Star Wars: The High Republic #7
THE HIGH REPUBLIC
CHAPTER II: Of Sith and Shadows
The sinister DRENGIR devour all in their path.
Jedi Master Avar Kriss forms an uneasy alliance with the treacherous HUTT CARTEL.
Together they will strike at the Drengir’s home planet deep in Wild Space.
As Master Estala Maru of Starlight Beacon gathers Jedi to help, young Knight Keeve Trennis deals with the consequences of her triumph over the Drengir….
Writer: Cavan Scott
Penciller: Georges Jeanty
Inker: Karl Story
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Colorist: Annalisa Leoni
Cover artist: Phil Noto
Editor: Mark Paniccia
Publication date: July 28, 2021
Issue 7 of The High Republic kicks off with a disturbing nightmare for Keeve Trennis, wracked by visions of people she knows, and strangers who attack while the shadow of the Drengir looms large. She wakes on Starlight Beacon, clearly shaken and is contacted by Doctor Gino’le who informs her that the wrist guards she’s wearing are monitoring her heart beat, and that it just elevated significantly. Keeve tries to dismiss it, but the reflection of the Drengir stares at her as she leaves the meditation chamber.
Keeve goes to visit Estala Maru for answers, aware that her recent telepathic connection with the Drengir and the Great Progenitor goes both ways. She finds Maru conversing with Marshall Avar Kriss, herself determined that more Jedi head out to the Unknown Regions to join the crusade to end the Drengir problem. Maru sympathises, but makes it clear the lingering Nihil threat and the preparations for the Republic Fair are also a priority.
A call for aid from the Rseik sector sees Maru send Keeve heading out to Chortose, where the Nihil are attempting to break into the factory and steal the sprayer droids within. Thankfully for the inhabitants, Keeve is there to protect them, fighting the Nihil and meeting two characters that she assumed were visions, one of which attacks and the other revealing herself to be a Wayseeker, a Jedi that calls no temple home and who follows the will of the Force, going wherever it takes them. Keeve is wracked with doubt – Maru sensed her lack of self-belief and so does Wayseeker Orla Jareni – and Keeve explains why. How the darkness of the Drengir is all-encompasing, how her master was taken by the Drengir so how could she ever hope to resist, and how the Drengir root-mind is speaking to her, telling her that they’ve already lost, ending the issue with an image of the skeletal remains of Avar Kriss…
Once again the looming threat and terror of the Drengir hangs over the issue, the dread of more spores and roots attacking a constant, lingering mood. Keeve is at her lowest ebb, wracked with doubts and nerves. Her only positive actions are on Chortose, and even then after defending herself from Nihil attack she is knocked down by a Nihil melee attack. It’s understandable: the galaxy is under attack not only from the devious Nihil but the insidious Drengir, and to loosely quote the great David Lee Roth, the overstretched Jedi ain’t waving’ just drownin’.
As ever, Cavan Scott delivers the goods while Georges Jeanty lays down a vivid adventure, coloured stylishly as always by Annalisa Leoni. It likely won’t go in anyone’s top ten list of the year, but as a part of the greater puzzle that is The High Republic, it works well. Issues like this are essential in connecting the various tendrils of the series, and here we get references to the Republic Fair of The Rising Storm, a mention of Stellan Gios and a couple of pages of Nihil action. Other issues will be better remembered, but as the weight of the world bears down on young Keeve, readers may well refer back to this issue as the moment when the burden became all too much.
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