Menace Revealed (Star Wars Omnibus) [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

As a long time fan of the Star Wars Saga, the comic contribution to what has come to be known as the Star Wars "Expanded Universe" has always had a special appeal for me. With the Star Wars Omnibus collection series, Dark Horse Comics is offering fans a great opportunity to explore their vast published works in that beloved galaxy "far, far away." The Star Wars Omnibus "Menace Revealed" is an extra special volume in the series because, in its 480 pages, this book contains a wealth of hard to find adventures that take place before, during and after the events of the Prequel Trilogy films, "The Phantom Menace," and "Attack of the Clones."

The contents of this omnibus features stories showcasing a myriad cast from the Saga, from those known in the films like Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Jedi Masters Yoda and Mace Windu, to characters given more depth in the "Expanded Universe," like the deadly bounty hunter Aurra Sing, who is featured on the book's cover in an illustration by Jon Foster. The albino assassin is featured in two tales, "The Hunt for Aurra Sing" and "The Bounty Hunters: Aurra Sing," and much of her history is revealed, including her link to the Jedi Order.

Another famous or infamous bounty hunter, Jango Fett, shares two adventures in the book with another gun-for-hire, Zam Wesell, that show them in action before their movie debut in "Attack of the Clones."

The Jedi Master and apprentice duo of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker share heroics in "Jedi Quest" and "Practice Makes Perfect" and are featured in two other stories as well.

In a galaxy as vast as the Star Wars galaxy, not even George Lucas' epic films could showcase all the tales its stars shine on and this omnibus also shines the light on characters never seen in the films. "Starcrash" tells a tale of "newly christened Jedi Knight" Yoshi Raph-Elan and his adventure with a beautiful princess. "Starfighter Crossbones" relates the exploits of the daring space pirate Captain Nym, a character introduced in a LucasArts video game.

A surprise treat for me was the discovery of a three paged tale of the Jedi Master Quinlan Voss called "Heart of Fire," created by John Ostrander and Jan Duursema. This writer/artist team have created a growing library of great Star Wars comics which continue with their collaboration on the "Star Wars Legacy" series.

This Star Wars Omnibus contains all the above and more. For Star Wars fans like myself and for fans of grand, entertaining comics, this book comes highly recommended.

The Star Wars Omnibus: Menace Revealed starts off with a shoddy comic entitled Starcrash; which is issue 27 of the Republic comics. It's a tale involving the Jedi Yoshi Raph-Elan and his quest to save a princess while he's stranded on a strange planet. The art is nice but the story was sub-par. Involving a random Jedi on a nearly meaningless quest was not a good way to start this omnibus.
Next up is the short issue called Heart of Fire where Jedi Quinlan Vos has a chat with a padawan whose master was killed by Jedi hunter Aurra Sing. The art was nice and the little chat was interesting and it's neat seeing this short issue go from the Dark Horse Extra issues to this omnibus.
The Hunt for Aurra Sing, Republic #28-31, is next. This story brings Ki-Adi, his padawan A'Sharad, and Adi Gallia to hunt for the bounty hunter Aurra Sing. Aurra is sent on various hits but one in particular peaks her interest due to her having to hunt her former master as well as a Quarren politician. The Jedi have been sent to protect the politician as well as Aurra's former master, the Dark Woman. A'Sharad is faced with the decision to fight Aurra and let her be put to justice or fall to his dark intentions and kill her to avenge his father. The art is fantastic (as is all the Republic issues) and the story is some of the best yet in the Republic series with plenty of action.
Jedi Quest is next in the omnibus and the story involves a young Anakin with a young Obi-Wan and their hunt for the slaver Krayn and for Anakin to be able to face his fears. The art is weird and similar to a manga and the story wasn't very intriguing at all.
Jango Fett is the next story and a fantastic one at that. Jango is hired to retrieve a mysterious artifact from a world full of force-sensitive natives. This story also goes right into the Zam Wesell comic where Jango and Zam must now get the artifact back before the original employer, Ashaar Khorda, uses it to destroy the entire planet of Coruscant! Jedi Yarael Poof is also sent by the council to do the same but ultimately falls in order to save the billions of habitants of the giant planet. These two stories are wonderfully done and the art (although different for each comic) was really well done. The story also shows how good of a father Jango is to Boba.
The Bounty Hunters: Aurra Sing is next up and involves Aurra Sing's hunt for Reess Kairn and eliminate his Shi'ido shape-shifting bodyguards paid to look exactly like him. But Aurra is more cunning than that and must travel from Hoth to Endor and across the galaxy to find and kill this disguised warrior. The art was very well done and the story plays right into a typical Aurra adventure with lots of killing and explosions.
The Poison Moon story arc found in the Dark Horse Extras is present and involves Anakin and Obi responding to a distress signal only to find a dark Sith onboard that tricks Anakin and nearly kills him! It's a very, very short comic and the print is very small but the story is OK.
Starfighter: Crossbones is a 3-issue story about a legendary pirate named Nym having to hunt down another living legend, Sol Sixxta, and eliminate someone who has supposedly been dead several times over! This comic follows the Starfighter video game and is really neat but not all that memorable.
Included at the end of this omnibus are four Hasbro and Toys R Us exclusive comics that were geared towards the release of some of the Star Wars toys at the time. Full of Surprises, a comic made for the Jedi Starfighter toy by Hasbro, basically involves Obi-Wan's first encounter with Jango Fett's Slave I and Obi's cunning use of the Jedi Starfighter's hidden weapons to escape Jango and his hidden missile launcher! The second story entitled Most Precious Weapon, has Count Dooku retelling his battle with Anakin and Obi-Wan on Geonosis and fighting his former master Yoda as well. Practice Makes Perfect involves Anakin and Obi-Wan in an exercise from the Council and the final comic, Machines of War, involves a Republic Gunship full of Clone Troopers at the battle of Geonosis using a grappling hook to destroy some CIS droids.
Overall, this is a decent omnibus and has a lot of comics that haven't been collected before and it's nice to have them all here at once. They all fit together with the story arc mostly involving Aurra Sing, Obi, Ani, Ki, Jango, Zam, and the Jedi Council members.

Overall Rating: 8.5 out of 10

This is the largest and, as the title would indicate, best Star Wars Omnibus yet! Even though I still had a couple of the story arcs collected in it, there was more than enough new content to justify its purchase. Also included are the four promotional Hasbro comics printed in 2002, based loosely on Attack of the Clones to promote Hasbro's new line of action figures.