Star Wars The High Republic: Trail of Shadows #1

Star Wars The High Republic: Trail of Shadows #1

Marvel Comics 2021

Written by Daniel Jose Older

Illustrated by Daniel Wachter

Coloured by Giada Marchisio

Lettered by VC’s Joe Sabino

JEDI KNIGHT AND PRIVATE EYE TEAM UP TO UNCOVER A MYSTERY THAT WILL CHANGE THE HIGH REPUBLIC FOREVER!

A Jedi Master is dead. Another is in a state of complete shock. It’s a murder the likes of which the Jedi Order has never seen before. There are no leads. There are no suspects. There is no motive. But Jedi Investigator EMERICK CAPHTOR must solve the case before it’s too late. The fate of the Jedi, the Hutts, the Nihil and everyone in the galaxy, hangs by this tangled thread of lies and deceit. Emerick will need to dive into the darkness, testing himself and his Jedi ideals like never before. He’ll need help. Luckily, Private Eye SIAN HOLT lives in the dark. Together, they’ll follow this trail of shadows wherever it leads. If they can work together, that is.

Not being the biggest fan of the Star Wars Universe I have to admit that this piqued my curiosity in some beautiful ways. A Jedi and a Private Eye teaming up together through circumstance, see unplanned, always makes for interesting bedfellows and from the looks of things it’s going to be an interesting meeting when they do come face to face.

I’m a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter which does an amazing job of bringing out their personalities. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages it really showcases some moments that make us want to see and know more.

I appreciate how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story begin to emerge and grow. What I like about these layers is how they open up avenues to be explored and with the opening here, which is spectacular, opens up the main arc and adds this great depth, dimension and complexity. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well how the reader learns information is impeccably well achieved.

I am absolutely in love with the interiors here. The first page alone sets the stage for what we’re going to see throughout the book. That image is absolutely stunning, the linework is exquisite and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level & quality of detail within the work that we see is mindbogglingly brilliant. How we see backgrounds being utilised to enhance and expand the moments as well as how we see them work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masterful eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a brilliant eye for how colour works.

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This is off to such a brilliant start. I like seeing both lead characters doing what they are doing before they end up meeting and getting involved in the same case. God there are some incredibly creepy arse moments that we see throughout the book and some are plain innocent but the connotation of what we see is definitely not and how it ties into something else it just gave me the shivers. This is amazingly well written with some stellar characterisation and brilliant interiors that will show you that if you think you know Star Wars, think again.