Star Wars Vector, Chapter 1: Knights of the old Republic

This is a review so if by any chance you want to find out for yourself what happens don't read much beyond the first paragraph
























The biggest event in Star Wars comics for a long time has reached the conclusion of it's first segment and I thought I should bring you up to speed as there's plenty of time to jump on board if you want to get in on the action of Vector the Star Wars comics crossover!

Vector is designed to be a big event in comics similar to the recent "Civil War" in Marvel, but designed to be less demanding on the reader and his wallet. The story crosses over the four current Star Wars comic titles: Knights of the Old Republic, Dark Times, Rebellion and Legacy in a linear storyline that all readers can join in with easily. The story is designed to attract new readers who can use Vector to jump into the existing storylines, get to know the characters through the events and maybe stick around to carry on reading after Vector has finished. But Vector also makes allowances for readers who just want to stick to their current reading pattern. Vector features the main characters from each title and creates a story that is as relevant to them as it is to the overall arc. A Kotor reader can just read the Kotor section and not feel lost because he hasn't picked up the rest of the continuity of comics - which I think is a wise move.

Those of you familiar with the names of the comics will have twigged to the fact that this story is covering well over 4000 years of Star Wars continuity. How will this work - I guess I'll tell ya...












The story centres around a character and an object - Celeste Morne and the Muur Talisman. Celeste is a shadow, a secret Jedi agent working for a shadowy group called the Covenant who will stop at nothing to prevent the Sith from rising. Celeste has been tasked with hunting down Sith artifacts and any other threats to the Jedi or the Covenant, but one artifact will test everything she knows. That artifact is the Muur Talisman created in times so ancient that even the Jedi of four thousand years before Luke Skywalker know little about it. The talisman has a power so dangerous that it can control life itself.

Celeste is sent to Taris an influencial outer rim world, now under occupation by the Mandalorians, to retrieve the Talisman, seen in visions by her masters. There she encounters not only the armoured warriors, but the vicious plague which transforms any living thing into a horrid beast known as a Rakghoul. Battling her way through the city she encounters Zayne Carrick, the principal character of the series, and his partner Griff, running through the city. Zayne is a fugitive framed by his (and Celeste's) masters for the murder of several Jedi students. Finding herself unwillingly partnered with them she tracks the artifact to a Mandalorian camp. She soon learns that Zayne is the one her masters condemn, but quickly realises he couldn't be responsible, causing her to question her loyalty to her masters.

They followed the Mandalorians to Jebble an ice fortress where Pulsipher a Mandalorian scientist had brought the artifact. But soon things turned for the worse - the Rakghoul plague had spread there, and it was the artifact that caused it. Worse the artifact enabled the monsters to think and act intelligently using weapons and ships to spread their plague further. When Celeste arrived the artifact detected a Jedi presence and latched onto her, giving her even greater control over the plague and unleashing the mind of it's Sith owner, Karness Muur. It was only Zayne that made the Sith influence in her stop and she asked Zayne to kill her to end the plague, but instead he found Lord Dreypa's Oubliette, a stasis/torture chamber from which the talisman could not escape. Celeste hid in it, telling Zayne that she believed him and assisting him on his path for justice by giving him a location for where he should go next. Zayne sealed her in, but at that moment the Mandalorian fleet arrived and bombarded the planet, destroying the Rakghouls and leaving Celeste stranded for a long, long time...

Well that's it so far, the story jumps to Dark Times, which follows Episode 3 and Order 66 where a crew of smugglers have obtained a very interesting and valuable piece of cargo. If you have a comic shop nearby and want to jump onboard the first issue of the Dark Times should be on shelves now - unless it's sold out!