By Keigen Rea — The High Republic is the title of a new cross-media line of Star Wars stories. This line includes novels and books for readers, as well as — most importantly for our purposes here — comics, the first of which is Star Wars The High Republic #1, out today. This new era takes place long before the events of the typical Star War, at least 200 years before the earliest stories linked to the Skywalker family, and, indeed, The High Republic seems to promise fans both old and new a fun jumping-on point for our beloved galaxy far, far away.

As a (literal) lifelong Star Wars fan, one might expect that I would personally be an easy sell for all of this, but I absolutely wasn’t, almost aggressively so. Most of the marketing seemed to put Jedi at the fore, which isn’t really my lane when it comes to the franchise. But it’s still Star Wars, a franchise that I will again remind you I am a (literal!) lifelong fan of, so of course friends and Twitter got me to commit to consuming basically every part of this initiative.

While I came to this era and specifically Star Wars The High Republic #1 reticent, I’m happy to now report:

HAHAHAHAA THIS IS SO GOOD

If I hadn’t already overcome my reticence and committed to following this new era, reading Star Wars The High Republic #1 would have done it. In 20 pages, this comic pitches the story’s emotional stakes, makes itself stand out from the rest of the franchise, and provides surprising and important connections along the way.

This first issue follows and introduces a whole new cast of characters, with a primary focus on an apprentice named Keeve, who cusses, wears an asymmetrical haircut, and wields a double-bladed lightsaber. Keeve is fairly unique within the new cannon, which immediately makes this comic feel fresh and new, as if it occupies a space all its own. So yes, the aesthetics of this are good, yet most Star Wars has good aesthetics. Truly good Star Wars goes beyond that.

See, like most long-running franchises, there is a lot (a lot) of bad Star Wars. It can’t really be avoided at this point, to be honest, and to be fair, some good has been done with much of the bad that exists in the franchise. What happens in this comic, however, is a really good and thematically crunchy event that links to the events of the Star Wars Prequels in an interesting way. It all leaves me excited to see where the very cool storytelling decisions in this book ultimately go.

More important than any of that, at least for the purposes of this review, is that this comic is very good on a technical level, which isn’t always a guarantee with Star Wars comics, at times content to just trade on the popularity of the characters and the franchise. Many of them — even in this new Marvel era — are not very good comics at all, despite being good entries of the franchise. As I said above, though, Star Wars The High Republic #1 defies this and stands out as notably excellent.

I think one of the things that this comic excels at is not feeling wedded to coming off as cinematic, as Star Wars comics are often wont to do. Since the identity of the series is largely defined by film, recent series have focused on trying to tell their stories in that vein (see John Cassaday’s work on the Star Wars launch title and Salvador Larroca’s work on the first Marvel volume of Darth Vader). Here though, the creative team uses the language of comics to greater effect.

Artists Ario Anindito and Mark Morales deserve special praise, as I will be paying attention to the art they make together for the foreseeable future. The thick lines and beautiful people feel like the work of Jen Bartel (a high compliment!), but the energy and angles are more like Stuart Immonen or Pepe Larraz. Truly a surprise and a joy to read.

So yes, I was already planning on being a completionist and reading all of this new era of Star Wars stuff, but this has made me suspect for the first time like I’m going to love it, beyond just sticking with it due to my (literal!) lifelong fandom of the franchise.

Overall: This is good Star Wars, and more importantly, a great comic. The High Republic era is off to a wonderful start. 9/10

Star Wars: The High Republic #1

Star Wars: The High Republic #1
Writer: Cavan Scott
Penciler: Ario Anindito
Inker: Mark Morales
Colorist: Annalisa Leoni
Letterer: VC’s Ariana Maher
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $3.99
BEFORE THE SKYWALKER SAGA! THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE JEDI!
A new era of STAR WARS storytelling begins. It is centuries before the SKYWALKER SAGA. The JEDI are at their height, protecting the galaxy as REPUBLIC pioneers push out into new territories. As the Frontier prepares for the dedication of majestic STARLIGHT BEACON, PADAWAN KEEVE TRENNIS faces the ultimate choice — will she complete her Jedi Trials or rescue the innocent from disaster? New Jedi! New ships! New evils to fight!
Release Date: January 6, 2021
Read It Digitally: Star Wars The High Republic #1

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Keigen Rea has made it to 2021. If C2E2 happens, you will see him hugging whoever will take one. Find him @prince_organa on Twitter if you want.