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Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008 -2010) #1-6

Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Vol. 1: Slaves of the Republic

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Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi discover a dastardly plot by Count Dooku—to enslave the entire city of Kiros and its Togruta population!

Along with Padawan Ahsoka Tano—a Togruta herself—Anakin and Obi-Wan accept a mission to liberate the droid-occupied city. But the Togruta have disappeared! Our Jedi's search for the missing citizens leads them to a place in the galaxy where pirates and slavers reign. They must find the Togruta before Count Dooku can carry out his master plan!

Star The Clone Wars is a New York Times bestseller perfect for younger readers!

136 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2005

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About the author

Henry Gilroy

123 books11 followers

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5 stars
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
Profile Image for Etain.
489 reviews1 follower
October 15, 2023
That was actually very good, I enjoyed it alot it really exploded the grey area between Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader, his hatred for slavery was one of the parts of him even the empire couldn't undo and it sort of brings democracy into question, like in the star wars universe if there was a vote to end slavery, would it work? And even if it did go through slavers may just secede from the republic and continue it but a tyrant and a dictator like Darth Vader can't end it (for the most part) the zygerian queen was a pretty good villain too. On one hand I really wish that this was adapted into real episodes of the show but on the other hand I completely understand why it wasn't it's kind of wierd, it's kinky and depressing and light on action and extremely long, it's essentially the equivalent of 6 episodes and even if they reduced it to say 5 then it would still be tied as the longest arc in the whole show. It would have to be 3 episodes max which would be extremely rushed and even then where would it go? It's easy to say you can just replace the rougher season 1 episodes but they were produced first so this would end up just as rushed. Also it has a pretty fundamental storytelling flaw which is that the A plot ends in issue 5 and the B plot ends in issue 6 it's not too bad in this decadent comic form but it would have absolutely derailed any adaptive episodes. Still a must read for clone wars fans (especially season 1 fans)
Profile Image for Tyler Jenkins.
561 reviews
December 18, 2023
I didn’t realize this was basically just a retelling of an arc from the show but I enjoyed it all the same. It was a good arc. But if you’ve seen the Zygerrian arc from The Clone Wars then there’s no need to read this.
Profile Image for S—.
234 reviews7 followers
June 10, 2016
"I'd say the sacrifice is worth it, every single rotation. After the war is over, I want end slavery in the galaxy, I mean finish it once and for all."

"That's an awful big job. Maybe too big, even for us. But, you got yourself a deal, Snips. When the war is over we'll team up and wipe out slavery, once and for all."

"If you've taught me one thing over and over again, it's that one person can make all the difference in the galaxy. Whaddya say, master?"


When the war is over... right...


*One person can make all the difference? Like a certain deranged ajusshi named Darth Vader?


Profile Image for Adam.
998 reviews240 followers
December 14, 2019
I'm not sure I thought I'd ever see a Star Wars comic like this again. It's quite remarkable. Basically, it's the Orvax arc of Dark Times, with a bit of the Crucible from KOTOR thrown in. Or at least, it reminded me enough of those favorite arcs that I was almost giddy the whole time I read it. The twist is that this takes place during the Clone Wars (show!). Anakin, Ahsoka, Obi-Wan, and Rex, despite the fact that they command the most powerful army in the galaxy, are put in the power of a planet-wide slave system. The story isn't played like some shallow Clone Wars action sequence. There's some real bite here, some genuine disempowerment, moments of changed perspective. The snark and the banter are punished. The tone feels oppressive. The way the Togruta are treated here goes way beyond the kiddy jeopardy we see in most of the show.

More importantly, there's some thematic ambition to go with all that. Anakin's childhood as a slave comes up in his own arc but also in Obi-Wan's, as he learns to be empathetic for the way that experience changed his padawan. But there's also a larger question of will, submission, and power in service and alliance. The Jedi, placed in their role as infants and now obliged to lead an army of slaves (though the clones are pretty egregiously left out of even the subtext here) in a destructive campaign across the galaxy, regardless of their thoughts on the Republic and the war. The Zygerrians, losing their autonomy by submitting to Dooku and the Separatists in exchange for a grasp at power. Most intriguing but ultimately disappointing is Anakin's flirtation with the Zygerrian queen. I didn't really buy most of this, and the emphasis the story puts on it confused me at first. By the end, I could see what they were going for. She taunts him a lot about power and slavery, about throwing off the shackles of do-goodery he learned as a boy slave and seizing what he deserves for himself. If Anakin were just a random heroic Jedi like Obi-Wan, that might feel a bit trite, and it kind of does for Anakin too. But since Anakin becomes Darth Vader, throwing off the Jedi shackles in favor of a new slavery to the Emperor, there's some power there.

And I kind of have mixed feelings about how this was executed. I'm a bit relieved they didn't go for the "premonition of Anakin's coming darkness," something the Clone Wars has made trite in general. Except. . . this is maybe the perfect place for that. And instead, he doesn't really do anything. The bigger character choices are in Obi-Wan's story, where he has to learn to stifle his urge to help in the short term to preserve the long term hope (a lesson that far more gently foreshadows his own future). There's a phenomenal full-page montage where the Queen narrates the way the situation she has contrived for him will break his spirit. Overall, though, it didn't feel like the characters are quite sufficiently engaged with the themes and drama of the story. I guess it's hard for comic authors to get down into the perspective of their characters as much as prose fiction, but if they managed it, so many of these arcs could be so much richer.

So if this story had been tweaked a little, I think it would have been something really special. As it is, it's good but not great. It certainly stands above the crowd in terms of Clone Wars episodes, and it's funny that the show crew turned this idea down as too extreme but then Lucas liked it and made them make it anyway. So now this comic is not canon but the TV adaptation is. I guess I'll have to watch it and see how far it neuters the tone. I certainly don't remember anything this potent in my first watch of the show.

Also Dave is totally right that the Zygerrians in this art look like low-budget Star Trek crap. Their costumes aren't great either. But I'm not sure the Clone Wars has too much room to talk on that score.
Profile Image for Jedi Master Megan.
102 reviews58 followers
July 30, 2018
Eh it was okay. It was a good story and all, but I just couldn't help but compare it to the episodes based off this, which I thought was a little better than this. Whether it was the different ending or the more emotion you saw in the episodes, I don't know. This just didn't have the same feel as those episodes, which happen to be some of my favorite. I could go on and on about what they changed and what I liked better but you probably don't want to hear that so... It's okay I guess, but if you're really interested in the basic plot of this, I'd say to just watch the episodes. You won't be disappointed ;)
Profile Image for Greg Kerestan.
1,287 reviews19 followers
May 18, 2021
Not TOO much to say about this one: it's a longer, slightly edgier and definitely more sexed-up adaptation of the slave-planet arc from the original series. The pre-Marvel Dark Horse series are mostly Legends, but the Clone Wars imprints (some of them anyway) stayed canon, and that's why I'm delving into these now. Pretty solid stuff, but it feels way more prequel-quality than Clone Wars at its finest.
Profile Image for Mel.
3,523 reviews213 followers
September 6, 2019
This one was based on an episode arc which was a bit strange as the other stories had been original episodes. But it did help my reading comprehension having already seen the English version of the story a few times. I enjoyed it but would prefer the comics were original stories. The clone wars is the best period in star wars and there are just so many stories to tell.
Profile Image for Jade.
820 reviews9 followers
October 12, 2021
Child had borrowed this from the library and requested that I read this, as they had enjoyed it. I rather suspect the child was more into the pew-pew than the discussion of unwilling sacrifices versus willing sacrifices, and peaceful people being forced to take up arms in response to war.
Profile Image for Jack Robinson.
104 reviews5 followers
January 8, 2022
Read this for nostalgia. Remembered this comic from a magazine when I was younger and they had just released the Clone Wars in the UK and the film hadn't long been out. Purely entertainment and I'm happy with that. It's old comics like this that are getting me through being ill.
Profile Image for Alyce Caswell.
Author 18 books20 followers
September 21, 2023
There are some really great moments in this story - especially Obi-Wan's apology to Anakin about not understanding what he went through as a slave. This is a brilliant comic. So much so that I'm going to overlook the ridiculous pouty expressions that the artists drew for Ahsoka.
Profile Image for Josiah.
210 reviews
January 18, 2020
This was such a great read. It would’ve made a great arc in the series too.
Profile Image for ISMOTU.
804 reviews2 followers
January 1, 2021
Ahsoka must trust in Anakin and Obi-Wan to help her free her people from the grip of a dastardly slaver. Action-packed fun in a galaxy far, far away.
Profile Image for Jared.
407 reviews17 followers
March 6, 2018
Star Wars Legends Project #146

Background: Slaves of the Republic was released in six issues from September 2008 to May 2009. The trade paperback was published in December of 2009. It was first arc in Dark Horse's 12-issue "Clone Wars" run of comics (a run that was supposed to only consist of these 6 issues, but which was extended based on their success). The story was written by Henry Gilroy with art by Scott Hepburn, Ramón Pérez, and Lucas Marangon. Gilroy was the head writer during the first season of The Clone Wars animated series. Hepburn also drew for the three Clone Wars issues that followed this arc, and he did the Vector storyline for Knights of the Old Republic. Perez has a smattering of other Star Wars work, including the "Crash Course" Clone Wars graphic novella. Marangon is best-known for his hilarious "Tag and Bink" run of comics.

Slaves of the Republic is set over a year after the Battle of Geonosis (21 years before the Battle of Yavin). The main characters are Anakin, Ahsoka, and Obi-Wan. This story arc was later adapted for a 3-part series of episodes, with some significant differences, during the 4th season of The Clone Wars.

Summary: After Ahsoka, Anakin, and Obi-Wan lead an invasion on the Togrutan colony world of Kiros, they find that the colonists, millions of them, have mysteriously vanished. Suspecting that Count Dooku has sold them into slavery, they go undercover as smugglers in order to infiltrate the Zygerrian slave empire and free the lost people.

Review: I watched the episodes of The Clone Wars show based on this arc shortly after reading it, and while I could recount to you some of the differences between the two stories, I almost immediately lost track of which differences belonged to what source. There's probably some interesting material to be mined from parsing out the differences between the two versions, but that's not something I care to get into here.

With 3 different artists working on it, the art is a bit uneven, but it's not a major distraction from the story. At least, it isn't more of a distraction than some of the logistic questions that come up as you go along. The show is actually worse in this respect, but anyway . . . despite several references to a sizable number of colonists to be rescued, we never get a sense that the numbers are more than a hundred or so. There's a problem of scale, not uncommon to Star Wars, but made worse here by the fact that they reference numbers they have no hope of showing.

Minor complaints like that aside, there's some really good stuff here. There are one or two particularly fine action set-pieces. Ahsoka, as usual, gets the best role, though there's a nice segment that involves Obi-Wan forced to bury his natural Jedi instincts in order to protect the innocent. Anakin's segment is the weakest, which is weird on a few counts. On a surface level, there's a long, draggy bit where Anakin first pretending to be a slaver in order to get close to the Zygerrian queen, and then later is forced to remain in that role in order to keep his friends safe. It's this latter bit that is particularly baffling. Anakin and the queen have a totally bizarre relationship that makes very little narrative sense, and doesn't follow from any character development that I could identify.

Digging a little deeper, Anakin's story is the biggest missed opportunity of all. The title is a sharp reference to the Jedi and their status within the government they serve, as well as to the missing colonists, and their is rich material to be mined there. The story pays lip service to Anakin's past as a slave and the obviously personal nature of this mission to him, but then it proceeds to effectively do nothing with any of that. Anakin barely seems to struggle at all in playing nice with the slavers, both undercover and as their sort-of hostage. The best the arc can do is a bittersweet exchange between Anakin and Ahsoka at the end, a glimpse of a future we wish had come to pass.

I almost wonder if the story wouldn't have worked far better had Anakin and Obi-Wan swapped places. Obi-Wan is caught-out first pulling the kind of stunt I'd have expected Anakin to pull, and Anakin meanwhile handles himself with the suave, cool detachment I'd expect from Obi-Wan. Overall, I'd say the story also runs a bit too long considering how little it does with some of the opportunities it has. It's not half-bad, but could have been far better.

B-
Profile Image for Heather.
234 reviews
May 24, 2023
I'm not sure which came first, this version of this story or the version that aired on The Clone Wars show? But this story is very similar to that arc, though the look of the Zygerrians is completely different, and there are some elements of this story that differ from the show.

I enjoyed it very much as it is one of my favorite story arcs from TCW. The only thing that I didn't like as much was the art style - not my favorite but I didn't dislike it enough to take away a star (ideally I would give it a 4.5 due to the art style).
Profile Image for ashlabooks.
163 reviews4 followers
September 25, 2024
Review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Ahsoka 3: Sklaven der Republik von Henry Gilroy


Im dritten Band wartet ein besonderes Abenteuer auf die Augen von willigen Lesern - „The Clone Wars“-Fans könnte einiges bekannt vorkommen und doch manches neu sein.

Die Handlung:

Anakin, Obi-Wan und Ahsoka befreien mit Hilfe der Klone eine Siedlung von den Separatisten, doch die Einwohner sind verschwunden. Erst nach langer Suche wird offenbar, dass sie von den Zygerrianern, einer Alien-Spezies, die die alten Sklavenhalter-Dynastien wiederaufleben lassen will, entführt worden sind. Für Anakin ein höchst persönliches Thema - seinen Freunden lässt er keine andere Wahl als umgehend einzugreifen...

Meine Meinung:

Die Comic-Version des The Clone Wars-Arc hat einiges zu bieten. Die Story ist umfassend und tiefgründig. Mit den zygerrianischen Sklavenhaltern wird eine Spezies thematisiert, die auch von der Republik und den Jedi unzureichend in die Schranken gewiesen wurde. Somit wird umfassend eine Problematik aufgegriffen, die sonst in den Schatten der Galaktischen Republik lauert. Die persönliche Betroffenheit Anakins verleiht dem Ganzen zusätzlich emotionales Gewicht. Die Rettungsaktion selbst ist in TCW-Manier spannend und einfallsreich. Die Zeichnungen bestechen durch Treue zur Serienvorlage und kräftigen Farben.

Fazit:

Ein tiefgründiges und umfangreiches Abenteuer, welches wichtige Themen beleuchtet und gegenüber der TV-Vorlage noch detaillierter hervorsticht.

Werbung: Vielen lieben Dank an Panini für die Bereitstellung des Rezensionexemplares!
Profile Image for Angela.
2,595 reviews71 followers
September 22, 2013
The first graphic novel based on the cartoon series, suitable for ages 8+ and those who watch the cartoons.

Anakin's padawan's people have disappeared, taken by slavers when their planet was attacked by the separatists. This is a good story for all the characters, indeed it seems that one of the later series steals aspects of the plot. Obi Wan for the first time truly understands slavery and that's an important aspect to his character. A good read.
2 reviews
June 30, 2015
I absolutely loved it! It painted an amazing picture of the more exotic side of the star wars universe that is not often displayed. Also it is great to read the inspiration for the Zygerria arc in the clone wars TV series.
Profile Image for DC.
932 reviews
October 12, 2010
A fun story, very much in-line with the computer animated show - has a similar feel. I docked this story points for its inconsistent art work.
Profile Image for Brenna.
43 reviews2 followers
June 10, 2011
My favorite book ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Profile Image for Ethan.
1 review
June 11, 2012
I like the artwork and the story is just fine, but it isn't a five star book.
Profile Image for Cori.
706 reviews37 followers
June 28, 2016
Read for Togruta RPG role.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews

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