craveonline

By Dante Maddox

Who would have thought that a bunch of annoying monsters from the beginning of a video game would be the central element in one of the biggest events in Star wars comics.

 The rakghouls, a seemingly mindless animal that’s bite can turn its victim into a rakghoul themselves, were thought to be a plague that occurred naturally of unknown origin. Little did they know that the beasts are created by a Sith artifact called the Muur Talisman. The Talisman had been on the planet Taris for an untold number of years, quietly turning the people of the undercity into vicious animals, until the Mandalorians attacked.

When Cassus Fett took Taris during the Mandalorian Wars, one of his subordinates found the talisman with dreams of domination in his mind. Once in his possession the Talisman began to take over the Mandalorian scientist and turn nearby Mandalorians into rakghouls. These rakghouls were not only intelligent, but they followed the directions of the scientist. Soon fighting between Mandalorians and rakghouls began to break out at the outpost planet where the Mandies were staging an attack on Alderaan.

In the midst of all this is our hero Zayne Carrick who is still on the run from the Jedi council and trying to clear his name. He’s being accused of murdering his fellow padawan learners, but the grim truth is that his own Master was behind the killing along with the rest of the padawans masters. He was on Taris when Cassus’ scientist found the Muur Talisman. This is where Celeste Morne comes into the story. Morne is a special Jedi agent that has been tasked with finding the talisman by the same murderous Jedi that are chasing Zayne. These Jedi act in secret from the rest of the order, and their motives are still very unclear at this point.

Celeste’s handlers have ordered her to retrieve the talisman and kill Zayne, but already he’s starting to grow on her and her senses tell her that something is amiss about the young man. While she struggles with her second thoughts, Zayne makes his way to rescue Gryph from the evil Mandalorian scientist who by this time is completely under the talismans control. Zayne winds up captured instead, but his decision making finally convinces Celeste that there is more to him than what her handlers have been telling her. She steps in to rescue Zayne from the talisman only to fall victim to it herself. The last thing we see are the rakghouls bowing to her.

Be sure to pick up issue 28 next month as Vector marches on through 2008.

Writer: John Jackson Miller
Pencils: Scott Hepburn
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Cover Price: $2.99
Series Issue Count: 3 of 12