Summary: After years of coming up short against Swamp Thing, the Floronic Man has finally found a way to exact his vengeance on the Green.
Plot: In his finale Future State issue Ram V shows us that not only does he know how to infuse his plot with a truly epic (in the true literal sense) feeling but also the sense to keep it entertaining enough for a casual reader which is a rare feat these days. Ultimately though, two issues just wasn't enough pages to tell this story; I know all the Future State books are truncated versions of what was meant to be a year long event but this is the first book that truly shows the sad limitations of forcing that kind of a crunch on a story. It's plain enough to see the heights that Ram V wished to ascend to as there is a sense of longing that permeates every page as Swamp Thing embarks on not only a journey north to save humanity but also an introspective journey of self understanding of his own soul and the lack thereof in his own children. That journey alone is a lot to take in, and is a fertile ground for storytelling that could easily yield a ripe crop of stories for months to come(I couldn't help it folks) and yet it was sadly cut short. 

Instead of the planned year we get just this short month and a half and after just two issues, Ram V needs to wrap up too much to give you a truly satisfying read. There just isn't room in two issues time to allow the characters time to breathe, for motivations to become more clear to explore the fundamentals of how Swamp Thing created his own people and a classic supervillain plot to destroy humanity and in trying to do so despite the limitations Ram V has the unenviable position of trying to deliver what could have been top tier comic in an abortion of a comic event and sadly it just simply doesn’t mesh as well as you would hope. That said, this is the man who will deliver more Swamp Thing come March in a new ten issue series( although with out Alec Holland you can read more here) so although this book wasn't all it could be the sparks of creativity within it leave me very hopeful about the story that is to come. 

Art: In his final Future State foray Perkins does manage to deliver some great artwork, with a fantastic moody feel that is very fitting with a horror character like Swamp Thing. However, and for the same reasons the plot takes a hit, the visuals also fall victim to the massive undertaking of fitting so much story into too few pages. With so much needing to come together so quickly there's an inherent need for more dialogue and narration which  steadily chips away at the room for artistic expression. Again, though imperfect, there's enough fantastic elements here to easily make one excited to see that Perkins too will be returning to Swamp Thing in just one short month from now.
Grade:6.5/10 

Summary: Jedi Knight Keeve and her master Sskeer respond to a distress call but are too late to render aid but continue to look for the Nihl.
Plot: I almost dropped this after the terrible disappointment that was the novel Light of the Jedi (thoughts on that here) which this comic spins directly out of but stuck it out for another look...and although Scott provides some solid characterization I'm not sure there's enough else to keep me interested and a lot of that has to do with one of the issues I had with the novel: the Nihl just aren't an interesting threat. They're a bunch of pirates that brutally maim and kill to get what they want and don't have any real philosophy to them to make their motivations any deeper which is really bland. On top of that they aren't force users so they get mowed down pretty easily by jedi, as seen here, so no threat and no interesting characteristics makes them pretty uninteresting which really kills my motivation to discover more. It's a real shame Scott is hamstrung by the constraints of the High Republic event because he's a capable writer who's delivered some great Star Wars books in the past. 
Art: What's really disappointing is that Anindito's art is really fun to pour over. He has a really slick, cinematic look that not only really draws you into the big scenes but gives a real spark to the smaller more intimate scenes as well. It's just too bad that both he and Scott don't have a book worth their time. 
Grade:5/10

Summary: As a remnant of the Hyperspace Disaster appears over Trymant IV, Yoda and his cadre of Padawans find there's more at stake. 
Plot: Like Alec Worley's Smuggler's Run, Older's story here really proves that having the "Adventures" masthead on the top of your book and gearing your story towards a younger audience doesn't mean you can't tell a great story. Though it's plot of young Jedi getting involved in a pirate raid isn't terribly complex that doesn't mean it isn't a great read as what it lacks in complexity it more than makes up for with some really excellent characterization and unlike previous High Republic entries it doesn't get too caught up with world building. Usually, I hate to directly compare two comics when I review them as a story normally deserves to be considered on its own merits first, without being put into the context of the other contemporaneous books. However, as the High Republic is a massive cross over event across different mediums and Older's Adventures is coming out at the exact same time as another High Republic book, the eponymous comic written by Cavan Scott and the same month as the novel, Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule comparisons really just can't be escaped.

As you've seen from the review above, and the linked review of the novel my first impressions of the High Republic event weren't very great so I approached this book with a certain amount of trepidation however  Older’s High Republic Adventures ends up looking significantly better in the comparison, and it's not just because the bar is so low. Where as Scott’s High Republic basically throws you straight into the deep-end. assuming that you’ve read the kickoff book to the High Republic era, Charles Soule’s Light of the Jedi, and then just goes from there which results in a plot lacking the necessary context to draw you in, and while Soule himself spends nearly a third of his novel describing in excruciating detail an event which in the end of this doesn't actually have terribly much to with the threat faced by the Jedi, Older focuses on delivering a solid, self contained story which makes for a much better read.

Without being repetitive or loading the reader down with pages and pages of exposition, Older concisely quickly explains what is going on in the galaxy by playing out a similar event as the one that started Soule's novel which immediately grounds the characters in that greater context  of the event while not forgetting to give us time to understand our protagonists and their emotional states. By focusing on the characters involved and not making a big deal out of the debris or the pirates beyond their immediate threats Older successfully sidesteps the flaws that have plagued the other entries of the event and delivered the readers a fun Star Wars adventure in a unexplored era, which is everything the event promised.It’s honestly impressive, and I almost wish that Older had the main book, and Cavan Scott and Soule were given the side stories as he really seems to get how to use the plot elements much better than either of the other two writers.

Art: Okay, so the book must be a perfect ten right? Unfortunately not, and the problem is the art. Tolibao’s art is heavily lined, which isn't always a terrible thing as I'd say the same thing about Frank Quietly's work as well, but here it's taken to an extreme making even the young jedi look wrinkled and strange...while Yoda seems surprisingly less lined than normal. On top of that the back grounds are suspiciously un-detailed, making it look like the action is taking place in big empty areas...when it's supposed to be the most heavily populated city on the planet. In the end it's a shame this wasn't given to someone else, as while the art isn't so terrible so as to make the book unreadable it stops the book from being a true instant classic. 

Grade:8/10