Star Wars The High Republic: Trail of Shadows #2

Star Wars The High Republic: Trail of Shadows #2

Marvel Comics 2021

Written by Daniel José Older

Illustrated by David Wachter

Coloured by Giada Marchisio

Lettered by VC’s Joe Sabino

EMERICK AND SIAN FACE TOTAL AN-NIHIL-ATION!

As dead ends and loose threads mount in Jedi Master Emerick Caphtor’s investigation, he’s called to Coruscant, where Chancellor Soh introduces him to his new partner: private eye Sian Holt. Together, they must go undercover to infiltrate one of the most crime-riddled and dangerous planets in the galaxy. Will Emerick’s duty to the Republic get in the way of Sian’s personal vendetta? Time’s running out to close this case…and what do the Nihil have to do with any of this?!

Well this issue officially cements that Emerick and Sian will be working this case together, I mean they were attacked by the perpetrator and Sian’s partner, Keffar Branto, was killed by him so now we see how a Private Investigator and a Jedi Master team up and it goes both expectantly uneasy and surprisingly easy. The dynamic that we see is interesting and while Emerick is notoriously a loner and Sian is brash and loud it’s the classic odd couple team-up in the making and I’m wondering if we’re going to see that or if things will play out a little differently. So far Daniel is managing to surprise me with how he’s taking this story.

I’m very much enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information are presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a magnificent job in continuing to flesh out their characterisation. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story we are treated to how accurate the information they are given is.

I am enjoying the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. I also like the way we see the layers open up new avenues to be explored. We do see more of our villain, Arathab Fal, and some other new characters who seem to have some interest in what he’s doing and I’m sure they will all cross paths eventually but what this does is add some great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. The way we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward are impeccably handled.

The interiors here are a really nice traditional comic book style in appearance. The linework is extremely nice and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail work is great, though a bit more consistency in the details because the go-between doesn’t always have those lines on his face. The creativity and imagination in these new races of little seen races is utterly fantastic. The use of backgrounds enhance and expand the moments nicely and how we see them work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope the story are really rather exciting to see. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a very talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a sensational eye for how colour works.

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I think this fits in nicely with the regular High Republic series, it really is a nice compliment and expands this time period. This has some nice, strong writing with interesting characterisation alongside some solid interiors.