OK, sure: so maybe the heroes of The High Republic spent most of 2021 having their fictional lives turned upside down, but in general, Lucasfilm’s new publishing initiative across comics and books has had such a strong year that it almost feels impossible to realize that the era–set 200 years before the Star Wars prequels–only really kicked off at the very start of 2021. Since then, across dozens of novels and multiple ongoing comic series, the creatives behind this newly revealed slice of Star Wars history have built a fascinating pocket of the galaxy far, far away that carefully weaves the familiar aspects of the saga that make it so enduring with thoughtful, exciting, and inventive interpretations of what it means to be Jedi, what the Force is, and what the Republic’s role in the galaxy should be in the first place. As everything seems to trend towards disaster as the High Republic begins an unwary descent into darkness going into 2022, its quality is anything but falling.
