Battleground: Tatooine (Star Wars: X-Wing Rogue Squadron, Volume 3)

Key players in this comic areCapt wedge Antilles, Lt. Tycho Celchu, Elscol Loro, Admiral Ackbar, Lt. Wes Janson, Dllr Nep, Plourr Ilo, Hobbie Klivan, Windmere Wellen, the blond after wedge, Winter, with grey hair who is interested in Tycho, Huff Darklighter, Ko'Shak, Cazne'olan, Sixtus Quin, and Kapp Dendo.
The story here sets but some events in the Bacta War book.

The story here sets but some events in the Bacta War book.


A good read that could have been better   June 23, 2003
Battlground: Tatooine is the third part of the X-wing comic series, and you'll see why it has strong ties to the X-wing: The Bacta War novel, and why its description of Huff Darklighter as Huttlike is spot on.

After the spectacular art of The Phantom Affair, I found B:T to be shocking. The art has a sketchy, half-finished look that just was unacceptable. After all, people buy comics for the visual aspect, to see what they read. The Twi'lek faces were blurry and hardly varied at all, rendering facial expressions difficult to decipher. Background features were few and far between, and if at all, also vague and fuzzy. Who'd have thought Cazne'olan was that "photogenic"?

Unlike Masquerade and Mandatory Retirement, for example, the flow of frames and scenes were rushed and tumbled one after another. Where a scene should have ended at the bottom of the page, it often concluded mid-page, with the next scene the next immediate frame. While not confusing to follow, it wasn't good.

That notwithstanding, the dialogue was as you'd expect from fighter jocks and Intel agents: quick, witty and great, with some truly memorable lines. The Sullustan Rogue head-butting Dendo's midriff with a "They always forget the little people" comment just grins your face broad when Dendo knocks him back with a "Thanks for reminding me". Tycho's exasperation to Winter's indifference to his romancing attempts was another, when she quips how others have worked that out, he just took longer.

There were also some excellent touches in this comic: that brief POV from Fortuna's spider-droid perspective was fun, and the way Winter shoves Wedge on the floor at the end funnier still.

Overall, aside from what was poor art quality, a fine storyline and commendable dialogue, Kapp Dendo's scenes are just too good to pass up on this Rogue Squadron comic.


This is a good read   March 17, 2003
Battleground: Tatooine was the first X-Wing comic I had read after reading the X-Wing novels, and I was not disappointed. The art and coloring could be just a little better, but overall, it's a strong style that works well with the story.

The story itself is about the Rogues going to Tatooine to support Winter as she searches for a weapon cache that could place whoever finds it as the ultimate power on Tatooine. They do some running around chasing Imperials, and it has great fight scenes. The action is pretty consistant and evenly spread along the course of the story, so it definately isn't boring. My favorite thing about this graphic novel is that it begins Tycho and Winter's relationship. The artwork is the only thing that detracts from the rating of this story, and it's definately made up for in the strength of the plot.