Charles Soule discusses writing Star Wars: The High Republic – The Blade, a Marvel Comics four-part miniseries set in Phase II of The High Republic, which reveals Porter Engle’s origin and shows him at his peak as an active Jedi.
Teaming with Marco Castiello and Jethro Morales,
ComicBook.com had the opportunity to send some questions about the series to Soule. Here’s what he had to say.
Photo: Marvel Comics
Can you tell me a bit about the creation of Porter Engle?
A great thing about the High Republic era of Star Wars: it gives many of its creators the opportunity to do something most Star Wars fans have imagined as long as they’ve been part of the galaxy far, far away… create their own Jedi. The High Republic is set a few hundred years before Episode I, in a golden age for the Republic during which the Jedi Order was at one of its peaks. So, you have many Jedi of many types running around having adventures. Porter Engle was a character I created for the very first High Republic story, my novel Light of the Jedi. I wanted him to be older, wiser, very experienced, semi-retired, but absolutely legendary. The sort of Jedi other Jedi speak about in hushed tones. When we first meet him, Porter’s working primarily as a cook at a Jedi Outpost on the far Outer Rim. He hasn’t drawn his lightsaber in a long time. But events spiral out of control, as they often do in Star Wars stories, and he’s called back into action. That’s when we see what he’s really capable of – he’s essentially a lightsaber “gunslinger,” capable of extraordinary feats with the Jedi’s ancestral weapon. He’s got a long, deep, history, though, and wasn’t exactly thrilled that he had to fight again. He thought he’d left it all behind. I created him primarily because I like that sort of archetype – the old warrior called for one last battle – and thought it might work well within a Jedi context. And so it has!
Was giving his history always part of the plan for the High Republic or is this comic something that came as a reaction to fan response to the first group of High Republic stories?
I always hoped to get a chance to do more with Porter, and while I wouldn’t say it was something we planned from the beginning, the opportunity presented by Phase II of the huge High Republic initiative (which is set 150 years before Phase I, where Porter was introduced) seemed like it could be a great chance to examine him in his prime. That said, if people didn’t connect with Porter and his story the way they have, I doubt I’d be writing more of his story. Like with many things connected to the High Republic, it’s been amazing to see the way fans have responded – not just to Porter Engle, but really to all of what we’ve created here.
Photo: Marvel Comics
What can you tell me about the premise of The Blade and what sets it apart from the other High Republic stories we’ve seen so far?
The Blade is a four-issue miniseries that begins to tell the story of how Porter Engle became the Jedi we met in Phase I. A legend to all the other Jedi, but deeply conflicted within himself about the things that built that legend. Here, he’s much younger, cocky and cool (as cocky as Jedi get, anyway – let’s just say he’s extremely confident in his own abilities). He’s traveling with a woman named Barash, his sister and a fellow Jedi, and they’ve evolved a sort of symbiotic approach to the way they handle Jedi business. Porter handles the saber, while Barash is deeply empathic, and helps to guide where that saber should be used. They travel the galaxy during the rough, unsettled era that is Phase II, helping to bring the light wherever they can. They get called to try to help a besieged city on a very remote planet, at which point things start to go off the rails. It very much has its own tone – it’s a Jedi story, but it’s also a war story, and a bit of a western, and a tragedy. The closest thing I’d compare it to is Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. I’m very proud of it, and the work Marco Castiello and Jethro Morales are doing with the art is wonderful.
Photo: Marvel Comics
What can you say about how The Blade fits into the overall tapestry of The High Republic initiative? Is this strictly an origin story for Engle, or are their other things being either revealed or set up?
It’s definitely giving a lot of backstory for Porter (and Barash), but it’s also setting up a very important element of Phase III. In particular, there’s a character introduced at the end of Issue 2, General Viess, who you should pay attention to. She’s very cool (and also awful).
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