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Star Wars: The High Republic: Eye of the Storm #1 is written by Charles Soule while Guillermo Sanna provides art, colors by Jim Campbell, letters by Ariana Maher, and cover art by Ryan Brown. Published by Marvel Comics, Eye of the Storm #1 is the first issue in the latest addition to the Star Wars: The High Republic multimedia project. Phase 1 of the project is nearing its end and fans have been taken back 200 years before the events of the films to experience all-new heroes but also, villains. Eye of the Storm #1 kicks off deep dive into one of The High Republic era’s most feared villains, Marchion Ro.
Over the last year, fans have seen how the dreaded Nihil have terrorized the galaxy in comics and novels, and yet little is known about the origins and motivations of the group. Where did the Nihil come from? How are they able to create such destruction and vanish without a trace? Who IS Marchion Ro? Crumbs have been laid out in the novels and comics alike but there hasn’t been anything yet dedicated to their story. Unlike the hive-minded Drengir, the Nihil has been both delightfully and eerily complex with its mix of personalities and organizational structure. As fans learn more and more about the group, it all comes back to the vision put forth by the Eye of the Storm.
Write Soule is no stranger to expanding the mythos behind villains in the Star Wars universe. In his work on the current run of Star Wars: Darth Vader he has single handily changed the way I see the mechanical Dark Lord of the Sith, a character with decades of lore behind him. In Eye of the Storm #1, Soule truly has a blank slate to paint a complicated yet intriguing look at a character in Marchion Ro who has already injected fear into the galaxy in a way similar to Darth Vader. In only a few pages into this first issue, Soule delivers.
Eye of the Storm #1 opens with Marchion Ro alone on the Gaze Electric. Ro takes readers on a flashback through time that details where the Nihil came from before they even called themselves Nihil. Panel after panel readers see the history behind the group that makes them more than just a group of raiders: punching home the details that other media has given about them. The emphasis on the Nihil being “the storm” is rampant throughout the books and comics. Eye of the Storm #1 shows readers why that is and is done well enough that by the end, I found myself sympathizing with their blight.
As one can expect from a group such as the Nihil, there isn’t anything “happy” that happens in Eye of the Storm #1. This is only emphasized by the harsh panels depicting the chaos that span two pages at times, adding to the weight of Ro’s narration. In his Star Wars debut, artist Sanna and the rest of the art team give beauty to the storm unfolding panel after panel in ways that I have scarcely seen before in a comic.
Eye of the Storm #1 gives readers the quick and dirty history all the way up to when Ro puts on his father’s helmet for himself. It serves as a great introduction to show someone who has never seen Marchion Ro before giving everything they need to know about the calculated and ruthless leader. At the same time, Soule gives early followers of the era more context to nuggets that have been dropped in other media. Given that the series looks to take place after the events The Fallen Star, I am eager to see where Soule takes Ro’s character. The stage has been set for Ro to embody all that has come before him and Soule has me more excited than ever to fall in love with the characterization of another villain in the Star Wars universe.
Star Wars: The High Republic: Eye of the Storm #1 is available now wherever comics are sold.
TL;DR
Eye of the Storm #1 gives readers the quick and dirty history all the way up to when Ro puts on his father’s helmet for himself. It serves as a great introduction to show someone who has never seen Marchion Ro before giving everything they need to know about the calculated and ruthless leader.
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