Knights of the Old Republic #3 Commencement Part 3 (of 6) Story: John Jackson Miller Art: Brian Ching Coloring: Michael Atiyeh Lettering: Michael Heisler Cover: Travis Charest Released: 03/29/2006 Reviewed by: JF Boivin (12/25/2006) SUMMARY: Zayne Carrick and The Gryph manage to lead the Jedi pursuing them on a false trail down to the Undercity. Meanwhile, they meet up with a crazy old spacer named Camper and his caretaker Jarael who live in an old junkyard. The pursuing Jedi catch up with them aboard the city constable's ship, but the fugitives manage to escape them aboard Camper's hidden starship, the Last Resort.

[final cover] [preview cover]

THE STORY

The story starts with a dream/flashback: Zayne and his fellow Padawans from the Taris Academy doing some kind of mission out in an asteroid field wearing spacesuits. This must be the offworld mission that was mentioned in #0 as the final assigment before the graduation. Then it jumps back to the present. Gryph is finally starting to be useful: not only does he throw the Jedi Masters and the constable off by leaving a false trail to the Undercity, he also talks a group of Vulkar gang members out of collecting the bounty on them. He also gets them offworld with help from one of his contacts named Camper, an old Human spacer who talks to himself. Zayne is the one who does the fighting againt Jarael who blames everything on the pair of unlikely heroes.

The introduction of two new characters in the little group makes it more interesting. Also in this issue, the Khil Jedi is named, Xamar, during a nice little sequence where some of the Jedi Masters are seen fighting some Gamorreans and rakghouls in the Undercity. This is taken straight out of a level from the first video game. I enjoyed this issue more than the previous ones, only for the fact that Miller skipped the silly comedy (until the very last page at least) and there are no illogical coincidences. Still, it would take a lot more to make me love this series.

THE ART

I don't get Ching's penchant for characters with lazy eyes. Still don't like his depiction of Snivvians either. And why are the two ships so similar in color and shape? One is the constables ship that he's using to track down the fugitives and the other is Camper's old hauler that was buried in a pile of junk. One of the new characters, Jarael, looks like a generic female character with nothing that we haven't seen before in a Star Wars comic: white skin, tattoos and pointy ears. Still, the fight sequence between her and Zayne is decent.

CONCLUSIONS

The "Commencement" story arc starts to get more interesting with this issue.

Rating: 6.5 / 10