THE REVIEW
 Jedi
Master K'Kruhk, long a fan favorite for his stringent, hard-hitting
personality and leathery, hard-hitting appearance, is taking on a
truly epic role in recent Star Wars material, finding his way into
diverse comics series running through you-name-it time frames (bonus
career footage to follow that heroic defense against Grievous long
since aired on the Cartoon Network). Now, with the advent of Vector
upon us, K'Kruhk will no doubt rise into the upper echelon of Star
Wars mains, a character Hasbro certainly now owes to figure form.
As Part Three of "Parallels" co-leads
Star Wars into 2008, Dark Horse persists in darkening the galaxy,
revealing horrible bad guy after horrible bad guy in a society
driven by anger, fear, aggression. K'Kruhk, shown in the latest
sequences to be a rather balanced, compassionate old soul, has
established a new life on a jungle planet, and in this issue there
still struggles to protect the younglings the cruel Empire now seeks
to kill. Trouble, of course, looms...
Our main narrative, covering the
disastrous lives and times of the Uhumele 's improbable crew, grows
ever more frantic; refrain from Tibrin, o ye spacefarers, for if the
actions of crimelord Haka are typical, the Ishi Tib are a species to
avoid. In "Parallels" Part Three, Captain Heren leads the team to
Pizkoss to strike a deal with this Haka, but things go badly for
all:
Haka betrays Heren. A crew member
dies. Crys mourns his loss. The vile Gotal Lumbra and his cronies
run off with the loot (they think). Haka shoots an alien directly in
the face. Heren betrays Haka, retroactively. By issue's end, our
hero Bomo Greenbark faces ruthless torture. Unbeknownst to all, Crys'
son Kennan still survives among K'Kruhk's ill-fated band. And in
characteristic Star Wars fashion, a great coincidence occurs; Lumbra
and cronies crash-land on the jungle moon, and will no doubt murder
or at least kidnap all they find.
Dass Jennir remains missing,
somewhere confronting the New Order and impending galactic chaos.
Dark Times continues to impress.
Staying true to the dark and brutal premises of Revenge of the Sith
and the ensuing criminality cultivated by Dark Times storycrafter
Welles Hartley, writer Mick Harrison pushes all the right genre
buttons, interweaving a number of subtle and not-so-subtle literay
devices into a familiar yet uncharted Star Wars spacescape. Since
'77, the Empire has haunted us; only now do we see it begin to haunt
its victims so long ago and far, far away.
The character of Bomo Greenbark has
been crafted into the best kind of fantasy hero, archetypal with
innovative qualities (like a hornless Triceratops' head). Seriously,
Harrsion and the crack team of artists working here and there on
Dark Times demonstrate through Bomo the inner discord the truest
protagonist should suffer; Bomo shows immense courage and
heartbreaking self-sacrifice, yet also vast anger and critical
self-doubt. He is a Nosaurian with whom we can identify as well as
admire.
Although a Doug Wheatley-drawn comic
is a better comic for it, the Wheatley-free art of Dark Times 6-8 is
nevertheless enjoyable. Dark Times 1-5 feature a subdued,
painting-like ambience, perfectly colored by Ronda Pattison for
gloomy, more obscure panels, accomodating the series' themes. The
art of "Parallels" seems lighter and crisper in some ways, even as
Dave Ross ably resumes the forms and shapes of the characters as
we've come to know them. Alex Wald's almost lighter colors (a
pastel-to-neon vibe) give "Parallels" its different look; these are
truly beautiful. Zack Howards' covers suggest new storylines and
artwork on the inside. Two things deserve a medal--Chewie, and the
cover to this issue. That Haka sure is foreboding. This (along with
issue #2) is my favorite Dark Times cover yet.
Grade: "Looks like somebody's beginning to take an interest in your
handiwork."
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