Exploring the Old Republic
This graphic novel (if we can actually call it that as graphic novels are generally not collections of comic books but rather stand alone stories) continues on from the cliff hanger at the end of volume 3 and comes to a partial conclusion with the death of one of Zane's enemies, though just before her death (I am not going to reveal who it is that dies) she realises that Zane is innocent and confesses (actually she knew Zane was innocent all along, but was convinced that he was a Sith, and it is through Zane's actions at the end that she realises he is not). Zane also confronts his old girlfriend whose brother was murdered, and she also comes to realise that Zane is innocent, though there is always that struggle between Zane's feelings for her and his desire to become a Jedi. As she says, she was always second base in case Zane did not become a Jedi.
As mentioned, the first half of this story finishes off the encounter with Adascacorp, who had discovered gigantic space worms and used cybernetic engineering to control them and turn them into weapons. However, having discovered the power of these weapons, Adasca decides that instead of giving them to the Republic, they would instead auction them off to the highest bidder, and thus invites a number of people, including the Mandalorians, to come to witness the power of these weapons. As can be expected this angers the Republic, since Mandalore offers Adasca a contract to supply them with their weapon technology. Mind you, I found the end of this story a little lame because it seems that all is lost for Zane after Adasca is defeated and Camper leads the worms off into deep space since he is still trapped on the ship confronting Lucian. Suddenly, out of the blue, Moomo arrives in a shuttle, tells him that Gryph is still alive, and rescues them. The Deus ex Machina may have worked for [author:Euripides] (and even then he is criticised for its use) but in general it does not make for good plot development.
The second part of this story returns Zane to Taris where he meets up with the underground resistance who is fighting the Mandalorians in an attempt to liberate the planet. Much of the action takes place at the depths of the planet as we learn that Taris is much like Coruscant in that it is pretty much one giant city where there is no real ground level like we understand the concept. Many of the buildings are connected by platforms and walkways and travel is mainly by foot or aircar. There simply does not seem to be the need for ground vehicles any more. Also the further down you go the more lawless the place becomes, meaning that if you are an honest citizen you simply do not go too deep on these planets. It is like in our world where there are parts of many large cities that people, other than the residents, do not visit. In the realm of Star Wars these places tend to be near the base of these city planets.
Here we learn that the Mandalorians are a nomadic race. They do not conquer to take over a galaxy rather they go to war for the love of battle. However they will not stay in one place for too long, always lusting after battle and always on the move. They have no real desire to set down roots. We also learn that the Republic, at least here, is not all honest and lovely. In fact all of the representatives of the Republic seem to be dubious at best. The admiral that we meet is not really a nice person, and seems to be one of Zane's enemies. This is not the Republic that we see in the movies, but even then it is suggested that the Republic we know is riddled by corruption and infighting. In fact the first movie (A Phantom Menace) begins with two factions fighting each other, which results in the Clone Wars.
