Wrapping up (almost) this Age of Republic series of books, I saved these two offerings for last. Padme Amidala and Obi Wan Kenobi are of course two of the four central characters of the prequel era.
Starting with Age of Republic: Padme Amidala, Paolo Rivera’s cover art of Padme looks so photo-realistic that I almost thought it was a real image from Attack of the Clones.
Jody Houser’s Padme story isn’t one of the best in this series: but it does carry some weight and meaning, being a very political story and a commentary on how the galactic war is taking its toll on various worlds and societies, forced to choose sides.
It’s nice to see Padme in her own book for once, and it’s nice to see her going off with her trusted handmaidens on a mission.
There are stories like this that were done much better in the Clone Wars show: but, given how lightweight a number of these Star Wars one-shot books have been, this Padme story ranks as one of the more interesting offerings.
Again, it’s particularly good to see Padme getting coverage – as she is often overlooked in extended universe material.
The Obi-Wan offering in this Age of Republic series is in some ways the most disappointing. I was looking out for this one in particular: but hoping for something a little more than what we get here. Not that it’s a bad book: I’ll always happily take a story set during Obi-Wan’s training of young Anakin, which is what we get here.
But this is rather well-travelled ground already in comic-book terms – including Marvel’s own Obi Wan & Anakin book a few years back.
Maybe I was hoping for a story set post-prequels, with Obi-Wan as a hermit on Tatooine. But I think the problem is that this area – Obi-Wan’s training of a younger Anakin in the years prior to Episode II – is such a potentially rich area to explore that it really warrants an entire, ongoing series: rather than a one-shot comic book.
There’s not much of any substance you can do with it in just a single comic book. It really should be an ongoing monthly book: because, while we’ve got lots of Obi-Wan/Anakin post-Episode-II in the form of the Clone Wars TV show, we really could do with tales of the pre–Episode-II master and padawan in a more long-form storytelling format. Which is something I hope someone at Marvel or at the Lucasfilm story group is thinking about.
All of that being said, Age of Republic: Obi-Wan Kenobi is a fair offering, with some nice moments.
Neither of these two books, however, are among the best that this Age of Republic series has had to offer. I still think the Count Dooku book has probably been the best one so far.
