The Starbird Files

The Bad Batch Debuts On Disney+ on May 4th A whole host of new Star Wars content arrived on Disney+ on Star Wars day including the 75 minute debut of new animated series, The Bad Batch ( review ). Also released were the Simpsons short ‘Maggie Simpson in The Force Awakens From It’s Nap’, Star Wars Biomes and Vehicle Flythroughs. The surprise hit for me was Biomes, a slow tv drone style fly through of planets such as Hoth, Tatooine and Mustafar, which I have played more times than I can count already, my only complaint is that at 20 minutes it’s too short, I would love more episodes! Star Wars Celebration 2022 Moved Forward On 12th May it was announced that Star Wars Celebration 2022 was moving from it’s previously announced August to May 26th-29th. The convention had originally been scheduled for June 2020 but had been moved to 2022 due to the pandemic. It is unknown why the dates were changed again, and the change will be bad news for some fans but good news for others. Dave Filoni Pr...

  Writer: Daniel José Older Art: H. Tolibao, R. Nalty, J.M. Wood The 4th chapter of High Republic Adventures opens with Lula leading Zeen in a Jedi meditation, I really appreciated this, as even though she isn’t being trained to be a Jedi, helping her understand the force and not be overwhelmed by it is important. It paints the Jedi as more caring and open, even if this was Lula’s decision alone. The difference between where the two kids find themselves is stark, Zeen likes the Jedi but questions what they want her to do, which they seem perfectly accepting of, whereas Krix is afraid of the Nihil and feels he must do the things they want to stay safe with them. Each time he still seeks to avoid doing them, we see him hoping to avoid having to lure Zeen in with his message, and he tries to give the Mavenzz a chance to surrender - not something you would imagine Marchion Ro would do. In this issue we finally meet  Lula’s master,  Kantam Sy properly, as they join the oth...

  Writer: Cavan Scott               Art: A. Anindito, M. Morales, A. Leoni, A. Maher First off I want to shout out that cover. Phil Noto has been doing stellar work throughout this run but he outdid himself with this cover, even if Keeve holding a prone Sskeer with a BLACK header did give me anxiety. Cavan Scott has made an art form out of torturing us, and Sskeer over the course of 5 issues of the High Republic comic series. I’ve been interested in the character ever since that first concept art was revealed and this series has made him one of my favorites of the era, but so far there has been nothing but pain for Sskeer! The trandoshan continues to wrestle with the control of the Drengir, Keeve seems to be the only one who can break through to the real Sskeer. So it is particularly impactful when he reveals to her that his connection to the force has been fading since the start of the story. Sskeer instructs Keeve to perform a “Mind ...

  Victory’s Price by Alexander Freed (Del Rey) It may have only been July last year that I read Shadow Fall but it feels like it’s been a a lot longer especially with all the High Republic stories we have had. But I had really enjoyed the first two books in Alexander Freed’s Alphabet Squadron trilogy, so I was excited to get started on Victory’s Price. I did find it difficult to remember where we had left our team but I did remember my feeling that Yrica Quell had returned to the 204th to take them down from inside.  Shadow Wing are back at it, razing planets, this time planets loyal to other Imperial factions, and we get confirmation early on that Yrica does indeed intend to betray Soran Keize and the 204th to the New Republic. It took me a while to really get into the book with Alphabet Squadron so fractured, not that they’d exactly been tight to begin with! The many small skirmishes are frustrating, which was probably the point, but I found myself just wanting the book to g...

IDW The High Republic Adventures #3 By Daniel José Older Art by H. Tolibao, R. Nalty & J. Wood Issue three of Daniel José Older’s High Republic Adventures run reins in the pace to examine the relationship between the young leads, Zeen and Krix. We see both children sending each other messages and, thanks to so clever cutting back and forth, contrast their experiences with the Jedi and Nihil respectively. Krix is isolated and being pressured and manipulated by both Elder Tromak and Marchion Ro, where as Zeen is making friends with the padawan her age and the Jedi who treat her with kindness - Yoda brings baked goods! Krix betrays Elder Tromak to save his own skin after Marchion Ro discovers the Holoprojector that Yoda gave him, which Ro approves of even though he knows it was Krix’s - it is the kind of behavior the Nihil employ, and Krix connection to Zeen is much more useful to him. The Jedi decide to allow Zeen to stay on Starlight Beacon until her planet is safe and the Nihil dea...

  My hype for this show was low-key, but come the morning of May the 4th Be With You there I was at 8am waiting for it to drop, and I was glad I did as I wouldn’t have wanted to be spoilt for that opening. When the narrator said the words Depa Billaba, I lost my mind, and seconds later there was Caleb Dume - bit of an odd choice to not alter Freddie Prinze Jr’s voice, but on a second viewing it jarred less. This isn’t just a Clone Wars sequel, it’s a Rebel prequel as well! Which obviously leads to the realization that we’re going to see Order 66 again, which never doesn’t hit hard. We see that Crosshair seems to want to follow Order 66 whereas his brothers don’t, but of course Caleb escapes. I was interested to see the Bad Batch, although not super hyped but this feature length opener really sold me on the concept, in Clone Wars they seemed a bit silly but in the context of post-Order 66 in contrast to the Regs who are all under control it made me like them a lot more (Wrecker an...

Happy May the Fourth to you all, we all have stories of how we became Star Wars fans, everyone’s is different. Whether you were in the theatre in ‘77, started watching the Clone Wars series first or just watched The Mandalorian on DisneyPlus, there’s a part of the Galaxy Far, Far, Away made just for you. This is my Star Wars story. My first encounter with Star Wars was as a kid in the 80’s, I was just a little too late to see the Original Trilogy in the theatres (I was born in ‘79) and my first memory of Star Wars was a vhs recording from tv, to this day I can still remember where some of the commercial breaks were! I was in the sweet spot for Ewoks, and of course had a bunch of toys - an x-wing, the rebel transport and Millenium Falcon were all Christmas and Birthday presents. Going to Peter Jones newsagents, stationers and toys in Rayleigh was my favorite thing, toys were upstairs and my first stop was the end cap immediately at the top of the stairs which was covered in the Kenner f...