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A review by jaredkwheeler
Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, Vol. 7 by Ethen Beavers, Matt Fillbach, Shawn Fillbach, W. Haden Blackman, Chris Avellone
2.0
Star Wars Legends Project #113
Background: Clone Wars Adventures, Volume 7 was released in January of 2007. It consists of four stories in the style of Cartoon Network's animated Clone Wars series: Creature Comfort, Spy Girls, Impregnable, and This Precious Shining. The first and last were pencilled by the [author:Fillbach Brothers|5498466], and they also wrote the first one. The second was written by [author:Ryan Kaufman|95259] and drawn by [author:Stewart McKenny|20053], the third was written by [author:Chris Avellone|95272] with art by [author:Ethan Beavers|2621224], and the fourth was written by [author:Jeremy Barlow|20006]. McKenny has worked on a smattering of other Star Wars comics, along with Captain America and DC Super Friends. Avellone has also written a few other comics, but is better known as the lead writer behind Knights of the Old Republic II as well as the games Fallout 2, Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment. Beavers has worked on a few random Star Wars comics and other Star Wars books, as well. Barlow has written and edited dozens of Star Wars comics.
Creature Comfort is set 30 months after the Battle of Geonosis (21 years before the Battle of Yavin), and features Obi-Wan and Anakin. Spy Girls takes place on Coruscant 4 months after the Battle of Geonosis (22 years before Yavin), and the protagonists are Padme, Sheltay Retrac (mother of Winter Celchu), and C-3PO, with appearances by Captain Typho and Bail Organa. Impregnable takes place two months later. It takes place on Amaltanna with Jedi Bultar Swan. This Precious Shining also takes place 4 months after the Battle of Geonosis, on an unidentified planet, with characters who don't appear anywhere else.
Incidentally, in case anyone noticed that I skipped from Volume 3 to Volume 7, the stories in Volumes 4-6 of Clone Wars Adventures are all set a few years later, at the end of the Clone Wars. Volumes 7-10, for whatever reason, mostly returned to the early months of the war (although, honestly, there's no particular importance to the chronology placement of any of these stories).
Summary: In Creature Comfort, Obi-Wan and Anakin have a series of harrowing encounters with the local fauna of an unnamed planet.
In Spy Girls, Padme and Sheltay use their status as cover to infiltrate a party on Coruscant in an attempt to trap an undercover Separatist.
In Impregnable, Bultar Swan faces defeat at the hands of a Separatist leader unless she can successfully assault a fortress designed to be completely unassailable.
In This Precious Shining, a gang of scavengers trying to escape their planet in the aftermath of a battle are distracted by the chance to plunder a Separatist treasury.
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.
None of these stories stood out as particularly memorable or good to me. Creature Comforts is the same basic slapstick-action formula we've seen in most of the other Anakin and Obi-Wan stories, but the absurdity level dialed up a bit higher. Maybe that makes it more fun, or maybe that just makes it dumber. Maybe both. Spy Girls is probably the best of the bunch. It certainly has the most potential to be. But there's a kind of patronizingly self-conscious "girl power" vibe to it that comes off as more awkward tokenism than sincere . . . None of the other stories ever really even acknowledge the gender of their characters, so to suddenly make a big deal about it seems forced. Impregnable is competently executed, but the idea behind it is pretty thin. This Precious Shining is notable in that it features characters who aren't established heroes, or even on any particular side, but then it doesn't make them terribly memorable or sympathetic. The whole thing is pretty much a pass.
D
Background: Clone Wars Adventures, Volume 7 was released in January of 2007. It consists of four stories in the style of Cartoon Network's animated Clone Wars series: Creature Comfort, Spy Girls, Impregnable, and This Precious Shining. The first and last were pencilled by the [author:Fillbach Brothers|5498466], and they also wrote the first one. The second was written by [author:Ryan Kaufman|95259] and drawn by [author:Stewart McKenny|20053], the third was written by [author:Chris Avellone|95272] with art by [author:Ethan Beavers|2621224], and the fourth was written by [author:Jeremy Barlow|20006]. McKenny has worked on a smattering of other Star Wars comics, along with Captain America and DC Super Friends. Avellone has also written a few other comics, but is better known as the lead writer behind Knights of the Old Republic II as well as the games Fallout 2, Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment. Beavers has worked on a few random Star Wars comics and other Star Wars books, as well. Barlow has written and edited dozens of Star Wars comics.
Creature Comfort is set 30 months after the Battle of Geonosis (21 years before the Battle of Yavin), and features Obi-Wan and Anakin. Spy Girls takes place on Coruscant 4 months after the Battle of Geonosis (22 years before Yavin), and the protagonists are Padme, Sheltay Retrac (mother of Winter Celchu), and C-3PO, with appearances by Captain Typho and Bail Organa. Impregnable takes place two months later. It takes place on Amaltanna with Jedi Bultar Swan. This Precious Shining also takes place 4 months after the Battle of Geonosis, on an unidentified planet, with characters who don't appear anywhere else.
Incidentally, in case anyone noticed that I skipped from Volume 3 to Volume 7, the stories in Volumes 4-6 of Clone Wars Adventures are all set a few years later, at the end of the Clone Wars. Volumes 7-10, for whatever reason, mostly returned to the early months of the war (although, honestly, there's no particular importance to the chronology placement of any of these stories).
Summary: In Creature Comfort, Obi-Wan and Anakin have a series of harrowing encounters with the local fauna of an unnamed planet.
In Spy Girls, Padme and Sheltay use their status as cover to infiltrate a party on Coruscant in an attempt to trap an undercover Separatist.
In Impregnable, Bultar Swan faces defeat at the hands of a Separatist leader unless she can successfully assault a fortress designed to be completely unassailable.
In This Precious Shining, a gang of scavengers trying to escape their planet in the aftermath of a battle are distracted by the chance to plunder a Separatist treasury.
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.
None of these stories stood out as particularly memorable or good to me. Creature Comforts is the same basic slapstick-action formula we've seen in most of the other Anakin and Obi-Wan stories, but the absurdity level dialed up a bit higher. Maybe that makes it more fun, or maybe that just makes it dumber. Maybe both. Spy Girls is probably the best of the bunch. It certainly has the most potential to be. But there's a kind of patronizingly self-conscious "girl power" vibe to it that comes off as more awkward tokenism than sincere . . . None of the other stories ever really even acknowledge the gender of their characters, so to suddenly make a big deal about it seems forced. Impregnable is competently executed, but the idea behind it is pretty thin. This Precious Shining is notable in that it features characters who aren't established heroes, or even on any particular side, but then it doesn't make them terribly memorable or sympathetic. The whole thing is pretty much a pass.
D