Story: Michael A. Stackpole
Script: Jan Strnad and Mike W. Barr
Art: Gary Erskine
Colors: Dave Nestelle
Letters: Annie Parkhouse
Cover Art: Kevin Ryan and Stuart Hiner
TPB Cover Art: John K. Snyder III
Requiem for a Rogue is the fifth installment in the XWRS series. I have to say up front that I think this is the worst installment in the series, next to The Rebel Opposition.
What is so horribly wrong with this comic? Well, let's start with the art. Within the first couple pages, I knew we were in trouble. They have the little boxes matching Rogue name to face and home planet, an addition I really liked and am glad they added. I was not impressed with the portrayal of the Rogues. Wedge looks like a simulacrum of himself. Hobbie reminds me of someone out of some virtual reality/computer hacker movie, and Tycho is just downright ugly. Out of them all, the aliens came off looking the best, especially Dllr. This is all in contrast to the artwork of the XWRS 1/2 special that is also included in the TPB.
The artwork does not improve throughout the series. Somebody please email me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Bothans are supposed to look almost exactly alike. They are supposed to have different colorings. And then there's Tycho. We have a two-page sequence where he is lying in bed, dreaming. He is practically naked. For a guy who's supposed to be pretty good looking, he looks extremely ugly. I can barely stand to read those pages because of his appearance.
I have one more comment on the appearance of something, but I do not know if this was the idea of the artist or of Mr. Stackpole. The appearance of the Sith Temple just annoys me. It looks like somebody picked up a pyramid, transported it to the planet, hovered way up in the air, and then let it drop to the ground below. Upside down. Then that same person came down to the surface and decided to steady it so it would stay upside down. If I were on the planet, I'd begin to wonder if more upside down pyramids were going to come raining down on my head.
If it were just the artwork that was bad, I could deal with it. I'd complain about the artwork, but at least be grateful that there was a good story. I can't say that. The whole thing just seems wrong to me.
The Rogues track down a bunch of missing Bothans who were lost. Fine. I don't have any problems until they introduce Sith Temple and the Devaronian that is capable of using the Sith "Magic."
First of all, just based on the movies, I thought one had to be Force-sensitive in order to use the Force, Light Side or Dark Side. Most of the books seem to agree with this. For example, Kevin J. Anderson's Jedi Academy Trilogy, which also has a plot centered around a Sith Temple, is at least plausible because all involved with using the Sith abilities were Force-sensitive. However, in this comic, none of the people who were able to draw on the Dark Side ability were Force-sensitive. Even with the musical sub-focus, that does not explain how Cartariun or Girov would be able to even pick it up.
Even the term "Sith Magic" strikes a discordance within me. Again, the Sith are like a dark version of the Jedi. They both use the Force. The Jedi use the Light Side of the Force; the Sith use the Dark Side. It's not a separate magic. This comic seems to imply that the Temple and, by implication, the Sith, don't use the Force, but another kind of dark magic.
Aside from this major problem, there were some good story points. I mentioned earlier the scene with Tycho dreaming. The one reason I can stand to read those two pages is because his dream and his thoughts upon awakening are fascinating. I thought both that sequence and Ibtisam's later dream sequence helped develop their characters further. I just wish that it weren't hinted that their dreams had been caused by the "Sith magic." I can picture either one of them having those dreams on their own.
Another thing that makes this worth at least reading once is seeing Janson and Hobbie with the Bothan females. It seems inconsequential at first, but this seems to be the one night that will live on forever in their memories, so it's nice to know the origin of their obsession.
As much as I would like to pretend that this mini-series never existed, I can't, and not just because of the Bothan female thing. It's not even because of the deaths of two of the Rogues. I don't have a problem with them dying, although I think they deserved better than to die during such an inane plot. It's because Requiem is one of the few places that hints at another Force ability that has never been formally acknowledged. I won't say more about it here because it's one of my pet theories, and doesn't belong here. If you want to read up on it, go here. Basically, it has to do with the music aspect of this novel and connects it with Tionne and Valin, Corran's son.
In summary, Requiem for a Rogue has some redeeming values, but I honestly couldn't judge whether those make up for the bad artwork and plotline. Instead, I'll conclude with one last thought. If I were Wedge, and I'd been brought back to life through Sith magic, no matter how impervious I was to the Force, my first act on getting back to base would be to seek out Luke Skywalker and have him check me out and make sure no lasting harm had been done to my soul/psyche/inner self.
Reviewed April 5, 2000 by Kelly M. Grosskreutz.
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