the way. I really only have one significant complaint: Teff'ith, the Twi'lek criminal. She is, in theory, a great character . . . The roguish comic relief with a hard-bitten exterior and a heart of gold (sort of). The execution, however, leaves a good bit to be desired, beginning with why the heck she's even part of the story at all.
Shan picks her up delivering slaves to the Black Sun criminal organization on Coruscant, and then . . . is somehow stuck with her. It's never particularly clear to me why the Republic Strategic Information Service is doing police work, and it's even less clear why, rather than turn her over to the actual police, or at least leave her in a cell back planetside, Shan instead decides to bring her along on a top-secret mission of vital importance to the Republic. The more I think about it, and about how this decision plays out, the less sense it makes, and the more I realize how poorly it was explained (or not explained). Sure, you can just overlook it for the sake of the fun of the story, and I pretty much did, but it's a sign of poor writing that I had to do that.
Also, Teff'ith is at least vaguely . . . I guess "offensive" is close to the right word . . . in her character design. She speaks in a primitive form of pidgin Basic, for some reason. And her physical appearance is decidedly odd. Also, obviously, she's curvy in all of the expected places, though her outfits aren't very revealing by comic book standards. Her lekku (head-tails), though . . . They're absurdly large. The size fluctuates a bit, but they frequently appear to be about the same mass as the entire rest of her body. Seems like it would cause some serious neck issues, if nothing else. Also seems like the Twi'lek equivalent of giving a character comically-large boobs. It was just strange. Oh, and her character, who has apparently worked (at various times) as an assassin, a thief, a smuggler, and a slaver, is also like 17 or 18 years old. Also a bit weird.
Anyway, as I said, I really liked this character, or at least the role she played in the story, I just wish they had managed to make her fit more logically. The other major characters are also great. There's Zho, the old Master who is a little crazy and a lot past his prime, but still wise with a mischievous streak. And there's Theron, who I'm definitely excited to see more of. He's dealing with some issues, like his mother's abandonment (basically), and the fact that he has no Force abilities (a concept explored far too little among Star Wars protagonists). What's great about him, though, is his immense resourcefulness and creativity (and really awesome cybernetic implants). He's just . . . cool.
The story itself is fairly thin, I guess, but it doesn't seem to matter much because this is really all about developing these characters and their relationships. I could whine a bit about the massively overused superweapon plotline, but honestly, I kind of liked the way they handled it in this story.
Overall, though it isn't great, I'd say if you want a taste of the "Old Republic" tie-in materials, check this one out. Of the novels and comics I've read in this loose "series," this was the most entertaining. And, while I like a lot of things about Satele Shan (who gets some significant screentime in the some of the other stories), Theron is the one character from this era that I really want to hear more about.
B- -
It might qualify as so bad it was good, or at least entertaining in the all the wrong ways. On the plus side, at least it wasn't so bad it was terrible.
The art was fairly good when it came to backgrounds and technology, and fairly terrible when it came to faces. Youngblood's disease is apparently alive and well, and not limited to Liefeldian art; people's appearances weren't consistent (most problematically, Theron's deus ex machina cybernetics were almost never drawn in); and the art was sometimes distractingly awful. (It's difficult to maintain proper focus and investment in the story when the main characters can periodically be mistaken for rakghouls.)
The story was a rambling mess, even before the magic cybernetics and villain stupidity ending. The Republic SIS wants information about what happens in the Empire, so they send agent Theron Shan after random things like slavers who may be selling to the Empire and a Jedi who may have been a prisoner in the Empire for an unspecified amount of time. (The slavers never come up again, and at one point Theron encounters people likely to have information about the Empire and...has apparently forgotten that the SIS might want that.)
The Jedi was his mother's old master and apparently raised him as if he could become a Jedi, despite the fact that he's not Force Sensitive (something he didn't learn until he was a teen.) And the Jedi, who has memory problems, knows about some terrible Imperial plot that must be stopped.
So we get confusing angst (Exactly why did the Jedi lead Theron to think he could be a Jedi? Why was he raising Theron? ???) and a standard spy movie plot: destroy the villain's horrible device.
The later wouldn't be too bad, except that the pacing is odd, events are implausible (how do you spend several days in a star system and not notice the giant Imperial construction "eating" the sun?), and the villains spend a week explaining their plan in detail to Theron after he, the Jedi, and the prisoner he just randomly took on his secret assignment are captured. A WEEK. All because Theron is such an amazing agent that the Empire wants him.
Okay, it's Star Wars meets ridiculous spy movie, of course everyone thinks the hero is all that, and of course the villains are going to monologue. FOR A WEEK??? I can only assume that either Theron's dialogue was supposed to be "one hundred fifty-six minutes" not "hours" or we really, really weren't supposed to do the math.
And the villains make both the standard mistake of leaving the hero unguarded (so he can use his cybernetics to hack their base and let himself go) and of giving the hero a chance to off them - in this case, the Darth in charge gets up in Theron's face when he admits to being a Jedi's son and he's able to shoot her with a poison dart. Which leads the rest of the villains to...accidentally kill each other? The art is seriously unclear.
Despite it all being very silly (yet taking itself, as far as I could tell, quite seriously), I'd probably have enjoyed it a lot more if I'd liked Theron. At all. He makes James Bond look like a sensitive and kindly person. And I know he's supposed to grow over the course of the story, but I really didn't see it. And a character who dismisses the importance of the Republic doing something about a slaving operation needs a hell of a lot of growth for me to consider accepting them as a "hero."
Theron Shan: "Anyway, if these gangsters are selling slaves to the Empire, it's hardly a Republic Security concern." That line, early in the book, probably cost it a whole star in my ratings. Apparently he thinks slaves grow on trees. Or he doesn't care if they are selling Republic citizens to the Empire. I mean, I just can't parse out how that isn't a Republic Security concern. Not to mention a basic humanity concern.
But if you can get past that, the book's sort of fun to read in an MST3K kind of way. -
Now this one reads like a Star Wars comic. You have your charming rogue, an older Jedi, and an unwilling criminal pulled into a galactic conspiracy. Good action, fun characters, and an overall enjoyable adventure. It was much better than the previous two collections.
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Of the three Old Republic comic arcs, this is clearly the best. It has three more-or-less likable main characters, an emotional backstory for the protagonist that, unlike Kel's in Blood of the Empire, actually feels complete and relatable, if not full of pathos. Zho is an unusual and fun Jedi, There's an intriguing antagonist, who has a variety of interesting Sith schemes going on, and she has a history with the mentor. That whole thing, plus the noble sacrifice on the superweapon deal echoes A New Hope just enough to capture its quality without feeling like a rip-off.
A couple things hold this back from being great. One is that Mekhis has a distinctly biological flavor that honestly outdoes anything in TOR for evocative evil. She has all these bioterrorism weapons and speaks in ways that glorify larvae and it's pretty fun. On the other hand, none of this seems to play into her role as the designer/overseer of the superweapon deal that actually matters here. That weapon is a descendant of the Star Forge that jumps like 100x farther from the scale of the Star Forge than Starkiller Base does from the Death Star. It's a piece of tech that would totally change the rules of Star Wars (literally bumping it to a Kardashev Type II civilization) and yet there's no clear reason it was invented here and not ever again? I hate that kind of shit--for some reason the disregard it shows for the universe bothers me almost as much as the whole boring superweapon shtick itself. This seems like the sort of dumb stunt they would have put in the game itself, and while it makes sense that it was destroyed so the Cold War would remain stable (like Jedi Starfighter's Hex weapons ploy) and I'm glad it isn't in the game, it's still weird to have such a massive thing as the prequel to a longer, more impactful set of stories.
The other thing is just that it's all a bit boring? I like Theron and Ngani Zho well enough, and Teff'ith is fine as a companion, but the whole superweapon deal is underwhelming and I kind of wish there were more characters or more interesting things happened or just something that would push the quality in the good aspects into a really enjoyable story. -
After two strongly mediocre comic book takes on the Old Republic game, The Lost Suns, just like the first two, is a spin off series with a self awareness of its own approach, but its highly dependent on the information given in the video game, making it a little hard for fans to follow the events played in the book, that being said, it doesn't feel as messy as the first two titles, and given the new story, it is a much more solid and smooth storyline. Theron Shan is a spy in the quest of finding his old mentor, Master Jedi Zho, in order to defeat one of the Sith members of the Empire, Darth Mekhis, and being Theron a non-Jedi even though his ancestors had Jedi blood in them, plays for an interesting approach. Problem with the comic book is, again, how fast the story seems to go without giving us the chance of learning nor dig the information. Alexander Freed provides the letters and he's also one of the game's writers, but in here the rhythm consists a problem. David Daza gives the final pencil artworks, and his art is fine, at least better than the first books, but never as attractive or beautiful as other Legends entries. The Lost Suns is a fine addition into the Legends series, feeding the Star Wars mythology without transcending or offering outstanding substance, but enough for a one time-reading.
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Though it’s markedly better than the previous 2 volumes in this 3 volume video game tie-in, The Lost Suns still failed to impress me or make any kind of impact on my Star Wars reading.
I don’t know if it’s worse than being “horrible” but honestly, The Lost Suns is forgettable more than anything. If I hadn’t read Karpyshyn’s continuation of this story in his fantastic Annihilation, this story wouldn’t have made a mark and would quickly have gone the way of many other sub-par comics and novels I’ve read in 2017.
This comic’s one saving grace is that unlike the other disasters that proceeded it, The Lost Suns had a followable story line, it moves in a much smoother, linear way, and the illustrations are far superior than what was justified in Threat or Peace.
If I’ve learned anything these last couple of months reading stuff from the Old Republic, it’s this: the novels (especially those by the aforementioned Drew Karpyshyn) seem to be the much better written, much better conceived stories. I’ve yet to read a comic series in this line that is any good. -
After the previous two SWTOR volumes, I came in expecting to be disappointed that I wasted so much time and effort getting my hands on this one (the other two having been a random find at a second-hand shop, while this one was hard to come by at a reasonable price). Fortunately, I was proven wrong; while I didn't dig the artstyle snd Theron's design much, the story itself was actually coherent and kept my interest. Teff'ith was probably the one who kept me the most hooked to the book - she was my favorite of the main cast - but the whole group was great.
Probably not the best Star Wars comic out there, but it's a stark improvement over the previous two volumes. If you're looking to read one of these comic volumes, this one is the one I think you should pick. -
This is the first TPB of the series that actually gave me a real sense of the setting used in the video game - and the first competently executed story (the previous TPBs...yikes). I became quite fond of Theron Shan and his companions while reading these pages. I'm not sad that I finished a lacklustre series, but at least it ended on a strong note.
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This was by far the most coherent of the 3 graphic novels. It had a nice story, character development though the tropes were hard and heavy. Our heroes were fighting another Empire and having to destroy a super weapon. But for all that it was definitely the strongest of the three.
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Better than the others in the series but still not as compelling on its own merits.
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It was ok, I guess.. even if you care about the characters from the game, you still not getting much here. An ok story with forgettable dialogue and nice artwork.
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Beeing the best out of the three volumes doesn't speak much about this truly forgetable piece of fiction. At least it managed to take the best out of the first two: It took the basic cohesiveness of the first volume, and the slitly more interesting story of the second and combined it with the best art so far in this series. And by the cylon god am I glad I can put this series behind me.
The art is still pure ugly, the colors are unatractive, the characters are bland and the story is just barely interesting. The only thing that kept me going, was the knowledge, that this will end soon (and the need to get caught up on Theron Shan, who is to play a bigger part in further media - possibly a romance option for my Ashla Tano - Jedi Knight from the game).
It is a shame really, because Bioware has laid the foundation for some great storytelling and the books are perfect proof that it is indeed possible to write awesome tales in this era. -
Much, much better than the previous volume. This follows the story of a Republic spy, cybernetically enhanced and Jedi trained (yet not a Jedi), on a quest to reuinite with his old Master and stop the Sith's plot. I won't spoil much and I recommend not reading the description on this page or the back of the book, as it spoils some important plot points.
Writing was pretty good. I think the dialogue served it best, although the pace was a bit slow at times. I found myself enjoying the story, but wanting for more evolution in the main character. It is a spy story, so you get a static character like James Bond who doesn't grow from his experiences, just has all the answers. The only consolation is that this isna stand alone graphic novel and that I will never likely see these characters again.
The art is crisp and the backgrounds were especially well done. There were three artists working on this volume and the inker and colorist did very well making the transition seamless. I wish the penciller who worked from the roughs had the same dedication... Important pieces were missing (cybernetics from the main character's face, guns from hands, and other strange bits that were distracting). Other than some strange posing, the characters were drawn well enough.
All in all it was a decent series. I would recommend skipping the second GN of The Old Republic if you could. -
Synopsis: "One of the Republic's elite spies, Theron Shan, embarks on an assignment to uncover dark secrets that could shatter the fragile peace with the Sith and plunge the galaxy back into war An old Jedi, Ngani Zho - once Theron's mentor, and formerly thought lost in Sith territory - has returned, quite a bit more peculiar than before he left. Unfortunately, he''s the only one who can guide Theron on his mission. Quickly, Theron's hands are full with Zho, a troublesome thief, and the Sith who never should have let that old Jedi return to the Republic."
My Review: I have had to really push through this short series of graphic novels. I am a fan of Star Wars but this series was just not for me. The storyline seems a little jumbled and needs more filling out. This was the best of out of the three volumes but it still feels disconnected. I did enjoy the cast of characters, a nice variety and each with a full personality. The artwork was also a high point. I am sad to say I am glad this series is over, I had high hopes for it but it sadly fell short, maybe it is best to stick with the novels and movies (at least for me, I need a little more world and plot development). -
Hm. There are some good and bad parts of this. I feel like I paid more attention to this third segment than the others, but parts were a tad dry. The art is pretty decent (and excellent regarding colors). It has a less digital feel than the previous two had. I enjoyed the realism.
"Jedi and spies don't mix," but Theron Shan, a Republic spy, is going to find Jedi Master Zho in Sith space. Shan has just taken Teff'ith, a Black Sun Twi'lek, prisoner, so she's forced along for the ride. Zho (Satele's Master) raised Shan, despite him not having Force potential.
Zho has lost a portion of his memory, but eventually remembers that the Empire (Darth Mekhis specifically) is creating superweapons. They end up facing one called the Sun Razor.
Teff'ith ends up helping, and her humour helped the comic along. She grows on me quickly and I really like her as a character.
The ending with Satele was odd. Actually, none of the Jedi/Sith sensing Theron (or who he was) was a bit odd. -
Hmmmm. What to say? I think I'll go with rather pointless, and follow it up with mediocre art style. It stars everybody's favorite non Jedi with mommy and daddy issues, (Theron Shan) and devolves from there. The 'story' is rather rambling and pointless (Wait, what? Is this more poor Theron? no... wait...there's a Darth at the end, that must be where we were going!) All I came away with was a lingering doubt as to why Zho was given custody (apparently sole) of a child he was obviously inadequate to raise...and he failed to notice that (insightful Jedi?) I thought that it was due to trauma later, only to be told no...he was often that lost. :/
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An enjoyable blast through a very Star Wars feeling story. I've not played more than the prequel to The Old Republic video game, so can't judge it based on how it fits into that, but I enjoyed the story a lot and found it very accessible despite that. Tells the tale of a Republic spy, past-his-prime Jedi and rogueish criminal finding out what's going on in Imperial space and trying to put a stop to it. Nothing overwhelming, but it was done well. The art was never stand out amazing, but it functioned well enough and was colourful without being garish which I liked. Recommended if you can find it cheaply like I did.
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Not a bad story of the Cold War era. Theron Shan is a Republic spy who infiltrates the Sith Empire to unlock a mystery.
There are several interesting elements in the story - addled Jedi Master, failed apprentice, secret Sith plans and some nice character moments.
I honestly think the story might have benefitted from a sixth issue, allowing the author to expand upon a few characters and scenes and perhaps name a few characters that went unnamed.
Overall, I thought this was a pretty enjoyable story in the Star Wars universe and I look forward to seeing more of Theron Shan. -
Finally! The TOR series ends in a positive note.
A graphic novel of five issues that makes sense; without skipping through the plot in a hurry (hence making the reader confused as heck) and made up of a simple yet compelling story and characters that one can actually grow to care about.
Theron was an absolute baddass, kinda got me wishing there were more issues so he could have been explored a little further. His actions show that not only jedi and soldiers can be brave and impose a threat to the empire, which I liked.
Pleased with this last instalment. -
La série The Old Republic est dans ce qui s'est fait de pire pour les bandes dessinées de Star Wars. J'ai bien aimé le livre Revan mais pas le jeu. J'ai vite décroché. Je me suis emmerdé à lire ce tome. L'histoire est par moment très confuse et lorsqu'on regarde les dessins, on a l'impression qu'il manque des scènes. Si j'ai un conseil à donner, c'est d'éviter si possible de perdre son temps à lire cette merde.
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Well, after the first and second volumes, one of them had to be good. This was a perfectly good story about your friend and mine, Theron Shan. I liked the opening flashback about the Jedi Order's dream team of Satele Shan, Syo Bakarn, Bela Kiwiiks, and Jaric Kaedan at the Battle of Rhen Var. The art was nice and it was a fun romp overall.
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I love, love, loved the plot and story line. What an idea an man born to a jedi
who is not force sensitive. I thought the art was very nice, but the action was short and uninvolved. This my reason for only rating this book 4.2 -
The series got back on track with this one. Interesting story, good characters, good artwork. Nice close to the series. My only complaint is that the characters and story line are only loosely related between books.
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Boring, horribly written, and bad drawing are my opinions of this comic.
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A boring prequel to an excellent novel: Star Wars Annihilation
