Star Wars Invasion: Revelations script by Tom Taylor, art by Colin Wilson, takes place at the start of the Yuuzhan Vong War, and follows the story of the royal Galfridian family of the planet Artorias. Please immediately banish any typical images of a deceitful royal family engaged in corrupt political scheming. The Galfridians are a loving family torn apart by the Yuuzhan Vong invasion of their planet. Artorias was a world on the Outer Rim, invaded by the Vong, abandoned by Coruscant & the Republic at the so-called center of the galaxy, and now its population is either dead or refugees. Our heroes are Kaye and Finn Galfridian – a set of siblings as favored by the Star Wars narrative. Kaye Galfridian  is our Princess – again abandon images of the peaceful diplomatic daughter – my favorite shot of Kaye is one where the tiny little blonde decapitates a stormtrooper with her bare hands. She is a warrior and a leader. Finn is the Prince, a brooding, conflicted young Jedi who has a knack for mechanics. Both harbor secrets unknown to them that will shake the Galfridian heirs to their cores.

The cast of side characters shines particularly bright – from Queen Nina Galfridian, a complex character on numerous levels, to the defiant defender of justice we find in Republic Admiral Blysas. My favorite two characters are Cianba, a stalwart reporter, and Arbeloa, the grizzled, fatherly warrior and former prisoner of war. The heart-wrenching, expressive and heavy art by Wilson combined with Taylor’s dialogue and my personal weakness for the old grizzled warrior trope meant a few “it’s just that I’ve got something in my eye okay,“ moments on my part. On the other hand, Jedi Master Dray, Finn’s new mentor, is every kind of crazy we thank the Force Yoda was not.

Taylor uses Cianba as a clever compositional construct of a reporter bringing you the images of a genocide. Cianba’s dialogue is ripped from the headlines of today but she does not feel like a cheap device. Instead, under Taylor’s pen Cianba holos make the scene only that much more horrific, borrowing some power from the images we are confronted with in our reality. At the same time, the contextualization means that this first time reader of the series didn’t need to constantly cross-check with Wookipedia to understand what was going on. My experience as an devoted reader of the NJO series meant only an extra bit of delight in recognizing certain favorite Vong words and witnessing the visualization of some of my favorite Vong biotechnology. It’s the Yammosk, if you’re curious. Say it with me. Yammosk. Fun right? Readers of that series will certainly be delighted by Taylor’s offering to the narrative of the Vong invasion – new heroes, on a new front.

The dialogue is at one moment pithy and in the next inspirational on an epic scale. Taylor will flash us from Coruscant where a poor Jedi-mind-addled palace guard decides it’s time to buy himself a nice new pair of shoes, to a horrific battlefield or tense political scene. Taylor often invokes political speak and the attitudes of our global north towards global south by referencing tribal and agricultural conflict, but in this book, the heroes behave as we want them to. Star Wars Invasion: Revelations is an uplifting tale of heroes fighting for justice and of a family ripped apart by conflict. The story does not offer much in the way of creative narrative risks but if you’re looking for a bit of galactic justice and heroism look no further. Revelations delivers a healthy dose of pithy wit threaded into soaring inspiration, as all good Star Wars stories should. Star Wars Invasion: Revelations is the third and latest arc of the Invasion series published by Dark House. It will be available to buy in your LCS on April 25th, 2012.