Invasion #2 Refugees Part 2 Scripting: Tom Taylor Art: Colin Wilson Coloring: Wes Dzioba Lettering: Michael Heisler Cover: Jo Chen Released: 08/05/2009 Reviewed by: JF Boivin (02/06/2010) SUMMARY: The Yuuzhan Vong have invade Artorias and captured Queen Nina Galfridian and her daughter Kaye, who are being held prisoner with other citizens aboard the slave ship Tsam P'ah. When Commander Sha'kel calls on the Queen to become his personal servant, Nina volunteers to take her place and gets a taste of the Vong's fondness of pain. Meanwhile, her brother Finn is training to use the Force at Luke Skywalker's academy on Yavin 4. He learns to move rocks and meets the other students and takes a liking to his sparring partner Jaina Solo. When a report of a Vong attack on Rychel comes in, Luke decides to bring Finn to help evacuate its people so he can face his hatred of his homeworld's destroyers.

[final cover] [preview cover]

THE STORY

This issue has a rather simplistic story and nothing much really happens. It alternates (at random moments it seems) between the mother and daughter on the slave ship, and the scenes where Finn is training on Yavin 4. The scenes aboard the slave ship where Kaye volunteers to become the Commander's servant serve only as exposition, since Sha'kel talks about the Vong's love of pain and their intent of conquering the galaxy more than he asks her to serve him. Once the speech is over, Kaye is brought back among the other prisoners where the death of one of them only shows the Vong's lack of compassion.

Then the scenes on Yavin 4 are almost funny since Luke keeps mentioning that he doesn't want to rush Finn's training, which consists mostly of sitting in the forest and try to levitate rocks. He must not have been there for long since he is surprised to find out that his new friends are Han and Leia's children. Then something happens when anakin reports hearing a noise coming from a cave, and in order to create some action they go investigate and are attacked by a tuk'ata, a Sith hound from the Tales of the Jedi-era who somehow was left on Yavin 4 to defend the Sith tombs (and was somehow never discovered for almost 20 years). Turns out the Sith hound has a thorn on its side, and when Jacen removes it the creature calmly goes back to its cave (!) Finally something happens when someone reports to Luke that the planet Rychel is besieged by the Yuuzhan Vong and are asking for the Jedi help in the evacuation. Luke tells Kyp Durron to take charge of the Praxeum while Luke and Pau'an Master Le'ung (a new Jedi character) take Finn along. This will be part of his training as Finn needs to face his hatred of the Vong to see if he can resist the Dark Side.

This story might take place in the two months between Vector Prime and Dark Tide. As mentioned, it's a pretty simple story and has a comedic undertone, whether it's intentional or not. I'm not a fan of this story so far, and given the potential for storytelling in this era it's a bit of a disappointment. This whole issue could have been skipped and summarized in one page or a few panels in another issue.

THE ART

Wilson seems to handle the jumpy script pretty well, given that scenes jump back and forth almost randomly. The highlight is the two-page splash on pages 8-9, which shows Finn and Jaina practicing their lightsaber dueling inside the training course from level 2 of the Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy video game. It's rare to see the Solo twins, Anakin and Lowbacca in comic book form and Wilson represents them in an acceptable way. His style is such that faces are not very detailed when they are not closeups. The full page reveal of the tuk'ata is pretty wicked though. Of course, the best part is Jo Chen's wonderful cover. I really love her work on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 comics, and it's great to see her representation of the Star Wars universe.

CONCLUSIONS

Not much happens in this one, with so-so artwork and a great cover.

Rating: 5.5 / 10