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scans_dailyJust wanted to bring you something from my favorite four-issue standalone, Nomad. You can click the link for spoilers if you want, but really all you need to know is that It's a story from issues 21, 23, 24, and 25 of Star Wars Tales, and it has absolutely nothing to do with anyone previously known in Star Wars. While it does take place not long after Episode I, you wouldn't know by reading it.
Realizing that the lead character in this comic fit Good Feels Good was actually what led me to editing TVTropes for the first time.
"But we still have our stories." In the Outer Rim, a ship lands near a walled city set in a desert.
A man in full armor steps out and is told that he has to hand over his blaster. He says it's broken, but is told that even so, it's the law. So he hands it over without a fuss and gives his name for the records.
He's Darca Nyl. This place doesn't get a lot of visitors, but he doesn't get the chance to say what he's here for, because there's a boy on a large animal riding away from shouting people, and the kid gets bucked off.
The kid tells Darca that they're going to kill him, and then the people chasing him catch him and demand to know where "she" is, threatening him when he doesn't know anything. Darca has a one-panel blue-toned flashback, like the ones above, of him riding an animal with a boy riding the one next to him. He tells the thugs to drop the blaster. When nothing happens, he says, "You're deaf, I didn't realize. I'll repeat."
"I want you to drop the blaster." Darca has a lightsaber.
Astonishingly, this doesn't work. The thugs doubt that he's a Jedi. One presses the blaster tighter into the kid's face and it clicks. Darca responds by swinging the lightsaber and cutting off some of the thug's blaster fingers. And then he says "Uh... look... maybe we've started out on the wrong foot."
Samuel walks them along and says there's one reason to put a colony here, where you can't walk ten meters without your lungs getting filled with dust and sand. That reason is ore. He found it on his own two years ago. This is the pioneer spirit at work, people willing to risk everything for a better future. Darca asks what the boy did to warrant armed men chasing him. Samuel says that he helped kidnap his (Samuel's) daughter, and he's just got the ransom note. Two million credits or she dies.
And here's a big chunk I'm cutting out.
A tall alien with an eyepatch wanders through a city. Blue flashback panels have him standing on a patio, and there's another one of Darca looking at a crashed ship with a massive plume of smoke. A drunk hobo talks to the alien, saying that if he doesn't have any money and doesn't keep going he'll get knocked down by the Jedi moves he picked up on his travels. The alien says, "Jedi?"
Blue flashback panel of the alien in a doorway, a boy kneeling on the floor and starting to point a blaster at him. The alien cuts the hobo in half with a lightsaber and walks away.
Darca gets his blaster back, and Samuel tells him that this "Lycan" he's following didn't stay here, he was on a supply ship that only stayed a week before heading elsewhere. Darca gets his daughter back and he'll be told where. Since no one can make it more than a kilometer away from the base without breathing gear, they put that on and also take mech suits; think the load lifters from Alien. Yes, they - Samuel wants to keep an eye on his money. "You mean your daughter?" "Right." Samuel then asks if he can't just pay Darca a few hundred thousand to kill the man, and Darca refuses. They head out.
The landscape is filled with sand and twisty rock formations. Samuel said there may have been people here once, but nothing can live here now.
A rocket comes down at them. Darca shouts "Move, move!"
It misses, but they can't see where they're being fired at from. Darca tells Samuel to keep him talking, he's going to try something. Samuel yells "I've got the money, Royce! Stop firing!" Royce says he was supposed to come alone and now Samuel's trying to con him, same as always; what's more, since Darca's mech is trying to flank him he fires a rocket at it.
It blows up, and while Royce is saying "It's just you and me!" Darca gets the drop on him and says "And me." He takes his helmet off so we can see his face, and points the lightsaber.
Blue flashback panel of the boy pointing a blaster up at the silhouetted alien. In the present, Royce goes for his blaster, which is cut away by the lightsaber. He then arms a grenade. Darca kicks him, shattering the helmet of his life support, and the grenade bounces towards a girl who cringes but doesn't run, even when Darca shouts for her to do so.
All right, second issue. A ship takes several panels to dive down, clearly about to crash. Darca, at the controls and trying to pull up, narrates in dry caption boxes. Talking about how people wonder sometimes why Jedi carry weapons. They're peackeepers, after all. But what about when you're a Jedi minding your own business, traveling on a cargo ship, and then its crew, in a pre-planned scam, try to rob you? How do you defend yourself? Exactly. "You see, the thing about being a Jedi is - you don't go looking for trouble. Trouble just seems to find you."
I'll admit to keeping that page entirely because of the pink goat.
In a casino, the eyepatched alien from before - Lycan - has been having a spectacular, and suspicious, winning streak. He makes an impossible bet with someone - all of his winnings versus their ship, if two chance cubes both land on edge. They take it.
And of course, they both land on edge. Specifically, both balance on corners. There's a pause.
Darca wanders around for a day, finding no sign of civilization. He wonders if he's stuck. Then he hears blaster fire and runs after the source. "Blaster fire means technology - and that means a way off this planet. Just have to be careful - play things smart and stealthy - take things nice and -" He runs smack into a woman and they tumble down a hillside together. She gasps that he has to help her brother.
"Trouble finds you. Trouble finds you. Trouble finds you. Repeat until physically ill. Or dead." A speeder bike cuts just overhead and swerves back towards them, firing. Darca dives for the lightsaber.
She guides his hand to a stick and tells him that if he pokes the fire, it'll show him things. He quips about if it'll tell him who'll win the next major pod race. She tells him to concentrate and it'll show him his inner thoughts. Things he doesn't even know he's thinking about. She tells him to let the images come, then says he can open his eyes. He does, and sees the boy from all the flashbacks. Jaren asks him who it is, and he storms off, saying he doesn't know, it didn't work. Ament looks at her and says "Guilty."
The next day they spend walking, and in the evening Ament asks if Darca likes his sister. She's pretty and didn't forget him when he went away, so he protects her. "You are like me. I see it. I see it in your face, your eyes. She is too good for you. You are ill inside. I see that. You have done wrong. You are broken." Darca asks how Ament is like him, what did Ament do. Ament leaves, saying he'll go find food. Four hours later and he's still gone, so Darca leaves Jaren by a fire to look for him.
He finds a bear with horns. And being Darca, he snarks at it, asking if there's any chance that appearances are deceiving and it's the cuddly sort. It's not. He mutters "And now the wildlife wants to kill me too." Then Jaren screams for him.
Darca says he's sorry and slices the bear's purple guts open, then runs. But he knows he'll be too late; he's too far away and the other bear with horns will get her. He thinks it's happening again, and there's a blue flashback panel of him leaning over an open cockpit staring at a farmhouse. Then Ament is on the scene, leaping down with a rock.
He ties their hands behind their backs, both of them, and takes them to be captured by the people searching for Ament. He'd murdered thirty-one people before he was caught; he was prone to uncontrollable rages. He hadn't given Darca any trouble on the way. Just looked sad. Jaren is furious. She'd broken him out of prison after he'd been there six years. Never forgot him, never stopped loving him.
One of the authority types says he can take Darca to where some pilots live, and they'll take him where he needs to go. He's asked if there's any particular reason why he wants to go to Molavar, and he says, "Yes... unfortunately. There's something broken I need to fix."
Other half is here.
Requested tag:
title: star wars
Realizing that the lead character in this comic fit Good Feels Good was actually what led me to editing TVTropes for the first time.
"But we still have our stories." In the Outer Rim, a ship lands near a walled city set in a desert.
A man in full armor steps out and is told that he has to hand over his blaster. He says it's broken, but is told that even so, it's the law. So he hands it over without a fuss and gives his name for the records.
He's Darca Nyl. This place doesn't get a lot of visitors, but he doesn't get the chance to say what he's here for, because there's a boy on a large animal riding away from shouting people, and the kid gets bucked off.
The kid tells Darca that they're going to kill him, and then the people chasing him catch him and demand to know where "she" is, threatening him when he doesn't know anything. Darca has a one-panel blue-toned flashback, like the ones above, of him riding an animal with a boy riding the one next to him. He tells the thugs to drop the blaster. When nothing happens, he says, "You're deaf, I didn't realize. I'll repeat."
"I want you to drop the blaster." Darca has a lightsaber.
Astonishingly, this doesn't work. The thugs doubt that he's a Jedi. One presses the blaster tighter into the kid's face and it clicks. Darca responds by swinging the lightsaber and cutting off some of the thug's blaster fingers. And then he says "Uh... look... maybe we've started out on the wrong foot."
Samuel walks them along and says there's one reason to put a colony here, where you can't walk ten meters without your lungs getting filled with dust and sand. That reason is ore. He found it on his own two years ago. This is the pioneer spirit at work, people willing to risk everything for a better future. Darca asks what the boy did to warrant armed men chasing him. Samuel says that he helped kidnap his (Samuel's) daughter, and he's just got the ransom note. Two million credits or she dies.
And here's a big chunk I'm cutting out.
A tall alien with an eyepatch wanders through a city. Blue flashback panels have him standing on a patio, and there's another one of Darca looking at a crashed ship with a massive plume of smoke. A drunk hobo talks to the alien, saying that if he doesn't have any money and doesn't keep going he'll get knocked down by the Jedi moves he picked up on his travels. The alien says, "Jedi?"
Blue flashback panel of the alien in a doorway, a boy kneeling on the floor and starting to point a blaster at him. The alien cuts the hobo in half with a lightsaber and walks away.
Darca gets his blaster back, and Samuel tells him that this "Lycan" he's following didn't stay here, he was on a supply ship that only stayed a week before heading elsewhere. Darca gets his daughter back and he'll be told where. Since no one can make it more than a kilometer away from the base without breathing gear, they put that on and also take mech suits; think the load lifters from Alien. Yes, they - Samuel wants to keep an eye on his money. "You mean your daughter?" "Right." Samuel then asks if he can't just pay Darca a few hundred thousand to kill the man, and Darca refuses. They head out.
The landscape is filled with sand and twisty rock formations. Samuel said there may have been people here once, but nothing can live here now.
A rocket comes down at them. Darca shouts "Move, move!"
It misses, but they can't see where they're being fired at from. Darca tells Samuel to keep him talking, he's going to try something. Samuel yells "I've got the money, Royce! Stop firing!" Royce says he was supposed to come alone and now Samuel's trying to con him, same as always; what's more, since Darca's mech is trying to flank him he fires a rocket at it.
It blows up, and while Royce is saying "It's just you and me!" Darca gets the drop on him and says "And me." He takes his helmet off so we can see his face, and points the lightsaber.
Blue flashback panel of the boy pointing a blaster up at the silhouetted alien. In the present, Royce goes for his blaster, which is cut away by the lightsaber. He then arms a grenade. Darca kicks him, shattering the helmet of his life support, and the grenade bounces towards a girl who cringes but doesn't run, even when Darca shouts for her to do so.
All right, second issue. A ship takes several panels to dive down, clearly about to crash. Darca, at the controls and trying to pull up, narrates in dry caption boxes. Talking about how people wonder sometimes why Jedi carry weapons. They're peackeepers, after all. But what about when you're a Jedi minding your own business, traveling on a cargo ship, and then its crew, in a pre-planned scam, try to rob you? How do you defend yourself? Exactly. "You see, the thing about being a Jedi is - you don't go looking for trouble. Trouble just seems to find you."
I'll admit to keeping that page entirely because of the pink goat.
In a casino, the eyepatched alien from before - Lycan - has been having a spectacular, and suspicious, winning streak. He makes an impossible bet with someone - all of his winnings versus their ship, if two chance cubes both land on edge. They take it.
And of course, they both land on edge. Specifically, both balance on corners. There's a pause.
Darca wanders around for a day, finding no sign of civilization. He wonders if he's stuck. Then he hears blaster fire and runs after the source. "Blaster fire means technology - and that means a way off this planet. Just have to be careful - play things smart and stealthy - take things nice and -" He runs smack into a woman and they tumble down a hillside together. She gasps that he has to help her brother.
"Trouble finds you. Trouble finds you. Trouble finds you. Repeat until physically ill. Or dead." A speeder bike cuts just overhead and swerves back towards them, firing. Darca dives for the lightsaber.
She guides his hand to a stick and tells him that if he pokes the fire, it'll show him things. He quips about if it'll tell him who'll win the next major pod race. She tells him to concentrate and it'll show him his inner thoughts. Things he doesn't even know he's thinking about. She tells him to let the images come, then says he can open his eyes. He does, and sees the boy from all the flashbacks. Jaren asks him who it is, and he storms off, saying he doesn't know, it didn't work. Ament looks at her and says "Guilty."
The next day they spend walking, and in the evening Ament asks if Darca likes his sister. She's pretty and didn't forget him when he went away, so he protects her. "You are like me. I see it. I see it in your face, your eyes. She is too good for you. You are ill inside. I see that. You have done wrong. You are broken." Darca asks how Ament is like him, what did Ament do. Ament leaves, saying he'll go find food. Four hours later and he's still gone, so Darca leaves Jaren by a fire to look for him.
He finds a bear with horns. And being Darca, he snarks at it, asking if there's any chance that appearances are deceiving and it's the cuddly sort. It's not. He mutters "And now the wildlife wants to kill me too." Then Jaren screams for him.
Darca says he's sorry and slices the bear's purple guts open, then runs. But he knows he'll be too late; he's too far away and the other bear with horns will get her. He thinks it's happening again, and there's a blue flashback panel of him leaning over an open cockpit staring at a farmhouse. Then Ament is on the scene, leaping down with a rock.
He ties their hands behind their backs, both of them, and takes them to be captured by the people searching for Ament. He'd murdered thirty-one people before he was caught; he was prone to uncontrollable rages. He hadn't given Darca any trouble on the way. Just looked sad. Jaren is furious. She'd broken him out of prison after he'd been there six years. Never forgot him, never stopped loving him.
One of the authority types says he can take Darca to where some pilots live, and they'll take him where he needs to go. He's asked if there's any particular reason why he wants to go to Molavar, and he says, "Yes... unfortunately. There's something broken I need to fix."
Other half is here.
Requested tag:
title: star wars
no subject
Date: 2010-06-12 03:17 am (UTC)But then I always thought the Jedi of old should be Samurai/Ronin/Sheriff types myself.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-12 04:14 am (UTC)And then you find out they sat on their thumbs majority of the time and didn't do much of anything really useful.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-12 09:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-12 08:39 pm (UTC)I think the calcified order of the Prequels shows exactly why the Jedi fell down.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-12 10:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-12 03:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-12 04:11 am (UTC)It's a strange and unfamiliar feeling.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-12 01:13 pm (UTC)And Zayne Carrick turned out to be a likable hero.
Dark Horse's other Star Wars ongoing though, Legacy, is terrible, with a pretty uniformly unpleasant cast of characters.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-12 07:33 pm (UTC)Knights of the Old Republic pretty much was awful, at first many people were excited due to the KOTOR game but everything it set up the comic failed to capitalize on.
Legacy on the other is the best pure Star Wars event going since...well a good long time, it has a great cast of characters and is far more interesting then most of the games/novels/prequels. Plus isn't it Dark Horse biggest SW seller if not biggest seller over all.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-12 08:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-12 05:26 am (UTC)It's a slippery slope. D: I edited one thing once and now I spend (quite literally) entire holiday weekends there reading page after page after page.
It really IS like the Hotel California of the internet. XD