Review by Ian Keogh

Rise of the Sith collects a bunch of stories set before and during the Episode I era of Star Wars, with an adaptation of The Phantom Menace featuring toward the end.

Unlike the presentation of the same material in Epic Collections Rise of the Sith Volume 1 and Volume 2, the choice is not to run the material as strictly chronological according to when events occur. All shorter stories are shunted to the back of the book. It’s a strange decision, and while not materially affecting matters, wouldn’t it have been better to have first read about Ki-Adi Mundi as a young Jedi before seeing him in his prime in the graphic novel Prelude to Rebellion?

Other tales featured previously issued as standalone graphic novels are opener The Dark Side, Jedi Council: Acts of War, Darth Maul and Episode I Adventures. Follow the links for more detailed reviews, but none disappoint. Film and TV writer Henry Gilroy adapts George Lucas’ film script creditably in the company of Rodolfo Damaggio (sample art left), achieving the pleasing plateau of it reading well whether or not you’re aware it’s an adaptation.

The collection opens with the continuity implant of ‘The Dark Side’, produced by Scott Allie and Mahmud Asrar in 2011, and showing Qui-Gon Jinn in the days before mentoring Obi-Wan Kenobi. It details a diplomatic mission deteriorating to disaster. Also not going to plan is ‘Acts of War’, in which Mace Windu encounters a warlike race immune to Jedi mind control. Randy Stradley’s twisting plot and Davidé Fabbri’s detailed art satisfy. Jan Duursema’s excellent art raises Ron Marz’s serialised tale of Darth Maul infiltrating the Black Sun and a later short tale about a scoundrel (sample art right). Maul also features in several shorts, the best of which is by Rob Williams and Cully Hamner showing him first joining forces with Darth Sidious. He’s also seen as an infant in a comedy adventure and the origin of his unique lightsaber is revealed.

Other stars of The Phantom Menace are given solo spotlights, the best of them being Ryder Windham and Robert Teranishi looking at Qui-Gon after the film’s podcar race sequence.

‘Prelude to Rebellion’ is an outlier among the longer stories for not directly connecting to The Phantom Menace, nor featuring any characters from it. Instead Jan Strnad and Anthony Winn show us Ki-Adi Mundi’s problems in attempting to limit the infiltration of technology on his home planet. It reads as if two plots are bolted together, and some nice moments can’t disguise it being too long.

Of two outings for Qui-Jon and Obi-Wan, Windham and Ramón F. Bachs’ ‘Last Stand on Ord Mantell’ is the stronger. There’s a solid debate about principles combined with the mystery of a thug claiming to control the Force.

The quality of the shorter tales varies, but the moods are many from comedy to darkness. Jim Woodring and Robert Teranishi’s tale of Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan saddled with an odious ally stands out.

Resequencing the stories has the advantage of meaning it’s not as obvious that the art is better than a fair amount of the writing on anything not issued as a standalone graphic novel. However, average is the lowest the content drops to, and that art is seen in sumptuous fashion on the oversized pages.