Of all the disappointments that the Star Wars prequels brought, the waste of talent that was Samuel L. Jackson in a bit part as Mace Windu tops my list. So I can't level most of the blame of the weakness of this issue on the creators involved; most of the damage was done in the character concept. However, it is disappointing that only a couple of the creators manage to rise above the mediocre character and create entertaining stories, while most suffer from either too few (or too many) pages to explore their story, artwork that doesn't convey the subtleties or a general sense that these stories don't have much impact on the characters. Star Wars Tales is usually my favorite Star Wars title from Dark Horse, but this issue was a miss for me.
I have a soft spot for editors breaking the fourth wall and talking to the reader in these kind of things, and the opening page with art by Lucas Marangon (and presumably written by Dave Land) is a cute bit of fun. I've come to expect a bit of whimsy in Star Wars Tales, and while this one was more serious and straightforward than usual, the opening page and the first story had a bit of humor to them. The first story, "Puzzle Peace" by Scott Beatty, was cute, and had a clever ending. I was not as crazy about the artwork from Greene and Kaufman, who seem suited for a monster story given their depiction of the Er'stacians and Yoda, but those style looked out of place in this story.
The artwork in general disappointed me in this issue. Michael Zulli's work looked especially sketchy and rough in "Stones," and while the basics of the story were clear, the actual effect that the writer was going for was muted. That was still an improvement on "The Sith and the Shadow," where the artwork didn't convey the important turning point in the story well enough, causing it to lose power as I had to go back and reread to figure out what had just happened. In fairness, the style of the artwork (by Jerome Opena) is intriguing, similar to Tan Eng Huat's Doom Patrol work, and the story wasn't all that engaging in the first place, but it's still an unfortunate failure of storytelling.
Standing out amongst the somewhat weak stories of this issue were Jim Krueger's "Survivors" and Jason Hall's "Children of the Force." The former, done with a sort of manga-esque style by Kagan McLeod, is probably the best depiction of what people generally want Mace Windu to be, an implacable foe and Jedi badass, as opposed to what he is usually portrayed as. "Children of the Force" is the strongest story of the issue, and I actually was wishing for more room for Hall to explore the idea. The Jedi as presented in the two prequels have come off as an organization that deserved to fall, and there's a lot to explore as to the cold and emotionless way that they operate. The conclusion of the story is hammered home a little too hard, but the basic ideas are intriguing and the artwork is solid.
Star Wars Tales has been the book where Dark Horse editorial and their talent have pushed the boundaries, tackling comedy and crime and other short subjects that generally don't make it into the mass-appeal Star Wars books. It's also an anthology, which leads to the downside of potentially uneven quality and an always mixed bag of stories. This particular issue is a disappointment, but I still look forward to seeing what future gems the anthology will bring.
