Picking up on events in the last few issues of the "Star Wars: Republic" ongoing series, "Dark Times: The Path To Nowhere" (reprinting the first 5 issues of "Star Wars: Dark Times") takes place a short while after the conclusion of Star Wars - Episode III, Revenge of the Sith (Widescreen Edition). One of the central ingredients of the post-Ep. III Star Wars Galaxy is that the Jedi weren't all wiped out at once. The majority went down with the execution of Order 66 in the movie, but a small number either escaped or were operating at that time in a remote sector of space, or even just temporaily on their own on a given planet or city, so that they survived the Order; sometimes they didn't even immediately know what had happened in the rest of the galaxy. One of these is Dass Jennir, who was operating on the planet New Plymto at the time of the order (in Endgame (Star Wars: Clone Wars, Vol. 9). In that volume, Jennir found himself allying with the Nosaurians, short (about Ewok or Jawa height) bipedal creatures who resemble horned dinosaurs - a group that he'd been fighting against in the clone wars. One of these Nosaurians, Bomo Greenbark, is one of the main characters in this new tale. With New Plympto in the stranglehold of Palpitine's new Empire, hosts of Nosaurians are being rounded up for sale as slaves, and the quest of Bomo and Dass to locate Bomo's family - a quest they undertake with the aid of the crew of the Uhumele, a ship of eclectic misfits (in the great Star Wars tradition) who the two have ended up throwing their lot in with. Meanwhile, with such things as Imperial endorsement of the slave trade kicking into high gear, Darth Vader realizes that the new galactic order that's taking shape is very different than the one Palpitine initially outlined and promised...
Buoyed by awesome artwork by Doug Wheatley - I'd go so far as to say that the visuals in Dark Times are on par with Alex Ross's work in such books as Kingdom Come and the three "Justice" volumes - everything in this tale proceeds with vibrant life: the battles, the introspective moments, the panoramic scenes of exotic locales. The characters, places, and technology are all brilliantly rendered. The writing is some of the best in the Star Wars comics, with great plotting, characterization and dialogue. The tension provided by the protagonists often being in situations where they're clearly at a loss as to what's right and wrong given the circumstances, adds greatly to the darker flavor that was in Episode III and is continuing in the post-Episode III tales. This is one of the best Star Wars books you can get (and I'm counting the novels in that as well as the comics), and Endgame (Star Wars: Clone Wars, Vol. 9) is also extremely highly recommended for those wanting to follow the comics right from the conclusion of Episode III onward.