Star Wars: Legacy: 43: Monster, Part 1
What is it ? : We begin many years before, the planet Wayland has been devastated by the Yuuzhan Vong, their coral has created worms that digest the rock and spit out plasma onto the surface making the world near uninhabitable for the native species.
But just a short while later the world is a lush paradise, as the Vong Shapers have returned under the guidance of Kol Skywalker, with his son Cade, and another Jedi student, Shado Vao playing in this safe and thriving forest, and while the inhabitants thank Kol, he tells them that the work was done by the Vong Shapers, he only guided them.
Six months later, the world is once again twisted, along with all life on it, the inhabitants deformed by the Vong Coral Seeds inside them, they blame Kol and the Vong, as they haven't been effected, and as Kol and his group attempt to flee their wrath, the plants of the planet themselves entangle their ship to stop their escape.
In the current day, Wolf Sazen awakens from his vision, and decides that he must locate Cade, telling the adult Shado Vao that he has taken a cybernetic arm and will assume the role of any other Zabrak Spacer to travel.
Meanwhile on Zeltros, Queen Jool, the Hutt cantina owner from Coruscant, has opened a cantina paradise, and Cade and Jariah are diving from the top of a waterfall as Deliah and some other Zeltron women watch. Afterwards, with beautiful Zeltron women draped on their arms, and as Queen Jool speaks about the Zeltron Men being so pretty, they are confronted by Rav, the pirate who once employed Cade and Jariah.
Cade reacts with hostility, and fights the pirate and his gang, but Rav calms things down by offering Cade a job paying 1 million credits. Some people want a pest dealt with, and Rav thought that Cade with his Jedi abilities would be best, offering them 20% of the million, Cade instead demands 80%, but says that he should have asked for 90% when he discovers the job is on Wayland.
Meanwhile on Coruscant, the council of Moffs meets, and the new Regent, Moff Veed tells them that the Jedi are about to have negotiations with Roan Fel, which they will strike to stop this new alliance before it starts and to strike at Fel while he is away from the safety of Bastion. He also has been told their is a spy within their midst, so orders all communications from Coruscant stopped without his personal authorisation.
The other Moffs think this intelligence has come from Nyna Calixte, but she denies it, confronting Veed, but he is hostile towards her, their partnership now abandoned as he has power as the regent. Her demands annoy him and he smashes her against a window, telling her they are not equals and dismissing her.
On Bastion, Azlyn Rae is training against Ganner Krieg, wearing new armour that the Imperial Knights have made for her, improving on the design done by Rawk. The then depart for Agamar to meet with the Jedi, taking the armourer with them as he has knowledge of the Jedi beyond theirs.
Flashing back, to Wayland, the shuttle with Kol Skywalker, Cade and Shado aboard it has limped into orbit and is rescued by an Imperial vessel commanded by a younger Nyna Calixte, and as he watches his father and Nyna interact he realises they have a connection, but what that is he doesn't know, but Wolf Sazen comforts the young Cade, telling him no matter what, he'll find him.
Onboard the Mynock as they travel to Wayland, Cade awakens from that memory as a vision, remembering Wolf's words. He finds Deliah in his quarters, where she has discovered him high on Death Sticks, demanding to know what is so bad about Wayland that he has started using again. He tells her that he was there when everything went wrong, the first planet of so many, and he saw the horror in his fathers eyes, and knew nothing was going to be right again. . . .
High Points : So much going on in this issue, and it's interesting to see the Vong shaping going wrong, leading to the Jedi being blamed for the disaster. Although we're still told the Sith were behind it, without seeing how that actually worked. Were there Sith on Wayland influencing the shaping, or the shaper herself?
Veed is being changed by the position he's been given by Darth Wyyrlok, throwing away old Alliances thinking his new power put him about them, but whether this is just his natural greed for power, or whether it's influence from Wyylok to make him more reliant on the Sith, we don't yet know.
Low Points : A minor thing which niggles me the most about this issue, is Veed ordering all communications from Coruscant to be stopped without he personal order. Coruscant has always been shown as a world of trillions of people, and a total block on communications in and out strikes me as causing so many problems, especially when it's the capital world of the Krayt Empire, the number of normal day to day administrative communications which must occur to keep things running, logistics, intelligence, and commands. Do the Moff's themselves not actually do much which won't cause massive disruption when they cease all communications. In a galaxy of aliens, lightsabers, and starships, this itself seems the most unbelievable thing I've read in Star Wars.
To a lesser degree, I'm also bothered by the ease with which Rav finds Cade, if Rav can find him, surely the Sith can. Or is it that since Krayt was deposed, the orders to find and bring Cade to him have all stopped as well?
And a minor annoyance, after the fuss Azlyn made about being stuck in the suit which saved her life, the Imperial Knights give her a set which isn't any different to their normal armour. It seems that this horrible fate that she thought she was facing, isn't actually that bad at all, she just seems to need some help breathing, a minor inconvenience.
So what do you really think ? : While there's a lot to like in this issue as there's so much going on, but it's all a bit chaotic, jumping between so many storylines, with Cade frolicking at the waterfalls taking up so much space when there's far more interesting storylines which could have done with some more space. But it seems as if this series has some stories it wants to tell, and there seems to be some interesting ideas to come.
Final Words : A lot going on in this issue, and with six months to go before the end of the series, I wonder if this was the point they were told of it's ending, and decided to start cramming in as many plotlines as possible to get us towards the end of the series. Unaware they'd also get the War series to wrap things up.
Score : 8/10
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