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Star Wars: Republic #4

Star Wars: Twilight

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Jedi Knight Quinlan Vos has lost his memory. Not only must he fight to rediscover his past, he must also track down his Padawan, Aayla Secura, who has mysteriously disappeared. With only his lightsaber and a scheming Devaronian named Villie to help him, Quin must face off against deadly gamblers, false Jedi, corrupt officials, and the pull of the dark side if he is to survive! Twilight collects issues 19-22 of the ongoing Star Wars comics series and is Jedi Quinlan Vos' introduction to the Star Wars comics.

96 pages, Paperback

First published November 29, 2001

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161 people want to read

About the author

John Ostrander

2,086 books171 followers
John Ostrander is an American writer of comic books. He is best known for his work on Suicide Squad, Grimjack and Star Wars: Legacy, series he helped create.

Originally an actor in a Chicago theatre company, Ostrander moved into writing comics in 1983. His first published works were stories about the character "Sargon, Mistress of War", who appeared the First Comics series Warp!, based on a series of plays by that same Chicago theatre company. He is co-creator of the character Grimjack with Timothy Truman, who originally appeared in a back up story in the First Comics title, Starslayer, before going on to appear in his own book, again published by First Comics in the mid 1980s. First Comics ceased publication in 1991, by which time Ostrander was already doing work for other comics companies (his first scripts for DC Comics were published in 1986).

Prior to his career in comic books, Ostrander studied theology with the intent of becoming a Catholic priest, but now describes himself as an agnostic. His in-depth explorations of morality were later used in his work writing The Spectre, a DC Comics series about the manifestation of the wrath of God. His focus on the character's human aspect, a dead police detective from the 1930s named Jim Corrigan, and his exploration of moral and theological themes brought new life to a character often thought of as impossible to write. He has also worked on Firestorm, Justice League, Martian Manhunter, Manhunter, Suicide Squad, and Wasteland for DC.

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5 stars
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
Profile Image for Dimitris Papastergiou.
2,526 reviews85 followers
November 9, 2023
Set in 31BBY

A year after Episode I: The Phantom Menace:

Quinlan Vos. Not remembering a thing. Hunted. Bounty. Run!

"Do not give in to fear. That will surely lead to death." - Quinlan Vos

A great adventure with Quinlan running around the galaxy seeking answers and searching for his Padawan (Aayla Secura) while everyone is hunting him down because he's got a bounty on his head.

Great artwork too with the most fitting coloring. Solid mini-series from beginning to end.

"Do not surrender to death." - Quinlan Vos

PS. Villie steals the show.
Profile Image for SzaraReadsComics.
92 reviews3 followers
March 25, 2021
Interesting introduction to Quinlan Vos as a character, some nice plot twists, but generally just an okay read.
Profile Image for Timo.
Author 3 books17 followers
February 14, 2021
Apparently there is a new Jedi in town. Not too sure I want read his adventures, although there were some nice moments, but still....
Profile Image for Jared.
407 reviews17 followers
June 26, 2016
Star Wars Legends Project #74

Background: Republic: Twilight came out in 4 issues from June to September 2000. The trade paperback was released in December 2001. It was written by John Ostrander and drawn by Jan Duursema. Ostrander and Duursema are frequent collaborators who worked together on dozens and dozens of issues, including Republic, Legacy, and Dawn of the Jedi.

Twilight is set shortly after Star Wars: Emissaries to Malastare (my review, 31 years before the Battle of Yavin. The main characters, who appeared very briefly in Emissaries, are Quinlan Vos and Vilmarh Grahrk, with brief appearances by Bib Fortuna Aayla Secura, and Mace Windu. Most of the action takes place on Nar Shaddaa and Ryloth.

Summary: A Jedi Knight wakes up in the middle of a burning room with no memory of how he got there. He has lost his lightsaber, his padawan, and his identity. And everyone on the Smuggler's Moon seems to be out to kill him. His first order of business is to find who did this to him and get back what he has lost, if he can survive long enough, but an even greater danger lurks in the corners of his own mind: The call of the Dark Side.

Review: I can't remember another comic that has hooked me in like this from the very first page. There is a brilliant storytelling economy to the set-up that I found irresistible. You don't have to know anything because the protagonist doesn't know anything. He doesn't even know what a Jedi is. There are no details to get bogged down in, just an action-packed mystery that unfolds steadily page-by-page.

The other thing this comic gets right is the balance of drama and humor, thanks largely to the Devaronian Vilmarh. Vilmarh is the definition of a chaotic neutral character. Everything he does has a self-serving angle, even if it's not immediately apparent, so it's impossible to know from one minute to the next whose side he might land on . . . Because really he's siding with himself. This makes for lots of great reversals and twists and turns throughout the story, but he's also a potent source of genuinely funny comic relief.

Meanwhile, even without his identity, Quinlan Vos isn't a total blank-slate. Without his memories of what it means to be a Jedi, he isn't bound by the code every character he encounters expects him to follow. But as the story progresses, it's clear that he is still very powerful and well-trained in the Force. That leads to a conflicted morality that is reminiscent of some of the darker superheroes. He's basically a force for good, as he sees it, but he doesn't hold back when he encounters an enemy. It's an interesting dynamic for a Jedi character, and a welcome break from the somewhat flat, unconflicted characterizations that we've been getting for most of the other Jedi characters.

I'm excited to see where this storyline goes next!

A
Profile Image for Quinlan.
21 reviews
December 20, 2017
Star Wars Republic #19-22

I really enjoyed this introduction to a new kind of Jedi, Quinlan Vos, a rougher sort who struggles to follow the Jedi code and finds himself tempted toward the Dark Side. The story starts out with a bang as Quinlan Vos wakes up with no clue of who he is and surrounded by enemies, only to slowly realize he is in fact a Jedi with incredible force powers. But he's not like the peaceable (and boring) Jedi we've grown accustomed to: Quinlan has a dangerous streak of anger and hate inside him.

With some assistance from a suspicious demon-like Devaronian named Villie, Quinlan quests to find out who he is and why his memory is gone. Twilight delves a bit into Quinlan's backstory and homeworld which gives some additional depth to his character that we often don't see with other Jedi. As a side note, not everybody is happy that their most gifted force-sensitive youth are taken away by the Jedi Order, never to return. Overall, Twilight has me excited to read more about this particular Jedi and his struggle with the darker side of the force. The nuanced Quinlan portrayed here (as well as his unique abilities) is already more intriguing than the Quinlan we see in the animated Clone Wars show.

You can find this particular story arc in Star Wars Omnibus: Quinlan Vos: Jedi in Darkness.
Profile Image for Aneta.
42 reviews3 followers
March 14, 2021
I've been reading recently a lot of star wars comics. This one is something else, than the recent releases. It has an engaging, but not over complicated story. Recent comics from marvel suffer from too many not connect plots, or even worst, from too many badly connected plots.

This one is old and it's good and different. Again I don't understand why it has low rating. Quinlan Vos is just such an interesting character. You don't know if he is good or bad. He doesn't know that neither. Will he become grey jedi? No idea. But this thin line between forces is done beautifuly here. Is not that he is Anakin Skywalker and needs to bring balance to the force, no. He is just a jedi, who lost his memory but that means starting from scratch a bit.

I'm really interested how his story ends. Personal dramas are much more engaging than "I need to save universe" stories.
Profile Image for Kalle Vilenius.
67 reviews
December 19, 2023
In what is perhaps a cliché, it all begins with an amnesiac waking up. He’s in a room with no idea how he got there and who he is, but the room is on fire and immediate action is required. An explosive opening, and one that allows the reader to get to know the protagonist as he himself pieces together his identity. He meets a rogue called Villie, a man from a species of aliens who look like devils with their red skin and horns, whose reliability is suspect and whose loyalties keep the reader guessing. This quest takes them to several worlds, they meet figures from Star Wars mythology such as Bib Fortuna (that pale guy from Jabba’s palace whose name I never knew before now) and Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson), stumbling from one scene of intrigue to action set piece after another, squeezing a lot of content into just four issues. A quickly summarized review: it’s good, read it!

Some spoilers to follow.

The man is Quinlan Vos, a Jedi and a member of a race of people who have a somehow non-Force related ability to read echoes of the past in objects. His memories were wiped out while he and his padawan Aayla Secura were investigating a new narcotic, basically being cops. This is a smaller scale Star Wars adventure than you’d get in the movies, the fates of worlds do not hang in the balance. What does is a much more personal thing, Vos’ very soul.

During an interrogation of someone despicable, Vos uses force lightning, an iconic power of the Dark Side, made famous in the movies by the emperor’s use of it. Seeing a Jedi do this is not a good sign, but Quinlan Vos is not really a Jedi here, he knows nothing of what that entails without his memory. He doesn’t know to resist the pull of the Dark Side and is thus highly susceptible to its corrupting influence, to surrendering to hate and anger, all of which is perfectly justified in the eyes of an ordinary person, but a Jedi is not an ordinary person.

“Now I want him to die,” he says after receiving the information he wanted. The same hatred still drives him during the final confrontation of the book. Vos desires revenge and seeks to kill the man behind the drug trade (or rather, the man who has another man behind him that only us readers get to see), but is stopped by the interference of Mace Windu, who seeks to pull him back from the brink. How he does this shows what the Jedi can be at their best, more than just space wizards who hit people with their lightsabres. Finding a way past an opponent’s unbridled rage and responding to killing intent with calmness, taking even the time to speak a few kind words to bats that were frightened by their fight, Windu very quickly establishes himself as the Platonic ideal of what a Jedi should be, and questioning Vos’ willingness to kill, finally gets through to him.

The story here is not long or particularly deep, as it is only the introduction to something larger. Twilight takes place between The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, and the Ostrander/Duursema duo would tell stories of Quinlan Vos’ life throughout the entire prequel era. As an introduction to him it works wonders, though his padawan is left as more of an unknown quantity, she has very little if anything to do here except a single use of the Force, done in a panic, not understanding what it is she’s even doing, the results of which is the death of a relative of hers. Will this haunt her in the future? I look forward to seeing how it goes.

Over the course of the four issues in this book, Quinlan Vos goes from a tabula rasa to a conflicted and nuanced person. This is the type of excellent, quick characterization I’ve come to expect from Ostrander. Jan Duursema is a frequent artistic collaborator for his works and her depictions of the Star Wars universe and its strange creatures never fail to please the eye. They and these old comics continue to deepen and reinvigorate my interest in the franchise Lucas created, an interest that had died away years ago due to the state of the movies.
49 reviews
March 24, 2020
I give it a 8/10.

I grew up with the classic Star Wars trilogy. I hated the prequels because of how much they screwed up the original characters, among other things. So I was never fond of the Clone Wars era. I never even liked the idea of watching, in general, a movie about clones fighting robots. I mean really, who cares. I tried to start watching the Clone Wars cartoons, and after a couple of seasons I just stopped. I'm a huge Star Wars fan, but the cartoons seemed to be aimed for kids. I'm kinda old at this point.

But there are still really awesome Star Wars stories to be found, like the ones about the Old Republic, like 5000 years before the movies. I just never thought to find one that takes place during those damned Clone Wars.

And it's a really good one, it's a story about a jedi who lost all his memories but knowing he has a mission to complete. There's darkness in him but no context. A missing companion he barely remembers and many other people he knows he can't fully trust.

The problem with these stories in the prequel microuniverse is that if you have watched the movies we already know how some characters are going to end. In detail. But it's still a pretty solid start for these series. Off to the next book!

Recommended to all Star Wars fans.
Profile Image for Eduardo.
551 reviews17 followers
July 6, 2024
Man, the old Expanded Universe had so many complex, interesting stories that the Disney buyout just… discarded, huh?

So Quilan Vos. He wakes up on Nar Shadda, and he doesn’t remember who is or what he’s doing there. Through his Force powers, he quickly gets some bits and pieces, but not really enough to find out what the eff is going on. All he knows is that he’s got to find his apprentice, Aayla Secura, and figure out what happened to them to make them forget who they are. And his only guide is a crook who probably wants him dead.

Quilan Vos was a fan favorite in the Prequel Era, and I am starting to get why? He can get a bit more volatile than a Jedi is really meant to, though in his defense, he doesn’t remember all of what being a Jedi actually entails. He’s just trying his best to get himself to recall his past and rescue his Padawan.

Also Mace? Is… well, not chill, but very understanding in this comic. I feel as if Mace Windu is stereotyped as being incredibly dogmatic and unyielding, whereas here he’s willing to put up with quite a lot from Quilan Vos. And apparently doesn’t like hurting random wildlife. This isn’t really his stereotypical image, even before the Disney purchase.

It feels a little incomplete, though, in that a massive Plot Point is still dangling at the end. I assume it’s followed up on at some point, I just don’t know where, or if I can find that comic somewhere. We shall see, I suppose.
Profile Image for Rizzie.
558 reviews6 followers
May 26, 2019
This is a review for the entire Ostrander run of the Republic ongoing, not just this volume.

While I think this series is very overrated by overzealous fans, there's no denying that overall, it is a good story. It has a satisfying evolution for Quinlan Voss, and Ostrander's supporting cast is interesting enough. The biggest issues with this series is its length. The story could benefit a LOT from being pruned down to maybe half of what it is, removing all of the totally unrelated stories. The non-Quinlan stories are still fairly good on their own (in fact, the Haden Blackman fill-in stories are all much better than the Ostrander stuff), but those comics should be in their own series and their own volumes. They really interrupt the flow of Quinlan's story, and make this series a bit of a jumbled slog at times. Still, worth it in the end if you're into this kind of thing.
Profile Image for Adam.
997 reviews240 followers
August 23, 2017
Quin's amnesia here, combined with his object-reading ability, which serves just to permit some visual dream-sequence sort of stuff, don't endear me much to this material. He's a fine character on his own, but I was pretty bored with this as is. Villie and he have a pretty familiar dynamic (Aphra and Vader, most recently, Griff and Zayne most effectively) but Villie's comedic ticks aren't as interesting as they could be. He's charming enough, I guess, and his "always gamble on the protagonist" idea is a bit of clever metafiction, but it doesn't go very far.
Profile Image for WyrmbergSabrina.
456 reviews21 followers
February 5, 2021
Yes two of my favourite Jedi. And what a change of pace. Characters I'm interested in, twists and turns, neat art, good layout. And hints of more to come. Nice nod at the end there. I look forward to the next instalment.
173 reviews5 followers
January 25, 2025
I liked Quinlan Vos and the plot was intresting. I love the worldbuilding of Kiffu and Ryloth. I l love the the artstyle and the Action . I hate Villie , the comic relief character and his obnoxious way of speaking. A nice read
Profile Image for Julie.
3,528 reviews51 followers
March 4, 2020
I really enjoy Quinlan Vos. Was this the first appearance of Aayla Secura? Because man, she didn't get much screen time.
39 reviews1 follower
February 22, 2024
Pretty decent story, but I felt that it wasn't my cup of tea with everything. I enjoyed Grahrk a lot though.
Profile Image for Emma.
342 reviews
April 10, 2024
Quinlan Vos? Memory loss? Sign me up!! I really enjoyed this arc, and can't wait to find out the answers!
Profile Image for Yves.
689 reviews7 followers
July 18, 2012
Dans le tome précédent de la série Republic, on a fait connaissance avec le mystérieux Jedi Quinlan Vos. Celui-ci détenait un grand secret qui pourrait déterminer le destin de la galaxie. Dans ce tome, Quinlan se réveille dans un pièce en feu est il a perdu la mémoire. Peu à peu, il retrouve des parcelles de mémoire. Il comprend alors qu'il a une Padawan nommée Aalya Secura et qu'il doit la sauver.

Ostrander et Duursema sont à mon avis un des meilleurs du dans le monde de Star Wars. Ici, ils ont écrit une superbe histoire qui s'éloigne un peu des héros du Conseil Jedi et amène une nouvelle dynamique à la série qui était jusque là un peu endormante. Les personnages de Quinlan Vos et de Aalya Secura ont tellement bien marché qu'ils se sont retrouvé dans les films de la saga soit en citation (Vos) ou comme apparition (Secura).

Twilight est un nouveau souffle pour la série Republic.
Profile Image for Alex .
664 reviews111 followers
February 6, 2013
Star Wars Republic suddenly gets bloody good with the entrance of top writer Ostrander and his terrific creation Quinlan Vos, the Jedi ever walking perilously close to the darkside. The first issue, in particular is brilliant, but this story moves along at a cracking pace with twists, turns and great characters. Its one flaw is that it's possibly a little too brisk and 4 issues didn't feel like enough to really let the mystery of Quinlan and Aayla's amnesia and the plot that caused it, really breathe.

This one is pretty great though and, having read ahead, I know that it's just the start of a terrific tale featuring Vos and his possible predilection for all things dark.
Profile Image for Shawn Fairweather.
463 reviews4 followers
January 17, 2017
This is a continuation of the Quinlan Vos storyline a mysterious Jedi with an even more mysterious past who is still trying to fully regain his memory. Ostrander tends to be one of my favorite SW graphic novel authors and he doesnt disappoint here. The artwork is also up to snuff which adds to Ostranders story telling. This is added fluf to the SW Universe which takes place between Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. Is it necessary reading? No, but that doesnt mean that this should be ignored as it adds depth and world building. Thumbs up!
Profile Image for Noah Soudrette.
538 reviews42 followers
May 16, 2008
This is the first major story centering on the Jedi Quinlan Vos who has become a big fan favorite. This book is also written by John Ostrander who is probably the best Star Wars comic author out there. Not only is the exploration of a amnesiac Jedi interesting, the book has a great supporting character by the name of Grahrk, who is a wonderfully fun scoundrel. Recommended.
68 reviews2 followers
May 23, 2021
Fantastic introduction to the Character of Quinlan Vos. I loved being introduced to these now iconic expanded universe Characters. The devorian Character is incredibly fun, and the many twists and turns this story took made It worth while. Am excited to find out where Quinlans story goes from here.
Profile Image for Kurt Zisa.
390 reviews5 followers
July 9, 2014
Solid expanded Universe about a Jedi who has lost his memory.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews

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