Dark Horse Comics has done a terrific job of restoring the luster to the tarnished Star Wars universe, but credit must also go to Genndy Tartakovsky and his Clone Wars shorts on Cartoon Network. So Dark Horse taking on the Clone Wars shorts in comic-book form sounded like a pretty good formula. And indeed it is, although the action-heavy formula of the Clone Wars doesn't translate as well to comics as it did animation, and the Clone Wars Adventures so far does suffer slightly from comparison to the more nuanced and beautifully illustrated Clone Wars stories that have been running through the Star Wars Republic comics. That said, though, these are three fun little tales, and I imagine anyone who enjoyed the Clone Wars cartoons will also get a big kick out of the Clone Wars Adventures.
By far the strongest tale in this collection, by my estimation, is the one that features Mace Windu and Saesee Tinn debating the philosophy of warfare while they show off their polished Jedi skills. If there's one big thing that disappointed me about the Star Wars prequels (and there isn't... there are dozens of big things), it's that George Lucas had access to Samuel L. Jackson and made his character so damn bland. Thankfully, the licensees have picked up the baton and run with it, and Mace Windu has become a far more interesting character in the comics and cartoons. This story follows up on his characterization as sort of a zen badass, and there are some great visual tricks in this story, peaking when we get a droid's-eye view of Mace and Seasee tossing a droid five kilometers using their force powers.
Another story focuses on Kit Fisto (the most unfortunately named Jedi, followed closely by Count Dooku), and it's a story that is good but which would undeniably have been stronger in animated form. The motion of animation is really helpful in portraying the undersea battle between Fisto and his foes on Mon Calamari, and giving the sense of Fisto sort of floating serenely in the liquid medium. That said, though, the story's still a pretty good little tale, and the glowing, omnipresent look that the Fillbach Brothers give Fisto's foes is a high point of this particular tale.
The lead tale, my least favorite of the bunch but still a decently engaging read, takes Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker and plops them down into the movie Pitch Black. Basically, it's the same story that all the Obi-Wan/Anakin stories have boiled down to, namely "Anakin is too reckless, Obi-Wan is exasperated by it," but it's salvaged by a neat gimmick from the bad guys and a really clever way of showing how the darkness fades when the Jedi blindfold themselves. In addition, while I really like the storytelling of the Fillbach Brothers, I think that the artwork of Ben Caldwell is slightly more detailed and just fits my sensibilities a bit more in terms of style.
Of course, you can't really talk about the book without talking about the format, and the format is perfect. The full-color digest, also being used by DC and Marvel, blends the tastes of American kids with the pop-buzz that manga is getting in bookstores and the Archie digests that have been a "mom, can I have that?" staple of grocery stores since I was a kid. Clone Wars Adventures is an action-heavy take on the Star Wars universe that makes a perfect companion to the Clone Wars shorts on Cartoon Network. If the wait for Tartakovsky's next round of cartoons is killing you, consider picking up the Clone Wars digests to give you that same burst of enthusiasm in comic book form.
