What do you think?
Rate this book
Star Wars: The Clone Wars Graphic Novellas #7
Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Strange Allies
With so many Jedi Generals occupied with the Clone Wars, assignments that would usually go to Knights or Masters are falling to Jedi in training, in this case masterless Padawan Nuru Kungurama. The characters from 'The Clone Wars: Secret Missions' novels for young readers make the leap to comic pages in this full-length tale.
80 pages, Paperback
First published October 25, 2011
About the author
Ryder Windham
281 books173 followersRyder Windham is an American sci-fi author who has written over sixty Star Wars books, including novels, comics, reference books, and so on. He has also written junior novelizations for Indiana Jones movies. Since 1993, he has been working on Star Wars projects either by himself or with other authors. His reference book Star Wars: The Ultimate Visual Guide had been on the New York Times Best Seller list for three weeks in 2005. Although he has written lots of books, accepted interviews, and appeared at several fan-conventions, little is known about his personal life.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
September 26, 2022
*2.5
Some of these books go off track SO fast, I swear.
Before reading this, I wasn't familiar with Nuru Kungurama, but I do want to check out more stuff with him at some point. He was interesting, being a young, proficient Padawan without a Master. And his ally, Gizz, was a pretty good foil to him. The cameos from droid who wants to be a Jedi and Kit Fisto were fun, too. But the plot of this is nigh incomprehensible - Dooku and Savage show up, for some unknown reason, and then they're gone - and then there's an orphaned children plotline that shows up halfway through and takes over... whatever the main plotline was.
Also - I'm going to say it - there are exactly two female characters in this comic and they're both drawn with significant cleavage. Because they're both supposed to be love interest characters. I was almost willing to ignore the first instance, but if you're doing that for both of them... really? Ugh. Anyway. I am curious as to what else this series holds.
2.5/5 stars.
Some of these books go off track SO fast, I swear.
Before reading this, I wasn't familiar with Nuru Kungurama, but I do want to check out more stuff with him at some point. He was interesting, being a young, proficient Padawan without a Master. And his ally, Gizz, was a pretty good foil to him. The cameos from droid who wants to be a Jedi and Kit Fisto were fun, too. But the plot of this is nigh incomprehensible - Dooku and Savage show up, for some unknown reason, and then they're gone - and then there's an orphaned children plotline that shows up halfway through and takes over... whatever the main plotline was.
Also - I'm going to say it - there are exactly two female characters in this comic and they're both drawn with significant cleavage. Because they're both supposed to be love interest characters. I was almost willing to ignore the first instance, but if you're doing that for both of them... really? Ugh. Anyway. I am curious as to what else this series holds.
2.5/5 stars.
July 23, 2025
once again we have a breakout squadron story that hints at some grand scheme and complex plot and then fails to deliver. The oddest part about this was that it managed to not expland on any of the characters we already knew, nor advance any of the story that had been set up prior. all it did was take us on a subplot that somehow became an entire story, and expand on the character who's name I refuse to type. the title is also extremely misleading leading to nothing but confusion from start to finish. I will give it credit for its fast pacing and being fairly entertaining though
December 23, 2019
This is something I haven't seen in Star Wars media in quite some time: an author with pet characters. And boy does it do a number on this story. The first half of this comic involves Palpatine spending several *pages* reciting the thing Windham's Jedi character achieved in his previous adventures. Then he arbitrarily goes to pick up his rough-but-lovable street friend Gizz and they go on a new adventure. But even then, he never lets us forget that they've done this before. It gets in the way of the story.
Gizz lays it on a bit thick for my tastes, but I guess he's likable enough. Nuru, the Chiss Jedi, is barely there. If you were a fan of his previous adventures, I wonder if this would deliver again. Probably he was never that interesting in the first place.
The overarching plot here also makes very little sense. There's a convoluted conspiracy on the Separatist side but the Jedi decipher exactly none of it, and yet it seems to have no purpose other than having them figure it out within the span of this story. It's full of random and bizarre elements that somehow turn out to lead them to their goal. I guess that's The Living Force for ya!
Gizz lays it on a bit thick for my tastes, but I guess he's likable enough. Nuru, the Chiss Jedi, is barely there. If you were a fan of his previous adventures, I wonder if this would deliver again. Probably he was never that interesting in the first place.
The overarching plot here also makes very little sense. There's a convoluted conspiracy on the Separatist side but the Jedi decipher exactly none of it, and yet it seems to have no purpose other than having them figure it out within the span of this story. It's full of random and bizarre elements that somehow turn out to lead them to their goal. I guess that's The Living Force for ya!
July 17, 2017
This is the seventh in a line of graphic novellas that take place during The Clone Wars (coinciding with TV series of the same name). STRANGE ALLIES features a character from The Clone Wars: Secret Missions children's novels named Nuru Kungurama, a Padawan without a Master, who is teamed up with swoop biker named Gizz to protect a freighter as it makes it's way to a shipyard. Soon there are pirates and kidnapped orphans involved.
Knowing nothing about these characters beforehand, I was surprised that I liked this one as much as I did. The plot seems a bit convoluted, but that's is easier to accept because the characters are really enjoyable. Lots of action and humorous moments, I really liked it.
Knowing nothing about these characters beforehand, I was surprised that I liked this one as much as I did. The plot seems a bit convoluted, but that's is easier to accept because the characters are really enjoyable. Lots of action and humorous moments, I really liked it.
April 9, 2025
Set in 20BBY
It's in the midst of Clone Wars and this one is set after we get introduced to Savage Opress in Season 3, and it's an ok adventure story with a young Padawan that goes on a mission with his buddy and his team from previous series, the Padawan's name escapes me, and anyone else's too. Simply because it wasn't much of a story or anything that sticks with you.
Just an adventure of a random Padawan who's feeling like he's being force(ha)-fed to us by the writer as to make him known in the universe, the story was ok and the art was fine. You're not missing anything though.
I will say this, the dialogue reminded me a little bit of the old republic comics, which was a nice hit of nostalgia for a moment.
It's in the midst of Clone Wars and this one is set after we get introduced to Savage Opress in Season 3, and it's an ok adventure story with a young Padawan that goes on a mission with his buddy and his team from previous series, the Padawan's name escapes me, and anyone else's too. Simply because it wasn't much of a story or anything that sticks with you.
Just an adventure of a random Padawan who's feeling like he's being force(ha)-fed to us by the writer as to make him known in the universe, the story was ok and the art was fine. You're not missing anything though.
I will say this, the dialogue reminded me a little bit of the old republic comics, which was a nice hit of nostalgia for a moment.
June 19, 2021
Once again, my rule stands: the farther the main cast of "Clone Wars" is from the storyline of the graphic novel, the better the graphic novel usually is. As this one focuses on novel-exclusive characters, it's got a freshness to the plot and characterizations that most of the Anakin, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka stories lack, though the absence of context for our main duo DOES make the opening's exposition feel a little forced.
June 7, 2025
Ok, I really enjoyed this one. I want more of Nuru Kungurama.
This is more like book 5 of the Breakout Squad book series, and you should really read the books before reading the comic or some things just won’t make sense, but if you have read the books and you want more Breakout Squad shenanigans then this comic is great. 😄
This is more like book 5 of the Breakout Squad book series, and you should really read the books before reading the comic or some things just won’t make sense, but if you have read the books and you want more Breakout Squad shenanigans then this comic is great. 😄
June 3, 2021
Tries to interweave too much canon elements and don't focus enough in the story. The plot is quite dull.
September 22, 2023
It was nice to read about Nuru and co again, though the plot was somewhat average.
September 27, 2025
A good tale.
Happy Reading, everybody!
Happy Reading, everybody!
April 24, 2026
if you’ve read the Secret Missions series, it’s a cool treat to see Breakout Squad back again…but why did it have to be so dull and boring? 😭
January 29, 2018
Star Wars Legends Project #144
Background: Strange Allies was released in October of 2011, the seventh in a series of 11 graphic novellas connected to The Clone Wars animated show. It was written by Ryder Windham with art by Ben Dewey. Windham has written several dozen Star Wars stories, including the Clone Wars "Secret Missions" series that introduced the characters from this story. This and a very short Savage Opress one-shot are Dewey's only Star Wars work.
Strange Allies is set sometime during the second year after the Battle of Geonosis (21 years before the Battle of Yavin). It is officially dated at 22 years, but it shows Savage Opress as being in the service of Count Dooku, which maps exclusively to a very brief window during the 3rd season of The Clone Wars. The main characters are Nuru Kungurama and the other major characters of the Secret Missions series. There are minor appearances by Kit Fisto, Yoda, Dooku, Opress, and Chancellor Palpatine.
Summary: With Jedi resources stretched to thin to assign a Master, or even a Knight, to every critical new mission, Yoda reluctantly agrees to send Chiss Padawan Nuru Kungurama and his Breakout Squad on an escort mission through territory being raided by a ex-Trade Federation Neimodian pirate. However, as usual with Nuru's missions, nothing is straightforward and the young Jedi soon finds himself careening from one crazy adventure to another.
Review: I do like the idea of this a bit better than several of the other stories in this series: Featuring some fun second-string (well, maybe even third-string) characters that we would otherwise never hear from again. The art is great, and I really like being able to see these characters in action after reading about several of their adventures in the previous 4-book series. As a follow-on, it does little or nothing to add to the arc of these characters, and in particular the story all but ignores the clones and gives them nothing to do, but it's still nice to see the group back together again.
The story isn't terrible, but it suffers from some of the same issues that the series did. There are larger forces at play beyond Kungurama's ability to recognize, and as usual he never figures it out. I can't decide whether I prefer the way this story handles it versus the series. In the series, it was all interconnected as part of a massively overcomplicated plot by Dooku and Sidious that was far, far too elaborate to be even remotely plausible. Here, it's more just a sequence of one-action-scene-after-another and each thread is more or less abandoned when the next one crops up.
What we essentially get is two completely disconnected adventures that happen to be totally adjacent to each other. And I call them "adventures" . . . the first one plays out almost entirely without Kungurama's involvement at all. His initial mission comes to nothing partway through for reasons that no one seems very interested in figuring out (although we know why), and then he gets shunted into a totally irrelevant side-mission that ends up being much better anyway. Of course, there's a clumsy, "Hardy Boys" attempt to be all "Both missions were related the whole time" but it makes no sense whatsoever, and you'll wish they hadn't bothered.
If you read the Secret Missions series and got any enjoyment out of it at all, definitely check this out. Otherwise, I'd probably skip it.
C+
Background: Strange Allies was released in October of 2011, the seventh in a series of 11 graphic novellas connected to The Clone Wars animated show. It was written by Ryder Windham with art by Ben Dewey. Windham has written several dozen Star Wars stories, including the Clone Wars "Secret Missions" series that introduced the characters from this story. This and a very short Savage Opress one-shot are Dewey's only Star Wars work.
Strange Allies is set sometime during the second year after the Battle of Geonosis (21 years before the Battle of Yavin). It is officially dated at 22 years, but it shows Savage Opress as being in the service of Count Dooku, which maps exclusively to a very brief window during the 3rd season of The Clone Wars. The main characters are Nuru Kungurama and the other major characters of the Secret Missions series. There are minor appearances by Kit Fisto, Yoda, Dooku, Opress, and Chancellor Palpatine.
Summary: With Jedi resources stretched to thin to assign a Master, or even a Knight, to every critical new mission, Yoda reluctantly agrees to send Chiss Padawan Nuru Kungurama and his Breakout Squad on an escort mission through territory being raided by a ex-Trade Federation Neimodian pirate. However, as usual with Nuru's missions, nothing is straightforward and the young Jedi soon finds himself careening from one crazy adventure to another.
Review: I do like the idea of this a bit better than several of the other stories in this series: Featuring some fun second-string (well, maybe even third-string) characters that we would otherwise never hear from again. The art is great, and I really like being able to see these characters in action after reading about several of their adventures in the previous 4-book series. As a follow-on, it does little or nothing to add to the arc of these characters, and in particular the story all but ignores the clones and gives them nothing to do, but it's still nice to see the group back together again.
The story isn't terrible, but it suffers from some of the same issues that the series did. There are larger forces at play beyond Kungurama's ability to recognize, and as usual he never figures it out. I can't decide whether I prefer the way this story handles it versus the series. In the series, it was all interconnected as part of a massively overcomplicated plot by Dooku and Sidious that was far, far too elaborate to be even remotely plausible. Here, it's more just a sequence of one-action-scene-after-another and each thread is more or less abandoned when the next one crops up.
What we essentially get is two completely disconnected adventures that happen to be totally adjacent to each other. And I call them "adventures" . . . the first one plays out almost entirely without Kungurama's involvement at all. His initial mission comes to nothing partway through for reasons that no one seems very interested in figuring out (although we know why), and then he gets shunted into a totally irrelevant side-mission that ends up being much better anyway. Of course, there's a clumsy, "Hardy Boys" attempt to be all "Both missions were related the whole time" but it makes no sense whatsoever, and you'll wish they hadn't bothered.
If you read the Secret Missions series and got any enjoyment out of it at all, definitely check this out. Otherwise, I'd probably skip it.
C+
January 26, 2013
Expanded Universe (EU) Star Wars readers will note that there is no way in the galaxy that a Chiss Jedi would exist in the Old Republic. Maybe in the current Galactic Alliance, but even the odds of that are low. The Chiss, who live in the Unknown Regions (like beyond our own Milky Way galaxy), pretty much want nothing to do with the Galactic government or culture. But I’ll suspend my disbelief. Plus, according to Wookiepedia, Nuru Kungurama, the main character in Strange Allies, “was found in the Outer Rim Territories in an escape pod and was brought to Coruscant to train as a Jedi.” (NOTE: Don’t do a Wookiepedia search for this character if you want to avoid spoilers.) Apparently, Nuru first appears in The Clone Wars: Secret Missions children’s series (age 8+), which I had no idea existed until now, though I doubt I’ll read them because they're too “young” even for me.
I like Ryder Wyndham’s writing, whether it’s for graphic novels, which this is, or his Star Wars novels for young adults. Strange Allies is no exception. My favorite part is when Nuru and his “strange ally,” Gizz (yes, the 12-year-old in me kept reading it as “Jizz”) –- short for Gizman, a former swoop gang leader who worked for Jabba the Hutt –- rescue some orphaned younglings. The alien children were so incredibly cute, especially the Trandoshan, yes, a Trandoshan. Ben Dewey, did a great job of illustrating these young aliens.
I like Ryder Wyndham’s writing, whether it’s for graphic novels, which this is, or his Star Wars novels for young adults. Strange Allies is no exception. My favorite part is when Nuru and his “strange ally,” Gizz (yes, the 12-year-old in me kept reading it as “Jizz”) –- short for Gizman, a former swoop gang leader who worked for Jabba the Hutt –- rescue some orphaned younglings. The alien children were so incredibly cute, especially the Trandoshan, yes, a Trandoshan. Ben Dewey, did a great job of illustrating these young aliens.
October 1, 2014
A story of morals hidden within an action-packed graphic novelette. Things are not always what they "look" like, when a young jedi apprentice and his large merc friend take on a dangerous mission.
So many loose ends to this story detract from the good story-telling, as a moral-based tale is the emphasis here. I wanted to like this one, but too much was left hanging as the short story wrapped up.
So many loose ends to this story detract from the good story-telling, as a moral-based tale is the emphasis here. I wanted to like this one, but too much was left hanging as the short story wrapped up.
March 4, 2016
This was an interesting adventure set during the Clone Wars. None of the usual suspects like Skywalker and Kenobi, (except for Yoda) really show up. It's the story of a young Jedi sent off with his ragtag crew to save a freighter of droid brains that has been hijacked by pirates. Of course there's more to it than meets the eye!
Nice illustrations - written in graphic novel form.
Nice illustrations - written in graphic novel form.
June 16, 2013
Not essential reading but interesting.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews