Knight Errant: Escape #5

Writer: John Jackson Miller
Penciller: Marco Castiello
Assistant Penciller: Andrea Chella
Inker: Vincenzo Acunzo
Colorist: Michael Atiyeh
Letterer: Michael Heisler
Cover Artist: Benjamin Carre

*** SPOILER WARNING ***

The lives of a hundred thousand children are in the hands of Sith maniac who thinks his destiny is to destroy the universe. He has within his possession a helmet which can enable him to fulfill his dreams. All he needs is enough anguish to make it happen. One hundred thousand defenseless children. Their sacrifice could destroy the universe. And Kerra Holt is helpless to stop him.

So begins Knight Errant: Escape #5, the last issue in the Escape arc. John Jackson Miller has cranked up the drama to maximum and the hammer is about to fall. Odion, Kerra, and Yulan are the main focus as the universe comes to an end. Running at full throttle, I really loved how this story played out. Fair warning, spoilers abound.

First off, John really had me wondering in the last issue about how deep into the darkness he was going to go. He set up 100,000 innocent kids for Sith slaughter. He painted Odion to be the most sinister villain ever. But there was a catch, and it was a brilliant one. Odion only needed the children to suffer. He did not need to kill them. Still, the impact of electrocuting or torturing this many kids would make this one of the most heinous acts ever in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Yet John figured a way out of it. Instead of physically harming any of the children, Odion just turned out the lights. A child’s worst enemy is their own imagination. It was perfect. Odion got the suffering he needed to power his helmet, and the issue pulled off a surprise for the reader. It also popped in a nice little dose of humor.

With Odion fully powered and ready to launch existence into oblivion, the next act of the story kicked into play. For a while now we’ve seen a subplot being developed for Yulan. We’ve seen him question things and Kerra has been working on him subtlety. Kerra used the most out of her captivity to break through to Yulan and convince him that life and death have meaning. Thus it’s Yulan, not Kerra, who saves the day. I’m glad to see he could be redeemed. It was a nice touch on the story.

As for Kerra, she seems to be finding her place in things. She’s matured to the point that she can work with Sith and even begin to accept them a little. Sith space is a hopeless mess, but she’s making the most of it and still making a difference. The death of her parents didn’t send her off on a quest for vengeance against Odion. Instead she kept a level head and saved the day. That doesn’t mean she showed mercy to Odion or his lackeys. I liked how she took advantage of Wayman’s distraction and plunged a lightsaber through him, eliminating the threat, then went on to let Odion die. It might not be the most Jedi thing to do, but practicality comes first, and Jedi have certainly made decisions like this elsewhere in the EU.

There is also one panel worth mentioning specifically. The scene where the helm backfires on Odion and bursts into flame looked awesome. The artwork really came together for that scene. It packed some serious emotional punch. There’s debris and fire flying around and Odion is at the heart of a full blown maelstrom. It had a nice epic quality to it. Definitely the highlight of the issue, but certainly not the only good piece of artwork. Odion had quite a few good shots and the final closing scene with Kerra was excellent.

With an excellent story and some cool artwork, I give Knight Errant: Escape #5 a solid five out of five metal bikinis. This was a great ending for the arc and the payoff was worth it. Hopefully we haven’t seen the last of Kerra Holt, as there is a ton of potential for her character, and Escape has shown there is plenty more to be seen.

Reviewed By: Skuldren for Roqoo Depot.