Review: ‘Star Wars: Tales From the Nightlands’ #3 Sees the Resistance Take on a Monster

The final issue of Dark Horse’s Star Wars: Tales from the Nightlands concludes the three-issue series featuring the monstrous Nightlander, designed by veteran concept artist Iain McCaig, who created the equally terrifying Darth Maul. The series is written by Cavan Scott with this issue’s art and colouring by Robert Hack, lettering by Comicraft and cover art by Francesco Francavilla.

The third issue follows the premise of the previous two with the Nightmare Conjunction (a concept first introduced in Scott’s Dooku: Jedi Lost) thinning the veil between the corporeal realm and the realms beyond. This event happens every 30 years, conveniently spacing out neatly between trilogies with the third issue moving into the sequel trilogy era. The heroes of the Resistance, still reeling from the Battle of Crait, arrive on a Twi’lek colony to offer aid in response to a distress call, which apparently was never made. This plot point is never fully explained and seems to serve no purpose other than to have Finn be frustrated and perform the classic horror movie mistake of stomping off on his own.

While Finn goes off, Daesha makes a return, being the connecting character throughout this trilogy of stories having gone from a child in the first issue to an elder Priestess in this story. She warns them of the danger, reminding Leia of her encounter with the Nightlander in the previous issue, and together they face the Nightlander in her most deadly form yet. This issue gets into the action quickly but also has a strong emotional core as our heroes face up to a creature that feeds on despair at a time when all that’s left of the Resistance can fit into the Falcon.

This issue brings the story to an exciting and satisfying conclusion. Leia in particular has some great moments and the art captures the full horror of the Nightlander threat and the fast-moving action sequences. You’ll probably get more out of this issue having read the previous two, but for this review I read this issue before catching up on the previous ones and didn’t feel lost, so it does work as a standalone. Whether you’re a horror fan or not (I’m not), this is a fun Star Wars story and an enjoyable read.

Rating 8/10

Star Wars: Tales from the Nightlands #3 will be available on Wednesday, December 10 wherever comics are sold. Thank you to Dark Horse Comics for providing the advanced copy used for this review.