Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Shipyards of Doom

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Graphic Novellas #1

by Henry Gilroy, Matt Fillbach (Artist), Shawn Fillbach (Artist)

Introducing a new, quarterly, graphic-novella series based on the exciting new Clone Wars motion picture and animated television series!

Jedi Knights Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and feisty Padawan newcomer Ahsoka Tano embark on a mission to uphold the Republic. In these early days of the Clone Wars, the Separatists are quickly gaining the upper hand with their incredible speed of manufacturing warships - the Republic has been forced to pull back their armies across the galaxy. The Jedi must infiltrate the Banking Clan Shipyards undetected if they hope to hamper ship production, and Anakin has the perfect plan...but getting in is just the beginning!

Genres: Star Wars, Graphic Novels, Comics, Science Fiction, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction

92 pages, Paperback

First published September 17, 2008

Reviews

[Sophie_The_Jedi_Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full RTC

[Sarah Ryder · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m sorry, but WHAT IS THIS COVER?!?! This has got to be the ugliest cover I’ve ever seen—like why the heck do Anakin and Ahsoka look so weird?!?! Obi-Wan looks the best but that’s not much of a step up.

Annnyways, as always, the artwork is not good but it sure beats the cover so it almost looks stunning by comparison, lol. The story is good if a bit rushed in places (for example, the slaves they’re trying to rescue have a bit too sudden of an about face, but whatever) though now I’m curious if this comic was written before or after Season 3’s “The Citadel” arc as in both they get in by being frozen in carbonite, not to mention Anakin and Ahsoka’s conflict is the same as well—so was this the inspiration for the episode, or was the episode inspiration for the comic?

And as always the Anakin, Ahsoka, Obi-Wan, Rex, and R2-D2 banter and teamwork is the best part about these comics and the reason I reread this one to give it a proper review despite the story just being okay.


‼️Content‼️

Violence: fighting with weapons, the Force, and ships (PG); a rat is vaporized by a radiation shield; big bugs attack and crawl on characters; bugs are electrocuted; a giant beast grabs and tries to eat a man; characters are electrocuted

Other: the Force (“magic”); slaves; death; characters are captured and chained up

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, I've been going back and looking at a lot of the early Clone Wars stuff in an attempt to work out the proper sequence of certain events. As such, here's the first in Dark Horse's line of digest-size Clone Wars comics!

It's the early days of the Clone Wars, and the Separatist Navy is producing ships at a rate that far outpaces the production abilities of the Republic. If the Republic can't slow Separatist production, the war is going to end quickly...and not in their favor. In an attempt to even the playing field, Obi-Wan, Anakin and his new padawan Ahsoka Tano take a strike team of clone troopers to the Banking Clan's automated shipyards as a scouting force for the incoming Republic bombing raid. Unfortunately, the automated shipyards are less automated than advertised, forcing the Jedi to find a way to evacuate the slave workforce before the bombers arrive.

On the whole, this was a fun little side adventure. The writing is solid, as you would expect from one of the writers for the television show this ties into. The art is more stylized, lower on detail than I would usually prefer, but it works well enough. The ties to the show are solid, and this easily slides into the niche between the Clone Wars film and the next onscreen appearance by these characters as Anakin deals with the fact that he almost got his padawan killed on her first mission, overprotecting her and making her feel like he doesn't trust her in battle. Ahsoka is a bit whiny, fitting in with her character at this point in the show, but somehow that was less annoying this time through. Maybe I've softened towards her due to her later awesomeness? Who knows. Anyway, if you liked the show, you'll enjoy this. If you're not familiar with the show, it won't do as much for you.

CONTENT: Mild to no profanity. Mild violence, usually against battle droids or occurring between panels. No sexual content.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Passt storytechnisch sehr in das Clone Wars Universum rein - actionlastig und witzig.
Aber der Zeichenstil ist halt leider echt ugly as fuck.

[Adam Kiewel · Rating 3 out of 5]

a little odd. it takes a concept that was actually used during the show, combined with a common theme of the show (which is using the worst possible planets for ideas- why would the banking clan start building ships???)

ignoring both of those points, the story was average.

[Trekscribbler · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Dismal" & "disappointing" are two adjectives that come to mind when I think of this CLONE WARS tale, SHIPYARDS OF DOOM. The story is more than a bit haphazard -- what starts out as a genuine mission then jumps from event to event with very little genuine flow -- as the Jedis don't always come off acting like the Jedis we all know and love. Granted, DOOM is intended for "young readers" so maybe I'm being a tad harsh on it, but as a "child at heart" I do expect a bit more meat & potatoes from my graphic Star Wars tales. The biggest plus is that does mesh fairly well artistically in the current CLONE WARS animated universe, so much so that it could easily serve as an 'adaptation' to one of the lesser episodes of the television show. All of the characters -- with the notable exception the Jango Fett clones (they all have essentially the same appearance whereas the clones on the TV show are given some individuality when it comes to hair color and styling and expressions), for some reason (perhaps this book was designed early, before the TV show had genuinely plotted out ways to make clones appear separate in unique ways) -- do strongly resemble their CGI counterparts, though Captain Rex's uniform is curiously missing most of his colorful detailing, a clear miss on the part of the book's artists. However, the writers do make solid use of some previous history within the Star Wars mythology, such as carbonite freezing, so the adventure isn't a total loss. Still, there have been vastly more interesting tales told in the universe spawned by George Lucas; the SHIPYARDS OF DOOM just isn't one of them.

[Phil Salomon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an OK story. It's a comic tie-in to the movie and tv series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, done in the style of the recently-ended Clone Wars Adventures, but telling a book-length story rather than 3 or 4 smaller ones. There's an interesting subplot about slaves having to be convinced to try to escape rather than just accepting their fate.

[Chad Hansen-Saunders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent story, terrible artwork. This one was featured as a storyline in the TV show.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 3 out of 5]

A copy of this came with my Blu-ray copy of The Clone Wars movie ten years ago, but I never finished this volume at the time. It was a weird period when I was falling behind on Dark Horse's then-current Star Wars comics (which I have been catching up on since then) and then tuning into The Clone Wars TV show week to week. This tale alludes to events of that movie and seems to take place right before the Malevolence trilogy. What's weird is that the carbonite freezing strategy would be adapted for season 3's "The Citadel," thus making it so that this comic would not really fit with the continuity of the show. The story itself kinda jumps around a bit much. There are some good moments of dialogue like when Anakin admits that he does need Ahsoka but wants to protect her, or when Obi-Wan ponders whether building a warship again but for the "good guys" is really a form of freedom. And there's a funny moment with a clone trooper named Toomer (an unfortunate name, though) having been frozen during the whole mission, thus missing out. He never appears in any later story, though, which is odd. I'm not really a fan of the artwork in this one. Feels too simplistic.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the closest either of these comic series has come to feeling like episodes of the show. That's not a particularly great thing in my mind, though the comic improves on it simply through lack of the obnoxious voice acting and stiff animation. It does the same boring thing with Ahsoka that the Clone Wars arcs always do, giving her this pat, anodyne "lesson" to teach Anakin instead of any real drama or history for her as a person. This one is maybe better than most, though? Feels like slapdash, if just as contrived.

More important, though, is the slavery thing. After slavery (and Anakin, Ahsoka, and Obi-Wan's respective relationships to it) was covered so relatively deeply in Gilroy's arc Slaves of the Republic, this one feels quite underwhelming even though it's sort of standard fare.

The overall setup here feels slightly more imaginative than most, the droid-only zone with the radiation filters, the carbon freezing entry tactic, the reveal of the slaves inside. It's all fairly engaging. I even thought the villain was decent, more competent and not as goofy as a lot of TCW Separatist leaders. It's just a long way from actually good.

[Tony Romine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first in a line of graphic novellas that take place during The Clone Wars (coinciding with TV series of the same name). SHIPYARDS OF DOOM follows Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Anakin's new Padawan Ahsoka. They are tasked with taking a group of Arc clone troopers and destroying a shipyard that is supplying destroyers for the Separatists. Once they get there they discover that slaves are being used to build the ships instead of droids.

It's a decent enough little comic that definitely captures the tone and spirit of the TV series it's based on. The artwork isn't the greatest and sometimes they used a lot of dialogue where a decent action scene or some exposition would have sufficed, but all in all not too bad.

[Shahna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a quick little read. I haven't watched the cartoon that this book is based off of, but it was still a nice little story that could fit into the overall story line of Star Wars. The illustrations get a little funny, and my only complaint is that I want more time spent on them. A little detail can go along way. 

I would say this is a good fit for kids just getting into the franchise. Easy to read and not to complicated to follow. 

[David T · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this tale Ahsoka her master, and his master must shut down the Banking Clans shipyards. Its funny because there is a span of Clone Wars episodes very simller to this. And this is not even the first time they have "reused" a plot like this. Ahsoka must learn a lesson along the way. Filled with "rich comedy", and "exsiding action". Its fun for all (unless you've never seen the show).

[Greg Kerestan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Dark Horse era Clone Wars comics are blessed with a solid writing style and immersive, more in-depth look at individual characters and moments, but cursed by extremely inconsistent and off-model visual stylings. "Shipyards of Doom" is overall a pretty good adventure, but some truly odd, almost grotesque renderings of Ahsoka early on throw a pall over the whole thing.

[Jedi Sunni · Rating 5 out of 5]

I personally enjoy a good Star Wars book that relates to life situations but does not get to involved in our real world. This book does a great job at that with the overall story line. I can definitely see the life lesson in this one. The art is simple yet adequate for this type book and story. I can't wait to read more. My overall rating for this book is a 4.8 out of 5.0.

[Dimitris Papastergiou · Rating 2 out of 5]

Same as the Smuggler's Code graphic novel, set in the middle of the Clone Wars and following Obi-Wan, Anakin and Ahsoka on a mission that basically nothing happens to change any outcome to the war, a light adventure and in the fun category of the whole clone wars thing. Some guest appearances from Dooku and Ventress but not much happening. An ok story overall.

[Chance Plata]

I really enjoyed the book, I really love all the action scenes and how the Jedi fight the separatist.
My favorite character is obi-wan because he is so smart and just a wise Jedi. I hope to find more books like this in the future.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought and read the English version. I didn't feel so bad for not understanding a lot of the German words now as there were a lot of things out of context. But it was a fun early adventure for the clone wars, Anakain learned Ahsoka was useful.

[Alyce Caswell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent adventure that outperformed several Clone Wars episodes of the day. The carbonite manoeuvre (insert Star Trek joke here) was really cool and I remember preferring its use here to its later appearance on the show.

[Josiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aside from the admittedly stodgy art, you’d not find this story out of place if it were on the TV.
Well worth a read if you’re a fan of the show.

[Gerek Tupy · Rating 5 out of 5]

More fun, with fighting, slave and feelings its so much fun. I think it was a great short read, that is unknown.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to say I much preferred this story to the other series. It has Ahsoka and was a continuous story, rather than issues. I' m definitely going to get more.

[Ken Yuen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feels like an expanded episode of the series. It's confusing because the carbonite trick is reused in the episode The Citadel.

[Jared · Rating 3 out of 5]

Star Wars Legends Project #136

Background: Shipyards of Doom was released in September 2008, the first in a series of 11 graphic novellas connected to The Clone Wars animated show. It was written by Henry Gilroy and drawn by the Fillbach Brothers. Gilroy was head developer and writer for the first season of The Clone Wars. The Fillbach Brothers did art for every single volume of the "Clone Wars Adventures" series, which was a tie-in with the Clone Wars animated series from 2003 (not to be confused with The Clone Wars animated series from 2008 . . . nope, not confusing at all).

Shipyards of Doom is set a few months after the Battle of Geonosis (22 years before the Battle of Yavin). The main characters are Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka, with minor appearances by a host of other regulars of this era from both sides of the conflict.

Summary: In the opening days of the Clone Wars, the Republic scrambles to get military production up to speed while the Separatists enjoy a comfortable lead with their smoothly-functioning war machine in full production. In particular, the Republic finds itself falling further and further behind in the production of warships. Anakin proposes a daring plan to infiltrate and sabotage the Banking Clan's shipyards, but the Jedi quickly run into more complications than even they may be able to handle.

Review: This story cannibalized some elements that didn't make it into an early story arc of the animated series, but then the series ended up recycling them back in for the Citadel arc in season 3. I open with this because it impacts the experience of reading this in two ways: First, although this was published as the animated series was just beginning to air, at this point I would expect anyone reading it to have already seen the show, and that gives the whole thing a weird sense of deja vu, because it's all quite a bit like a story you've already heard, but not quite.

Second, the chief idea that they borrowed back is an idea that I hate: No organics can make it past the Separatist blockade, so Anakin's daring plan is to freeze himself and Obi-Wan and a bunch of clone troopers in carbonite and then have R2-D2 fly them in. I hated it when I saw it in the Citadel arc, and I hate it here. The entire conceit of carbon freezing as it was first introduced in The Empire Strikes Back is that Vader wants to test the idea of freezing a live person on Han Solo to make sure it won't kill him so that he can use it on Luke later. Except apparently he already knows the process is safe since he used it on himself and a bunch of his allies a few decades before. This obnoxious carelessness with details just for the sake of landing a cutesy reference to classic trilogy stuff irritates me to no end.

The recycled bit that I did really like in this story was the bit where Anakin forbids Ahsoka from going, but then she bluffs her way into the mission anyway, though it was handled much, much better and more coherently in the show. In fact, the totality of the Citadel arc is definitely superior to the version here, which has our heroes facing off against a pretty lame nobody Muun overseer. He never feels all that intimidating, particularly while he's cowering before Count Dooku, and they managed to get the balance of that role a lot better in the show later.

You should probably be seeing a pattern at this point . . . it's impossible to read this and not draw parallels to the show that it shares so many elements with, and it just suffers by comparison.

I also did not like the art. This wasn't something that bothered me a lot in the Clone Wars Adventures, where the Fillbach Brothers' style felt like a good stylistic fit with that material, but here it just looks crude. They are particularly bad at drawing Ahsoka, whose appearance is both bizarre and wildly inconsistent throughout.

The overall product isn't bad taken completely on its own merits, but it's not great, either, and that makes it ultimately not very memorable or worthwhile.

C

[ashlabooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review ⭐⭐⭐
Ahsoka 1 - Dem Untergang geweiht

Wem dieser Titel bekannt vorkommt, der hat Recht: Es handelt sich um den Reprint eines The Clone Wars-Abenteuers von 2010. Durch glücklichen Zufall hat mein Co-Admin einige dieser Bände erst vor kurzem Jedi-Bibliothek auf rezensiert. Schaut doch auch dort gerne mal vorbei für umfassendere Bewertungen, die das Instagram-Zeichenlimit nicht zulässt 😉

Der Inhalt:

Als die Republik zusehends droht die Oberhand in den Klonkriegen zu verlieren, machen sich Anakin und Obi-Wan auf den Weg zu einer geheimen Schiffswerft. Ihr Ziel: Ohne großes Aufsehen die Produktion lahmlegen. Sie ahnen nicht, dass sie einen blinden Passagier an Bord haben...

Meine Meinung:

Der Autor Henry Gilroy liefert eine kleine nette Geschichte, die von Humor und dem guten Verständnis der Figuren lebt. Hier passiert nichts Galaxisbewegendes, sondern Leser können sich auf nostalgische Gefühle freuen. Der Comic erinnert stark an eine frühe The-Clone-Wars-Folge. Die Zeichnungen der Filbach Brothers sind speziell und werden sicherlich nicht jeden Leser ansprechen. Sie ähneln hier eher einem Zeitungscomicstrip. Im Band stecken ansonsten leider keine weiteren Überraschungen oder Erweiterungen. Wer „Dem Untergang geweiht“ bereits hat, bekommt den Comic hier 1:1 erneut geliefert.

Fazit:

Kleine nette Geschichte mit gewöhnungsbedürftigen Zeichnungen. Ein Spaß für The Clone Wars-Fans 😇

Werbung: Vielen lieben Dank an Panini für die Bereitstellung des Rezensionexemplares!

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

Since Atticus is *in love* with the Clone Wars series I thought I'd grab this for him. We spent 3 nights reading it as one of his bedtime stories. He required me to do the voice of Yoda (which I was much better at than I thought I would be!) and wanted to do all of the lazer sounds (since I was not satisfactory in that dept... according to him... whatever!).

This book was Great for the interaction we had but was just okay in every other way.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Suitable for children aged 8+ and those who watch the cartoons.
The republic have to destroy an automated shipyard that is supplying war ships to the separatists. The mission is not that simple. This is a fun story that has some nice moments with the padawan working out where she fits. A good read.

[Hillingdon Libraries]

Find this book at Hillingdon Libraries

[Ahdom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad little read. Pretty much like a lost adventure from the Clone Wars. It came with the DVD of the clone Wars movie. Not bad. Not great.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book Really enjoyed it.Good story line.Could see this into a movie.