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A review by jaredkwheeler
Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, Vol. 8 by Ethen Beavers, Matt Fillbach, Jeremy Barlow, Shawn Fillbach, Jason Hall, Chris Avellone
2.0
Star Wars Legends Project #114
Background: Clone Wars Adventures, Volume 8 was released in June 2007. It consists of four stories in the style of Cartoon Network's animated Clone Wars series: Versus, Old Scores, One of a Kind, and Pathways. All but the third were pencilled by the [author:Fillbach Brothers|5498466], and they also wrote the first one. The second was written by [author:Chris Avellone|95272], the third was written by [author:Jason Hall|129419] with art by [author:Ethan Beavers|2621224], and the fourth was written by [author:Jeremy Barlow|20006]. Hall's other Star Wars work includes about a dozen short one-offs.
Versus is set 4 months after the Battle of Geonosis (22 years before the Battle of Yavin), and features Luminara Unduli. Old Scores takes place on Nar Shaddaa a month earlier, and the protagonist is Aurra Sing. One of a Kind takes place two months before that, on Kamino with Obi-Wan. Pathways also takes place 4 months after the Battle of Geonosis, on Antamont with battle droids.
Summary: In Versus, Luminara faces a series of increasingly powerful opponents in arena battles for the entertainment of a Hutt.
In Old Scores, a Hutt with a grudge lures Aurra Sing into a trap.
In One of a Kind, Obi-Wan defends the last remaining sample of Jango Fett's DNA from a bounty hunter who has more than one reason to pay Kamino a visit.
In Pathways, a lowly Separatist battle droid suddenly becomes self-aware and attempts to desert.
Review: Please refer to my review of [book:Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, Vol. 1|35438] for some general thoughts that apply to the series as a whole.
This collection was a bit better than Volume 7 on the whole, but not by much. Versus definitely wins for "Most Ludicrous and Contrived Premise" . . . Luminara (for reasons that aren't given until the end, but make very little sense even then) fights a series of opponents who are significantly larger and stronger than she is, bare-handed (no lightsaber) and without using any Force powers. Reading it, it's immediately obvious that she's either cheating like a fiend or the writers don't understand how "physics" works . . . because that's the explanation they give for how a 120-pound woman flips a 400-pound wampa across the arena hard enough to crack the wall. And her other fights are equally absurd, but I won't spoil it.
Old Scores is probably my favorite of the bunch, because it's just fun to watch Aurra Sing bust her way out of a set-up and tear through a bunch of lowlifes who don't know any better than to go up against her. Why is that different from watching a Jedi massacre a thousand droids? I don't know . . . Aurra Sing just revels in it so much more than a Jedi Master, and the people she's fighting have, like, facial expressions and actually react to what she's doing rather than mindlessly throwing themselves into the grinder. It's still not great, but it's certainly diverting.
One of a Kind was super-annoying. The antagonist is named, no joke, Vianna D'Pow . . . which is probably not the worst Star Wars name I've ever run into, but it's way up there. And that would be bad enough, but the whole thing, which is basically a long fight/chase between her and Obi-Wan that plays out like the Obi-Wan/Jango battle on steroids, is intercut with a bunch of cheesy flashbacks that flesh out her maudlin backstory. I'm not sure the problem is with the concept so much as the execution, which is honestly a rare misstep for these stories. They usually seem to accomplish precisely what they were going for very efficiently and effectively.
Pathways is kind of a fun idea that, surprise, they don't really do much with. Still, I appreciated it. Still pretty forgettable, like the rest of the collection.
D+
Background: Clone Wars Adventures, Volume 8 was released in June 2007. It consists of four stories in the style of Cartoon Network's animated Clone Wars series: Versus, Old Scores, One of a Kind, and Pathways. All but the third were pencilled by the [author:Fillbach Brothers|5498466], and they also wrote the first one. The second was written by [author:Chris Avellone|95272], the third was written by [author:Jason Hall|129419] with art by [author:Ethan Beavers|2621224], and the fourth was written by [author:Jeremy Barlow|20006]. Hall's other Star Wars work includes about a dozen short one-offs.
Versus is set 4 months after the Battle of Geonosis (22 years before the Battle of Yavin), and features Luminara Unduli. Old Scores takes place on Nar Shaddaa a month earlier, and the protagonist is Aurra Sing. One of a Kind takes place two months before that, on Kamino with Obi-Wan. Pathways also takes place 4 months after the Battle of Geonosis, on Antamont with battle droids.
Summary: In Versus, Luminara faces a series of increasingly powerful opponents in arena battles for the entertainment of a Hutt.
In Old Scores, a Hutt with a grudge lures Aurra Sing into a trap.
In One of a Kind, Obi-Wan defends the last remaining sample of Jango Fett's DNA from a bounty hunter who has more than one reason to pay Kamino a visit.
In Pathways, a lowly Separatist battle droid suddenly becomes self-aware and attempts to desert.
Review: Please refer to my review of [book:Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, Vol. 1|35438] for some general thoughts that apply to the series as a whole.
This collection was a bit better than Volume 7 on the whole, but not by much. Versus definitely wins for "Most Ludicrous and Contrived Premise" . . . Luminara (for reasons that aren't given until the end, but make very little sense even then) fights a series of opponents who are significantly larger and stronger than she is, bare-handed (no lightsaber) and without using any Force powers. Reading it, it's immediately obvious that she's either cheating like a fiend or the writers don't understand how "physics" works . . . because that's the explanation they give for how a 120-pound woman flips a 400-pound wampa across the arena hard enough to crack the wall. And her other fights are equally absurd, but I won't spoil it.
Old Scores is probably my favorite of the bunch, because it's just fun to watch Aurra Sing bust her way out of a set-up and tear through a bunch of lowlifes who don't know any better than to go up against her. Why is that different from watching a Jedi massacre a thousand droids? I don't know . . . Aurra Sing just revels in it so much more than a Jedi Master, and the people she's fighting have, like, facial expressions and actually react to what she's doing rather than mindlessly throwing themselves into the grinder. It's still not great, but it's certainly diverting.
One of a Kind was super-annoying. The antagonist is named, no joke, Vianna D'Pow . . . which is probably not the worst Star Wars name I've ever run into, but it's way up there. And that would be bad enough, but the whole thing, which is basically a long fight/chase between her and Obi-Wan that plays out like the Obi-Wan/Jango battle on steroids, is intercut with a bunch of cheesy flashbacks that flesh out her maudlin backstory. I'm not sure the problem is with the concept so much as the execution, which is honestly a rare misstep for these stories. They usually seem to accomplish precisely what they were going for very efficiently and effectively.
Pathways is kind of a fun idea that, surprise, they don't really do much with. Still, I appreciated it. Still pretty forgettable, like the rest of the collection.
D+