With story problems
like this,
Dark Forces Part 2...
...NEEDS A BETTER
AGENT
Review by Scott Ryfun
Dark Forces: Rebel Agent
by William C. Dietz Illustrations by Ezra Tucker
published by Boulevard/Putnam and Dark Horse Comics
When last we left our Intrepid Critic, he was anxiously awaiting the release Dark Horse Comics’ second Star Wars Graphic Story Album, Dark Forces: Rebel Agent, based on LucasArts’ best-selling Dark Forces PC game series. While this intrepid reviewer was unimpressed with the overall plot and structure of volume one, Soldier for the Empire, as it seemed to be mostly expositional in nature, the prelude to a grand drama, I enjoyed the art quite a bit and thoroughly enjoyed the full-cast audio dramatization of the book. It seemed as though Rebel Agent was poised to turn heads and explode with exciting action and wonderful plotting guided by the nimble keyboard styling of Mr. William C. Dietz.
Alas, it was not to be. Star Wars: Dark Forces: Rebel Agent is kind of like getting underwear from Santa Claus at Christmas. You know there’s the potential for something great under that tree. You know that the most capable person around, Santa, has been charged with the task of pleasing you with a gift. You see the package under the tree, magnificently wrapped, you scramble to open it, and…blah.
ISN'T HE DEAD?
Once again, as in book one, we spend the first third of the book following the exploits of
our hero’s father, Morgan Katarn. Wait a minute! Wasn’t he killed at the
beginning of book one?
Well, yes, sort of…He was actually killed about a third of the way into book one, but I’ll complain about that in a bit. What we’re seeing is a flashback to an incident that occurs while Rebel sympathizer Morgan Katarn attempts to find a new home for hundreds of displaced Rebel activists.
During his trek, Morgan runs across a race of globe-like beings (think the bubble-sentry thing from The Prisoner and you get the idea) who tell him his presence fulfills a prophecy. Shortly afterward, he stumbles upon the entrance to the Valley of the Jedi, "a place of death, a prison full of unreleased spirits, and a repository of unthinkable power. Power so vast, so terrible, that it could extinguish a sun, plunge an entire solar system into darkness, and condemn billions to death. But only if it fell into the wrong hands." Exactly how that power could possibly be harnessed or how it could be as dangerous as it is said to be are never explained. Dietz simply uses the age-old parental mantra, "Because I said so."
In the present (which in this book seems to be about a year after the Battle of Endor), an ancient droid named 8t88 (get it?) is trying to entice Boba Fett into helping him gain information from Kyle Katarn (which is a Star Wars writing device I’m quite sick of; Boba Fett is a bounty hunter, not a mercenary! There may only be subtle differences, but there are differences.). The information, it turns out, is the access code for a disk that contains the location of a map to the Valley of the Jedi, as dictated by Morgan Katarn. Fett refuses, reducing his cameo to pointless pandering. So, without much backup, 88 decides to take Kyle on himself.
WHOSE STORY IS THIS ANYWAY?
Enter: Kyle Katarn, finally. He first shows his puss on page 44 (of 128), the second time
in two attempts he’s waited until the book was more than a third finished to
actually appear. He must be pacing himself. Anyway, a series of scuffles with the
Imperials ensues and shortly thereafter Rebel agent/former Imperial honor cadet Kyle
Katarn and his partner/would-be girlfriend Jan Ors find themselves back among the
Rebellion in possession of the disk. This leads to some more out-of-place, Boba Fett-esque
guest shots, this time from Luke, Leia, and Mon Mothma, none of whom speaks remotely like
the characters we've come to know.
Finally, very near page 100, Kyle is sent on his mission: recover the map to the Valley of the Jedi before 88 and the Dark Jedi Master Jerec find it. Of course, since thirty pages isn’t nearly enough space to tell an action-packed adventure, the rest of the book is reduced to chance encounters with a vast gallery of rogues (not the squadron) who are dispatched about a paragraph after being introduced. In fact, since Rebel Agent is based on a PC game, I’ll use some gaming terminology here; the "boss" of the book is a pair of Dark Jedi, Gorc and Pic, who share an indefinable symbiotic relationship. Rather than engaging Kyle in a Royal Rumble, as any reader would be led to believe is going to happen, Dietz disposes of them in a manner that seems to be a nod to one of the greatest moments of Raider of the Lost Ark. The moment, like Gorc and Pic, falls flat on its face.
THE WRONG THOUSAND WORDS
The illustrations this time around are by Ezra Tucker, whose style seems to be very
influenced by Greg and Tim Hildebrandt. The paintings are nice, but they don’t
contribute to the story in the way that Dean Williams’s did in Soldier for the
Empire. In fact, at times they outright contradict Dietz’s writing. One
character who loses his legs in the book is depicted legless in a scene that takes occurs
much earlier than his amputation. Another character is beheaded by a Dark Jedi for his
failure in a mission, but is shown by Tucker as losing his head (insert your own pun here)
in a skiff crash. Ezra Tucker is a good artist, whose work has an enchanting, storybook
quality; however, he doesn’t seem to have done more than merely skim the book.
As was the case with Soldier for the Empire, the audio adaptation of Rebel Agent stands head and shoulders above its print companion. John Whitman’s adaptation excises the unnecessary and heightens the understated, though not much can be done to strengthen the story itself. The production crew from the Star Wars Radio Dramas has returned (minus director John Madden) and created another audio triumph worthy of the name Tom Voegeli (I’m still waiting on the CD release, guys).
Soldier purported to be a stepping stone to a greater work to come. However Rebel Agent fails to deliver on any of the promises of the first book. Of course, the final book in the Dark Forces saga (unless Dark Horse decides to adapt Mysteries of the Sith, which is actually not a bad idea), Jedi Knight, is now in the works. The book will feature art by Star Wars legend Dave Dorman and will purportedly contain the final showdown between Kyle Katarn and the evil Dark Jedi Master Jerec, who killed Kyle’s father ("He tole me enough!"). Wake me when it’s over.