What do you think?
Rate this book
Star Wars Legends Epic Collection #17
Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Clone Wars, Vol. 3
Collects Star Wars: Republic (2002) #68-73, Star Wars: General Grievous (2005) #1-4, Free Comic Book Day 2006: Star Wars, Star Wars: Obsession (2004) #1-5, material from Star Wars Visionaries (2005), Star Wars Tales (1999) #17.
Tales of the legendary Clone Wars! Renegade Jedi Quinlan Vos has crept closer than ever to the dark side of the Force — and now he must not only confront his former student Aayla Secura and his old friend Obi-Wan Kenobi but also place his fate in the hands of the Jedi Council itself! Meanwhile, the newly knighted Anakin Skywalker and the evil Sith apprentice Ventress have become obsessed with defeating one another. Could this be their final battle at last? Plus: Discover the origin of the murderous villain General Grievous! The race to Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith begins here!
Tales of the legendary Clone Wars! Renegade Jedi Quinlan Vos has crept closer than ever to the dark side of the Force — and now he must not only confront his former student Aayla Secura and his old friend Obi-Wan Kenobi but also place his fate in the hands of the Jedi Council itself! Meanwhile, the newly knighted Anakin Skywalker and the evil Sith apprentice Ventress have become obsessed with defeating one another. Could this be their final battle at last? Plus: Discover the origin of the murderous villain General Grievous! The race to Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith begins here!
424 pages, Paperback
Published April 7, 2020
31 people are currently reading
153 people want to read
About the author
John Ostrander
2,087 books172 followersJohn Ostrander is an American writer of comic books. He is best known for his work on Suicide Squad, Grimjack and Star Wars: Legacy, series he helped create.
Originally an actor in a Chicago theatre company, Ostrander moved into writing comics in 1983. His first published works were stories about the character "Sargon, Mistress of War", who appeared the First Comics series Warp!, based on a series of plays by that same Chicago theatre company. He is co-creator of the character Grimjack with Timothy Truman, who originally appeared in a back up story in the First Comics title, Starslayer, before going on to appear in his own book, again published by First Comics in the mid 1980s. First Comics ceased publication in 1991, by which time Ostrander was already doing work for other comics companies (his first scripts for DC Comics were published in 1986).
Prior to his career in comic books, Ostrander studied theology with the intent of becoming a Catholic priest, but now describes himself as an agnostic. His in-depth explorations of morality were later used in his work writing The Spectre, a DC Comics series about the manifestation of the wrath of God. His focus on the character's human aspect, a dead police detective from the 1930s named Jim Corrigan, and his exploration of moral and theological themes brought new life to a character often thought of as impossible to write. He has also worked on Firestorm, Justice League, Martian Manhunter, Manhunter, Suicide Squad, and Wasteland for DC.
Originally an actor in a Chicago theatre company, Ostrander moved into writing comics in 1983. His first published works were stories about the character "Sargon, Mistress of War", who appeared the First Comics series Warp!, based on a series of plays by that same Chicago theatre company. He is co-creator of the character Grimjack with Timothy Truman, who originally appeared in a back up story in the First Comics title, Starslayer, before going on to appear in his own book, again published by First Comics in the mid 1980s. First Comics ceased publication in 1991, by which time Ostrander was already doing work for other comics companies (his first scripts for DC Comics were published in 1986).
Prior to his career in comic books, Ostrander studied theology with the intent of becoming a Catholic priest, but now describes himself as an agnostic. His in-depth explorations of morality were later used in his work writing The Spectre, a DC Comics series about the manifestation of the wrath of God. His focus on the character's human aspect, a dead police detective from the 1930s named Jim Corrigan, and his exploration of moral and theological themes brought new life to a character often thought of as impossible to write. He has also worked on Firestorm, Justice League, Martian Manhunter, Manhunter, Suicide Squad, and Wasteland for DC.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 21, 2021
The third volume of Star Wars covers the Clone Wars. Anakin has just become a Jedi Knight and the Clone Wars are raging.
This volume, mostly very well illustrated, covers some seminal events. From the origin story of Grevious, to the conflict between Asaj-Anakin and Obi-Wan. Underlying the entirety of the story is the fact that ALL OF IT was manipulated by Sidious. While the Jedi, wandering in a hubris laden daze, fall for every trick, Sidious keeps running them in circles. Plans within plans within plans.
A great collection of good Clone Wars stories. The vast majority of the art is top notch. This would have been a five star volume, save for the putrid two last stories. Still a great addition for any Star Wars fan.
This volume, mostly very well illustrated, covers some seminal events. From the origin story of Grevious, to the conflict between Asaj-Anakin and Obi-Wan. Underlying the entirety of the story is the fact that ALL OF IT was manipulated by Sidious. While the Jedi, wandering in a hubris laden daze, fall for every trick, Sidious keeps running them in circles. Plans within plans within plans.
A great collection of good Clone Wars stories. The vast majority of the art is top notch. This would have been a five star volume, save for the putrid two last stories. Still a great addition for any Star Wars fan.
May 30, 2020
The Clone Wars Epic collection has been a pretty consistent batch of comics since vol. 1. Obviously that speaks of just what a great cadre of authors Dark Horse had when it was sole proprietor of all the Star Wars comics stuff.
The third volume of the Clone Wars era of Star Wars doesn’t deviate too far from the norm that the previous collections established. Both Ostrander and Blackman’s stories are great, proving that both of these guys were clearly the right people for these issues. Sure, some of Ostrander’s other work with the Jedi prequel era was kinda lame, but, as he did in Legacy, his Clone Wars stuff is awesome. And Blackman’s work here is top notch.
This collection might also have the most consistent artwork of any of the Star Wars stuff. Duursema’s illustrations are gorgeous (though the various inkers throughout the issues kind of lessens it’s beauty), and, thought I’m generally not the biggest fan of Brian Chung, his work is well done with Blackman’s “Obsession” storyline. Even the “Visionaries” one offs are beautiful and different.
I almost gave this collection a 5 star review, making all 3 of the Clone Wars collections perfect, but, between Dixon’s General Grevious series (which I previously read a few years back) and the bizarre Wat Tambor and the Albino something or other I just couldn’t do it. Neither of these 2 stories are very good. Grevious isn’t flat out awful but it fails to really capture the titular character and it throws off the vibe/flow of this collection. Wat Tambor on the other hand is too strange and far too weird to be any good.
The third volume of the Clone Wars era of Star Wars doesn’t deviate too far from the norm that the previous collections established. Both Ostrander and Blackman’s stories are great, proving that both of these guys were clearly the right people for these issues. Sure, some of Ostrander’s other work with the Jedi prequel era was kinda lame, but, as he did in Legacy, his Clone Wars stuff is awesome. And Blackman’s work here is top notch.
This collection might also have the most consistent artwork of any of the Star Wars stuff. Duursema’s illustrations are gorgeous (though the various inkers throughout the issues kind of lessens it’s beauty), and, thought I’m generally not the biggest fan of Brian Chung, his work is well done with Blackman’s “Obsession” storyline. Even the “Visionaries” one offs are beautiful and different.
I almost gave this collection a 5 star review, making all 3 of the Clone Wars collections perfect, but, between Dixon’s General Grevious series (which I previously read a few years back) and the bizarre Wat Tambor and the Albino something or other I just couldn’t do it. Neither of these 2 stories are very good. Grevious isn’t flat out awful but it fails to really capture the titular character and it throws off the vibe/flow of this collection. Wat Tambor on the other hand is too strange and far too weird to be any good.
April 13, 2021
3.5 stars... there's some really good, fundamental stories in here and then also a lot of meh.
August 12, 2025
This was another volume of mostly really enjoyable Star Wars comics. There's an interesting mix with two miniseries, a fair chunk of the Republic ongoing, and some little bits of Tales and the Visionaries trade paperback originally released around the time of Revenge of the Sith.
One of the big highlights here is, of course, the comics introduction of General Grievous. There's some stuff from Visionaries about his creation, but the big thing is the General Grievous four part miniseries. While this is one of the big draws, I actual found it to be the weakest part of the collection. The basic idea of the story is overall good, showing a group of Jedi and others who have been harmed by Grievous deciding to hunt him down. It does feel like it does a good job of helping to set him up as a major threat for comics readers in the lead up to his film debut. And I liked seeing more parts of the war and a reminder that the CIS are pretty awful. But one of the base premises of the story is all the Jedi are getting kicked out of the order due to their focus on vengeance against Grievous, which just doesn't really work for me. I feel like in more normal times the order might have concerns, but given the Clone Wars has already cost the lives of many Jedi, it seems stupid to remove more from the order.
And it's especially stupid in light of the other miniseries in this collection, Obsession. Obsession is basically the same premise, only it's Obi-Wan being obsessed with taking down Asajj Ventress, and when it's one of the franchise's main characters, obviously he's not at risk of getting kicked out of the order. So on some level it's a classic one hand not talking to the other thing. Obsession fortunately end up being the real highlight of this collection for me. At first I didn't think I'd read it as a kid but as I kept going parts of it did come back to me, especially Anakin's fight with Durge on a derelict spaceship. The miniseries serves to show the final fates of Durge and Ventress, kinda doing the opposite of the Grievous miniseries - wrapping up characters from the cartoon in advance of them not being in the film. Obsession has a lot of good action and character moments, including Obi-Wan making it clear that he knows exactly what Anakin and Padme are up to. And it does make me curious whether there were ever plans to bring Ventress back in some capacity.
The Republic material is as usual pretty good and is focused mostly on Quinlan Vos's story. There's a great one off about Vos on the Noghri homeworld, finally showing the events that will become key to the original Thrawn trilogy. From there he runs into Anakin and Obi-Wan and finally gets let back into the Jedi order, only to prove that all he cares about at this point is finding the other Sith who's been manipulating events this whole time. This leads right into a story setting up one of the Outer Rim sieges mentioned in RotS, as well as revealing a thing that probably could've happened right at the start of these comics: the Separatists setting up their own project to create a clone army. Of course everything ends on a cliffhanger and a great page of Dooku and Sidious discussing how they're ready to get revenge, which makes me really excited to read the final volume in the near future. Plus, I finally realized that since I've been enjoying these Republic comics so much I should probably read some of John Ostrander's other stuff, so I've got a volume of his Suicide Squad on the way.
Overall, this was a fairly solid collection of stories. It continues to be a lot of fun revisiting this stuff from the Clone Wars era. And while I've been meaning to get back to my post RotJ reading, I am kinda tempted to read some of the post RotS comics since I also have fond memories of a lot of the Dark Times materials.
One of the big highlights here is, of course, the comics introduction of General Grievous. There's some stuff from Visionaries about his creation, but the big thing is the General Grievous four part miniseries. While this is one of the big draws, I actual found it to be the weakest part of the collection. The basic idea of the story is overall good, showing a group of Jedi and others who have been harmed by Grievous deciding to hunt him down. It does feel like it does a good job of helping to set him up as a major threat for comics readers in the lead up to his film debut. And I liked seeing more parts of the war and a reminder that the CIS are pretty awful. But one of the base premises of the story is all the Jedi are getting kicked out of the order due to their focus on vengeance against Grievous, which just doesn't really work for me. I feel like in more normal times the order might have concerns, but given the Clone Wars has already cost the lives of many Jedi, it seems stupid to remove more from the order.
And it's especially stupid in light of the other miniseries in this collection, Obsession. Obsession is basically the same premise, only it's Obi-Wan being obsessed with taking down Asajj Ventress, and when it's one of the franchise's main characters, obviously he's not at risk of getting kicked out of the order. So on some level it's a classic one hand not talking to the other thing. Obsession fortunately end up being the real highlight of this collection for me. At first I didn't think I'd read it as a kid but as I kept going parts of it did come back to me, especially Anakin's fight with Durge on a derelict spaceship. The miniseries serves to show the final fates of Durge and Ventress, kinda doing the opposite of the Grievous miniseries - wrapping up characters from the cartoon in advance of them not being in the film. Obsession has a lot of good action and character moments, including Obi-Wan making it clear that he knows exactly what Anakin and Padme are up to. And it does make me curious whether there were ever plans to bring Ventress back in some capacity.
The Republic material is as usual pretty good and is focused mostly on Quinlan Vos's story. There's a great one off about Vos on the Noghri homeworld, finally showing the events that will become key to the original Thrawn trilogy. From there he runs into Anakin and Obi-Wan and finally gets let back into the Jedi order, only to prove that all he cares about at this point is finding the other Sith who's been manipulating events this whole time. This leads right into a story setting up one of the Outer Rim sieges mentioned in RotS, as well as revealing a thing that probably could've happened right at the start of these comics: the Separatists setting up their own project to create a clone army. Of course everything ends on a cliffhanger and a great page of Dooku and Sidious discussing how they're ready to get revenge, which makes me really excited to read the final volume in the near future. Plus, I finally realized that since I've been enjoying these Republic comics so much I should probably read some of John Ostrander's other stuff, so I've got a volume of his Suicide Squad on the way.
Overall, this was a fairly solid collection of stories. It continues to be a lot of fun revisiting this stuff from the Clone Wars era. And while I've been meaning to get back to my post RotJ reading, I am kinda tempted to read some of the post RotS comics since I also have fond memories of a lot of the Dark Times materials.
October 25, 2023
Part of the Legends timeline, this collection picks up well into the Clone Wars as we follow Quinlan Vos in his perilous dance between dark and light as he tries to earn Dooku's trust and located "the second Sith". This collects Star Wars: Republic #68-73, the Star Wars: General Grievous miniseries, the Star Wars: Obsession miniseries, and a scaterring of other stories (primarily from Star Wars: Tales and Star Wars: Visionaries). While the random collected stories are hit or miss art-wise, the Republic issues and Obsession are top notch. The John Ostrander/Jan Duursema writing/art team for Republic is possibly my favorite creative team in Star Wars, and while a bit different, Brian Ching's art for Obsession is possibly my second favorite artist. A solid collection for the most part, this gives the legends origin of Grievous and the legends conclusion to Ventress (from before The Clone Wars animated show). Well worth the read.
January 28, 2022
Once again Ostrander does amazing work in the star wars universe. Love his set up towards the final end game of the end of the clone wars and the jedi purge.
For me the rest of the stories in this collection slowed down the pace and didn't keep my interest. Not the fault of the republic series, just the collection and the timeline it's telling. Probably would have enjoyed the collection more if It could just focus on republic.
Looking forward to the final issues of said series before it goes on to dark times but will have to find the issues individually as the next collection isn't out yet and I'm too impatient to wait
For me the rest of the stories in this collection slowed down the pace and didn't keep my interest. Not the fault of the republic series, just the collection and the timeline it's telling. Probably would have enjoyed the collection more if It could just focus on republic.
Looking forward to the final issues of said series before it goes on to dark times but will have to find the issues individually as the next collection isn't out yet and I'm too impatient to wait
January 14, 2022
General Grievous’ backstory. His crusades among the galaxy. Quinlan Vos back and forth between the council and Dooku. The war ensues. Hunt for Asajj Ventress. Anakin becomes a Jedi knight no longer a Padawan.
May 6, 2023
When the tales are written by John Ostrander with Jan Duursema art you know it’s going to be good.
Chuck Dixon has an alright miniseries on General Grevious.
Haden Blackman does one of his strongest outings as a writer but that still isn’t saying much, and his 5 issue run is merely mediocre.
Chuck Dixon has an alright miniseries on General Grevious.
Haden Blackman does one of his strongest outings as a writer but that still isn’t saying much, and his 5 issue run is merely mediocre.
March 10, 2021
Overall this was a good volume. I only skipped one set of stories.
Read
April 24, 2022I really liked it but I didn't love it, my favourite stories were Armor, Routine Valor, and The Grievous mini series.
September 29, 2022
Nice to see Grievous actually be imposing again.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews