Maythe Force Be With You
Cover artwork for Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures

Original generated cover art — not a reproduction of any published cover

CanonOngoingThe High Republic

Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures

The young-readers half of Phase I of The High Republic: a Jedi Padawan crew, a salvage gang called the Nihil and a great deal of Harvey Tolibao ink.

Thirteen issues from IDW between 3 February 2021 and 23 February 2022, written throughout by Daniel José Older, plus a Free Comic Book Day issue, an all-star annual and the Galactic Bake-Off Spectacular one-shot. It is the IDW companion to Marvel’s Star Wars: The High Republic, not a continuation of it. The line later moved to Dark Horse for Phases II and III.

Publisher
IDW Publishing
Published
February 3, 2021 – February 23, 2022 (issue dates below are on-sale dates)
Issues
13 issues + 1 annual
Format
Ongoing
Continuity
Current canon
Writers
Daniel José Older
Artists
Harvey Tolibao, Pow Rodrix, Toni Bruno, Manuel Bracchi
Cover artists
Harvey Tolibao, Kevin Tolibao

The verdict

The most confident all-ages Star Wars comic yet published, mostly because it never once behaves like an all-ages comic.

Publishing initiatives usually produce a junior tie-in that recaps the grown-up one in shorter words. The High Republic Adventures is not that. Daniel José Older got his own cast, his own corner of the setting and thirteen issues to run them, and the result reads as a load-bearing part of Phase I rather than a summary of it.

Older's trick

The trick is that the book is about apprentices, so being new is the subject rather than a concession to the reader. Nobody in the lead cast knows what they are doing, which means nobody has to be told things for the audience's benefit — the exposition is simply what a Padawan would be asking anyway. It is a structural solution to the oldest problem in tie-in comics.

Harvey Tolibao's line is the other half of it. This is dense, hatched, unfashionably detailed artwork on a book nominally aimed at younger readers, and IDW let him do it. Toni Bruno takes over for issues 8–10 in a much cleaner style and the switch is jarring, which is the run's clearest weakness.

Where it fits

Read alongside Marvel's Star Wars: The High Republic rather than after it — they share a timeline and a set of villains, and the crossover beats land better in parallel. The 2021 annual is worth the detour on its own: five short stories by Claudia Gray, Justina Ireland, Older, Cavan Scott and Charles Soule, which is effectively the entire High Republic writers' room on one book.

The line continued at Dark Horse for Phases II and III. Those runs are catalogued under their publisher; this entry covers the IDW issues only.

Every issue

Issue list — 16 of 13 catalogued

Number, title, cover date and credits. A dash means the field is not verified — not that it is empty.

Issue list: number, title, cover date, credits, story arc and notes
# TitleCover date WriterArtistCover artist ArcNotes
1February 3, 2021Daniel José OlderHarvey TolibaoHarvey Tolibao, Kevin TolibaoAn instalment of the IDW High Republic Adventures ongoing.
2Bralanak City SmackdownMarch 3, 2021Daniel José OlderHarvey Tolibao, Pow RodrixHarvey Tolibao, Kevin TolibaoAn instalment of the IDW High Republic Adventures ongoing.
3StarlightApril 7, 2021Daniel José OlderHarvey TolibaoHarvey Tolibao, Kevin TolibaoAn instalment of the IDW High Republic Adventures ongoing.
4The MountainMay 5, 2021Daniel José OlderHarvey TolibaoHarvey Tolibao, Kevin TolibaoAn instalment of the IDW High Republic Adventures ongoing.
5Showdown on the Junk MoonJune 16, 2021Daniel José OlderHarvey Tolibao, Pow Rodrix, Manuel BracchiHarvey TolibaoAn instalment of the IDW High Republic Adventures ongoing.
6July 21, 2021Daniel José OlderHarvey Tolibao, Pow RodrixHarvey Tolibao, Kevin TolibaoAn instalment of the IDW High Republic Adventures ongoing.
7August 18, 2021Daniel José OlderHarvey TolibaoHarvey Tolibao, Kevin TolibaoAn instalment of the IDW High Republic Adventures ongoing.
8September 1, 2021Daniel José OlderToni BrunoHarvey TolibaoAn instalment of the IDW High Republic Adventures ongoing.
9October 6, 2021Daniel José OlderToni BrunoHarvey TolibaoAn instalment of the IDW High Republic Adventures ongoing.
10November 17, 2021Daniel José OlderToni BrunoHarvey TolibaoAn instalment of the IDW High Republic Adventures ongoing.
11December 1, 2021Daniel José OlderHarvey TolibaoHarvey TolibaoAn instalment of the IDW High Republic Adventures ongoing.
12January 12, 2022Daniel José OlderHarvey Tolibao, Pow RodrixHarvey TolibaoAn instalment of the IDW High Republic Adventures ongoing.
13February 23, 2022Daniel José OlderHarvey TolibaoHarvey TolibaoAn instalment of the IDW High Republic Adventures ongoing.
Annual 2021December 15, 2021Claudia Gray, Justina Ireland, Daniel José Older, Cavan Scott, Charles SouleSam Beck, Jesse Lonergan, Jason Loo, Yael Nathan, Stefano SimeoneStefano Simeone, Jason LooFive short stories: “Set For Life”, “No Stone Unturned”, “First Mission”, “Crash and the Crew Do What They Do” and “The Haul”. Effectively the entire High Republic writers’ room on one issue.
FCBD 2021Attack on the Republic FairAugust 14, 2021Daniel José OlderNick BrokenshireNick BrokenshireThe 2021 Free Comic Book Day issue, 27 pages. Free Comic Book Day giveaway.
Galactic Bake-Off SpectacularJanuary 19, 2022Daniel José Older, Vita AyalaToni Bruno, Jo Cheol-HongJo GeyongA 32-page one-shot in which the Jedi enter a baking competition.

In print

Collected editions

No collected edition of this run has been catalogued here yet.