Comic Review: Star Wars Volume 5

In the fourth volume of Marvel’s current Star Wars comic series, the Rebels hijacked a Star Destroyer and did battle with a specialty unit of Stormtroopers specifically trained to bring down Rebel units and maybe even aspiring Jedis.

So, what do they follow up with in the fifth volume, subtitled Yoda’s Secret War?

Well, Yoda goes to a planet where there are rocks that seem to be imbued with the Force and goes to investigate.

So, here’s the thing:  the previous volume ended with the aforementioned Stormtroopers holding C-3PO and in the opening pages of this one decide to use the hapless droid as bait for a trap.  The Rebels (wisely) decide that it would be stupid to go out to retrieve a single droid in an obvious trap, but something happens that makes sense and would be cool to follow up on…but instead that’s apparently being saved for the next trade as this one has Luke Skywalker reading another story from Obi-Wan’s journals about an unnamed Jedi Master (it’s Yoda) going on a mission of his own to a planet where the rocks themselves seem to be, for some reason, imbued with the Force.

You know, since Yoda is basically the main character for this series, he takes a different approach to what’s going on.  This is all set even before the Clone Wars, so Yoda’s actions tend to run more towards contemplation and deep study of a strange situation.  That’s fine.  There’s nothing wrong with that, and aside from having natives on the rock planet call Yoda a “frog” (do they have those in a galaxy far, far away?), Jason Aaron’s script has a good grasp on Yoda and how he’d react in these sorts of situations.

But after a Star Destroyer hijacking, this one is a lot more low key and nowhere near as exciting.  The action that is there isn’t as intense, and quite frankly, I think I like Yoda better as a supporting character than a lead.  There’s nothing bad here, but it could have been a whole lot better.  7.5 out of 10 Sith Lord rejections.