Star Wars Omnibus: Emissaries and Assassins [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

This book is an amazing collection of stories in the Star Wars universe. Emissaries opens on it's lowest note- a mostly boring redux of the Episode 1 movie (including an embarassing extra adventure starring Padme and Jar-Jar). That chapter partially redeems itself with a great version of the Darth Maul fight scene. The following episodes focus mostly on the adventures of Jedi who are not as prominent in the movies. Coneheaded Jedi Ki-Adi Mundi is a thrilling main character who is seen only briefly in episodes 1-3. The book concludes with the dark tale of Jango Fett, who Star Wars fans will immediately recognize. Emissaries is a fantastic compendium that any fan of the series will love. And given the length and quality of the artwork, you can't argue with the price.

This part of the Star Wars Omnibus collection starts off with the same timeline of Episode I: The Phantom Menace. The first part of this omnibus includes some of the Star Wars Episode I stories regarding Anakin, Padme, Obi-Wan, and Qui-Gon along with a previously uncollected (in the correct format) issue called Star Wars the Phantom Menace . The Anakin story is the first to be shown and it tells of the little adventure Anakin had right before Padme, Jar Jar, and Qui-Gon arrived in Watto's shop. His little story tells how, in searching for podracer parts, he always finds what he looks for and things always work out for him. The second story tells of Padme Amidala and Jar Jar and their adventure when, while helping build Anakin's podracer, a bug steals a part. After chasing it, Padme and Jar Jar learn that the bug needs it to maintain a carefully balanced eco-system and they discover a way to fix it and get the part back in time. The third Phantom Menace story involves Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and picks up on his story right after trying to collect the winnings from Watto after the Boonta Eve race. Watto orders a hit on the Jedi but it fails and ultimately, Watto is forced to give up his human prize. Also, this comic includes a scene from the Phantom Menace deleted scenes in which a young Greedo calls Anakin a cheater and Ani and him get in a fight only to have it broken up by Qui-Gon. The final Episode I story involves Obi-Wan Kenobi. Obi-Wan's story has a bit of a different art style and basically recounts the events in Star Wars Episode I as Obi-Wan is telling it to Yoda.
These Episode I stories are a nice little intro to this Omnibus and expand the Episode I movie a bit more. The art style leaves a little to be desired and Padme's story is basically unreadable due to having to stop to decipher what the heck Jar Jar is saying in each speech bubble but other than that, they are OK.
Next in the omnibus is the Outlander story arc from the Republic series. This covers issues #7-12 and basically covers where the first 6 issues of Republic left off and that's following Ki-Adi-Mundi and Aurra Sing around the galaxy. The Jedi Council learns of frequent and deadly Tusken Raider attacks on Tatooine and have reason to believe a rogue Jedi is behind it. Sharad Hett, former student of Eeth Koth, is the accused and Ki-Adi is sent to find him and convince him to return. At the same time, Jedi hunter Aurra Sing is looking for Sharad Hett as well. Ki-Adi lands on Tatooine and is betrayed by Jabba the Hutt, to no surprise, and must fight his way to the supposed leader of the Sand People all by himself. Upon being cornered by a Krayt Dragon, Ki-Adi encounters the rogue Jedi and his band of Sand People along with the Jedi's son, A'Sharad Hett. Still in training, A'Sharad disposes of the Dragon and Sharad takes Ki-Adi back to the camp where he explains the horrible attacks made by the Tusken Raiders. He explains that Jabba had the Raiders framed in order to scare the farmers into stocking up on weapons and allowing Jabba to sell his cheap blasters. Sharad also learns that the Aurra Sing is hot on his trail and after a brief period of calm where Sharad is able to explain his reasons how he came to be a Tusken leader on Tatooine, the camp is attacked by Gardulla the Hutt. After Jabba's arrival to save his relative and the loss of most of the Tusken Raider camp in battle, Aurra sing takes on Sharad Hett in a lightsaber duel and plunges her blade through Sharad in combat; killing him. Ki-Adi-Mundi leaves Tatooine but with a new apprentice at the request of Sharad; his son A'Sharad.
This story is one of my favorite story arcs and really introduces and shows the origins of a very interesting Jedi and also reveals a lot of history and customs of the mysterious Tusken Raiders. The artwork is fantastic and the writing is superb.
The next part of the omnibus is a continuation of the Outlander arc and this next one covers issues #13-18 and the arc is titled Emissaries to Malastare. This arc tells of the Jedi's involvement with a diplomatic problem on Malastre and, among the chaos of the Phoebos Memorial Run and the Vinta Harvest Classic podrace, the Jedi, Mace Windu, Ki-Adi-Mundi, Stass Allie, A'Sharad Hett, Yaddle, Plo Koon, and Even Piell uncover a plot by Myk'Chur Zug to kill the current leader of Malastare. They must resolve the conflict and get the proceedings back on schedule. However, during the attack, Mace Windu learned of Zug's use of Akk Dogs during the attack; a creature native to Windu's homeworld and normally docile. Upon fixing things in Malastare, Mace and Allie set out to find the origins of the Akk Dog trainers and distributors and settle upon a half-headed crime lord name Gargonn (and a cameo by a young Malakiki, most known for being the Rancor keeper in Return of the Jedi) and must stop him and his gang of thugs to cease the cruel use of the kind and timid Akk Dogs.
Once again, this continues the awesome run of the Republic comics and the artwork is really well done and the story is cool. This has less action and more political parts but it's still very well done. It's different than the Outlander arc in terms of action but the same in terms of quality.
The omnibus finishes off with the Jango Fett: Open Seasons series. This story tells of Jango Fett's troubled past that led to his cunning bounty-hunting ways. When Darth Tyranus comes looking for a suitable host for a clone army, it is Jango Fett that arrives and gives Tyranus a hard bargain by attempting to outsmart a Sith. We learn of Jango's run-ins with the Death Watch and their leader Vizsla, who kills Jango's family after learned they aided the True Mandalorians, led by Jaster Mereel. Jango is inducted into the True Mandalorian squad and aids in the fight against the Death Watch. Years later, he is commanding a squad in a fight for the Korda Defense Force. The True Mandalorians soon learn it's a Death Watch trap and many fall in battle including Jango's mentor Jaster, after Montross, a fellow soldier leaves Jaster to die on the battlefield. Montross is banished by Jango and the story comes back to Darth Tyranus. We learn of the battle the Jedi sent him on that became the straw that broke the Bantha's back and had Tyranus defect to the Sith. It was Galidraan and it was Dooku and a band of Jedi sent to combat the Mandalorians attacking the locals. Dooku's forces eliminated all the Mandalorians except for Jango. Dooku chalked it up as one of the many misguided missions commanded of the Council. We finally learn of Jango's story of how he catches up with Vizsla and battles him from space to a nearby planet's ground and leaves him to be eaten by wild animals. It ends with Jango accepting Dooku's deal and requesting an unaltered clone along with his payment; the unaltered clone being the infamous Boba Fett!
This story had a neat art style and an action-packed story chock full of origin information for Jango Fett and Count Dooku. This story is truly worth it all to read on it's own and the fact that you get all the other fantastic stories in the omnibus make it all more worthwhile.
Overall, this is another fantastic omnibus to add to the collection and a must-have for any Star Wars fan!

Overall Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Good grief. I realized long ago that the STAR WARS Prequel Trilogy really wasn't "your father's STAR WARS story," and, to a certain extent, I think I'd made my peace with it. George Lucas is plenty of years older than he was when he scratched down the outline for the entirety of the story, so maybe - just maybe - he'd lost much of his original ideas for Episodes I, II, and III. Maybe a Gungan had eaten his notes! I mean, "Who knew? Right?" that an entire legion of STAR WARS fans would hate the second collection of films. I didn't. I certainly saw them as `lesser films' only in so much that they didn't make a lot of narrative sense. I figured the big ticket items - the introduction of Obi-Wan Kenobi, the rise of Darth Vader - were handled well enough that I could easily forgive a ten-year-old Anakin, alien-based fart jokes, and a steaming pile of JarJar.

However, what I didn't so much anticipate was how the intrusion of uninteresting characterization compounded with flat, one-dimensional writing would inhabit the world of Dark Horse Comics. That hadn't always been the case as Dark Horse - by my own recollection and even my own reviews of several of their trade paperbacks - has created some winning excursions into the STAR WARS Universe. In fact, some of their stories have been so phenomenal that one could almost give Dark Horse a Dewback's share of the credit for the creation of the Expanded Universe. While I understand that the EU incorporates several STAR WARS properties (games, toys, books, etc.), it's been my experience that quite a bit of it has been fleshed out in Dark Horse materials, and George Lucas's world has been richly textured as a result.

However, the STAR WARS OMNIBUS: EMISSARIES & ASSASSINS is - hands down - nearly unbearable for much of its nearly 500 pages. No, no, no ... it isn't awful artwork, per se, though there are some panels that really cry out for greater clarity. Rather, it's just dreadful stories, with only two notable exceptions. Whoever working for part of Dark Horse's editorial staff who believed exploring additional material to be set within the framework of events portrayed in STAR WARS: THE PHANTOM MENACE really needs to be either (a) drawn and quartered, (b) summarily dismissed from employment, or (c) both.

Here's a rundown:

ANAKIN SKYWALKER is a 30-page vignette that essentially tries to flesh out "a character" from the horrific mess that was the ten-year-old misfit portrayed by (actor) Jake Lloyd. It's almost painful to read as the young slave goes about acting like an even younger and more annoying slave than what made it on the big screen. Bonus annoyance: there's more Watto! Zero stars.

QUEEN AMIDALA is a 30-page vignette that essentially tries to give Padme - in her disguise as the handmaiden while on Tatooine - a bit of a side adventure completely unnecessary to any of the action and events already depicted in the motion picture, THE PHANTOM MENACE. Bonus annoyance: there's plenty more JarJar! Zero stars.

QUI-GON JINN is a 30-page vignette that's - thankfully - much less painful than so much else in the previous two vignettes, and, thus far, it's the only one that mildly adds to the narrative already established in THE PHANTOM MENACE. Basically, the story tries to fill in some additional story between Qui-Gon and Watto and how the two of them went about keeping their agreement to free young Anakin once he won the podrace. Again, it's an improvement, but, much like the others, it isn't all that relevant. One star.

OBI-WAN KENOBI is a throwback to the less-than-stellar work of the first two vignettes as it postulates a lengthening of Yoda's private meeting with Obi-Wan after the young Jedi is named a full Knight. Essentially, it's a "review" of the entirety of events from THE PHANTOM MENACE - told by Obi-Wan to Yoda - so that Yoda can underscore the "wise teachings" that Qui-Gon provided to Obi-Wan. Great ... but didn't we already know this by seeing the film? It's a pointless review wasting another 30 pages. Zero stars.

OUTLANDER finally presents a story of substance as the Jedi Master Ki journeys to the planet Tatooine to unravel the mystery of a long-thought-dead Jedi. Artwork is solid, and there's a story that develops nicely, though a few panels were pretty heavy on speeches (better editing could've trimmed them back for brevity). Still, it works to revisit the culture of the Tusken Raiders and to give readers another look at the planet of Skywalker's birth. Four stars.

EMISSARIES TO MALASTARE, however, grows quite painful quite quickly. It's a story that bares little relation to anything else here in the trade - one unifying element that threads throughout most (not all) of these works in the planet Tatooine and/or elements associated with THE PHANTOM MENACE or ATTACK OF THE CLONES. A group of Jedi masters go on a mission to ... negotiate a peace treaty? There's a tagged on epilogue story here that involved the Republic's "relocated species act" or some such nonsense, and it's all WAY too heavy on speeches and uninteresting characters. One star.

JANGO FETT - OPEN SEASON is, fortunately, a fresh story written and drawn with great care, and it builds upon conventions established within the STAR WARS films. Darth Tyranus and Darth Sidious get together to review how and why Jango Fett was selected to serve as their `primary clone,' and the backstory clearly springs from established characters and events. It works wonderfully and closes out the book on a high note. Five stars.

The sum total of EMISSARIES & ASSASSINS ends up marginally better than it should because, like any good piece of entertainment, it saves the best for last: the Jango Fett kinda/sorta origins story is a high note artistically and creatively, easily fitting in nicely with what little ATTACK OF THE CLONES provides as a personal history. However, if these separate stories had been re-ordered, then I wouldn't be giving the collection the benefit of the doubt, I wouldn't be claiming that these writers and artists "really tried hard" to make this visit to the "galaxy far, far away" worthwhile. I'd say that they were, mostly, lazy.

Recommended ONLY for die-hard fans of the Prequel Trilogy