Prisoner of Bogan Part Three
Xesh, a powerful warrior attuned to the dark side of the Force, and Daegen Lok, a Je’daii obsessed with a vision of himself as ruler of the Tython System, have escaped from their exile on the dark moon Bogan.
Believing that Lok will want to reproduce Xesh’s powerful Forcesaber weapon, two teams of Je’daii dispatch to intercept the escapees. One group sets course for the crystalline world of Krev Coeur, the other for the toxic manufacturing planet Nox.
But the Je’daii are not the only ones seeking Xesh. Also on the trail is Trill, Xesh’s former brood mate,sent by her mysterious masters, the Rakata…
That’s how writer, penciller and scripter John Ostrander and Jan Duursema, inker Dan Parsons, colourist Wes Dzioba, letterer Michael Heisler and cover artist David Michael Beck set up the third issue of Prisoner of Bogan, but what’s in store for the readers?
The Review
After a fairly lackluster issue #2, Prisoner of Bogan #3 ratchets the action back up a notch or two with sword fights, mind tricks and forcesaber forging. While there’s still a fair amount of exposition to be covered, the series appears to be righting itself after a brief stumble.
Opening up with the Force Holocron introduced in the previous issue, Sendon and Tasha learn that an unidentified skull pulled from the wreckage of the ship that carried Xesh belonged to Rakata, a race feared even by the holographic image of A’Nang.
With this future plot point out of the way, the action jumps to Trill, in the caverns of Krev Coeur, tracking Xesh herself. She makes quick work of a predatory beast following her before the reader learns that one of the two teams tracking Xesh and Lok also are on-planet. One Je’daii search posses went to the planet realizing that its crystal deposits are necessary for the forging of a forcesaber, a mission Lok has been on ever since an earlier vision led him to believe that wielding such a blade of fire was his destiny.
While the ranger and journeymen trackers pursue the duo, the plot returns to the former prisoners and their captive/guide, Slug. A sniveling coward, he goes too far when he attempts to blackmail Lok into paying him to keep silent about his presence to any questioning Je’daii who might just happen to inquire. Lok unleashes a telekinetic bolt to crush the hapless fool into a wall of crystal shards when one of the team members, Zana, intervenes and saves the creature. Attempting to subdue the duo by herself, she is rewarded with Lok playing a “mind twist” that convinces the young women she literally is on fire, a trick so potent, her skin actually starts to burn. Xesh once again demonstrates his own brand of honor, stating such tricks are “not worthy of a warrior.” This innate nobility seems to suggest he eventually will come to accept the Je’daii philosophy himself.
The two remaining Je’daii, Sek’nos and Jake Fenn, arrive to even the odds. Fenn enters into single combat with Lok, and Sek’nos pairs off with Xesh. Xesh attempts to parlay their battle, thinking to repay the debt incurred by Sek’nos and his companions for earlier vouching on his behalf before the Je’daii Council. The fiery Sith pushes on regardless, believing his skill with a steel blade superior to the former Force Hound’s. Meanwhile, the ranger and disgraced Je’daii fight on, the upper hand darting between the two. Lok seems to have bested his opponent when he callously uses another telekinetic burst to throw Zana into a crevice, but Sek’nos leaps to her aid and grabs her just before she goes over a cliff wall. Unfortunately, the Sith looses his grip and must use a remaining Force blast of his own to shove the warrior back to safety as he seemingly falls to his death. Lok and Xesh use this distraction to escape themselves.
We then flash to the other group after the escapees. Shae and Jake’s sister, Rori, race through Nox headed towards the only place capable of actually forging a forcesaber now that the two seem to have all the necessary building components in their possession. Being Je’daii bad ass warrior babes, the stop on their way to save a young girl from a mutated slash rat, only to learn the child is prejudiced towards the philosopher warriors. Believing Sek’nos to have died in the fall that temporarily saved Zana, we quickly learn that Trill actually saved the Sith before he fell to his death, though she craftily disguises her true nature in an attempt to learn all she can from him. She informs him that he’s been unconscious for days and that the comms are out, thereby explaining why none of his companions have been able to detect him with the Force.
The issue closes with Lok and Xesh finally forging a new forcesaber. They’ve also changed clothes, which somehow takes about 20 years off of Lok’s face. Who knows, maybe he bathed and cut his hair, too. Some things are hard to tell in comics. Ominously, Lok tells Xesh they’ll need to raise an army to battle the Je’daii who had imprisoned them on Bogan, and he seems to know right where one can be found.
Overall, a pretty good issue. In addition to the increased action, the storyline moves much more rapidly after the overbearing back stories told in the previous issue. Also, the characters finally are starting to take a more definite shape. Lok continues to show a more and more malicious streak while Xesh repeatedly demonstrates that while he may be vicious, he still posses his own, very real sense of integrity. Hawk seems to have a little too easy a time channeling his anger into his purloined forcesaber. And why does the little girl whose life was just saved harbor such animosity for the Je’daii? For this series to have any longevity, it’s going to need these additional plot points and character shadings to keep things interesting. Issue 3 does all that quite well.
Next Issue: The Enemy Of The Je’daii Is My Friend!
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