The High Republic: Eye of the Storm #2
ACT TWO:
Marchion. The Wreckage. The Hunt. The Storm. In which the Eye of the Nihil exults after a job well done. In which Marchion Ro reveals the source of the Jedi’s greatest fear. In which the future of the Nihil is revealed.
Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: Guillermo Sanna
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Colourists: Jim Campbell, Antonio Fabela
Cover artist: Ryan Brown
Editor: Danny Khazem
Publication date: March 2, 2022
“In a dark place we find ourselves, and a little more knowledge lights our way” – Yoda
With the release of Eye of the Storm #2 we finally get a fitting epilogue for Phase 1 of The High Republic. It’s not one full of hope, quite the opposite in fact. It’s about the absence of hope and how to live with that. In issue 1 we learned that Marchion Ro’s people have learned through intense hardships spanning countless generations, that hope is meaningless and all that matters is survival by any means necessary. There is no love, there is no community, there is only self.
Feeling like more of a supporting material to the main The High Republic series, this two issue story is necessary because we finally have the motivation behind the Nihil and the truth is far more dangerous than we ever imagined. Without dropping spoilers I did find the similarities between Ro and Palpatine’s journeys interesting with both being the ones that execute plans that been stewing for hundreds of years.
Soule is a master of creating lore that feels both fresh but perfectly in keeping with the franchise as a whole. If you were a fan of his Darth Vader run, more specifically the Fortress Vader/Momin arc then you will like what you find here.
The surprise was that this seemingly not only lays the seeds for Phase 2 but also sets up Phase 3 and what’s next for the Nihil. That is of course assuming that Phase 2 is entirely set in the past.
If I had any criticisms it would be that this fills in the gaps rather than tells its own story. As I said previously it’s necessary but I can’t help but think that maybe these chapters could have been interspersed within the main The High Republic comic run and it may have hit harder and added more weight and depth to the events seen there.
Star Wars: The High Republic: Eye Of The Storm #2 (Noto Variant) @ ForbiddenPlanet.com