[Clone War Comics] Durge questions.

Crom · Post by **Crom** » 2005-06-04 08:04pm

I recently read a comic where Obi-Wan Kenobi accompanied a group of five or six distinctive Jedi on a special mission. There they encountered Durge (Wikipedia, SW.com Databank) who proceeded to kill them all off. None of the Jedi seemed to be particularly effective against him.

Of his numerous abilities I seem to recall him explaining that his senses, due to his physiology, were extremely enhanced making it impossible for someone to sneak up on him. While that's impressive I couldn't help but keep wondering how that could possibly compete with Jedi speed and precognition.

Of course since he was easily killing Jedi his super-senses must compare extremely well. One Jedi, in particular, tried to engage Durge in hand to hand combat. He got plunged head first into molten lava, which is really what he deserved when you think about it. I mean, lightsabers have minimal effect on Durge, but you can still hack pieces off of him.

And no one seemed to use their telekinesis against him. That really bothered me.

Even Obi-Wan Kenobi, who later in The Clone Wars defeated Durge single-handedly, was overcome and almost killed.

So five or six Jedi, each supposedly very good Jedi, were killed by Durge, and Obi-Wan escaped alive only by the sacrifice of another Jedi. And yet, again, Durge's performance in The Clone Wars was far from impressive. From a reader's perspective I suspect the author of the comic of wanking Durge up to make him more interesting.

But in-universe I have to wonder if Obi-Wan's skill improved as the Clone Wars progressed, or if the Jedi he was teamed with were somehow incompetent. Does anyone have any particularly good in-universe explanation that deals with that comic?

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2005-06-04 09:03pm

I hate Durge. He is wank.

Durge was specifically developed for the Clone Wars multimedia project to become the fierce new bounty hunter villain to follow in Jango Fett's footsteps. His peculiar alien physiology came about to answer the questions raised by his prowess. Specifically, how could he pose a threat to the Jedi if they could simply cut him down with their lightsabers? And secondly, if he is indeed so powerful, why didn't he become the template for the clone army? His scattered nervous system and regenerative abilities answered the first question. His extended hibernation trance answered the second.

Just look how BAD and blatent this is. "We need a cookie-cutter Jango Fett replacement (not to mention Jango Fett is just a Boba Fett for the PT by Lucas, itself shitty and derivative) for the EU!" Then make him basically physically invulnerable so the Jedi can't kill him - contrivance number one, and then make him convienently unavailable before AOTC - contrivance number two. It so bad.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-06-04 09:07pm

Bah, Durge was basically made of Tetsuo Shima's right arm. I thought his Clone Wars appearence sucked (as did the rest of the show's character designs, but his was way too simple and exagerated), but his comic/real action figure rendition looked cool.

But IP's right: he was too wankish.

President Sharky · Post by **President Sharky** » 2005-06-04 09:24pm

Meh. He gets a decent death at Anakin's hands in the Obsession min-series.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-06-04 09:26pm

Isn't that the one where he's basically reduced to a "RAR! RAR!! RAR!!!!" monster?

President Sharky · Post by **President Sharky** » 2005-06-04 10:09pm

Yes, and he is subsequently torpedoed into a nearby star. This also is demonstrative of Anakin Skywalker's TK abilities, as he manages to accelerate an escape pod to near-relativistic speeds, guide the pod over millions of kilomters, and accurately plunge it into a star.

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2005-06-04 10:14pm

How dare you insult this excellently crafted character! He's a magnificient warrior with the soul of a poet!!!

Okay, so maybe he was pretty wank, like the character the GM introduces when the heroes are getting too cocky in the campaign, but still.

Utsanomiko · Post by **Utsanomiko** » 2005-06-04 10:18pm

Kurgan wrote:How dare you insult this excellently crafted character! He's a magnificient warrior with the soul of a poet!!!

Okay, so maybe he was pretty wank, like the character the GM introduces when the heroes are getting too cocky in the campaign, but still.

Yeah, the kind of heros who are all Jedi raised by Wookiees (because the Empire killed their parents, naturally), and are busy slaying Stormtroopers on Tatooine and blowing shit up in their souped-up YT-1300. Oh, and Hand Solo or Boba Fett stop by every so often to deliver a badass line and tell them they're pretty cool too.

Galvatron · Post by **Galvatron** » 2005-06-04 10:42pm

Utsanomiko wrote:Yeah, the kind of heros who are all Jedi raised by Wookiees (because the Empire killed their parents, naturally), and are busy slaying Stormtroopers on Tatooine and blowing shit up in their souped-up YT-1300. Oh, and Hand Solo or Boba Fett stop by every so often to deliver a badass line and tell them they're pretty cool too.

Jesus, that's pitiful. Then again KOTOR was nearly as bad, yet I enjoyed it.

Also, is that Gauge as your avatar?

Crom · Post by **Crom** » 2005-06-04 10:52pm

Illuminatus Primus wrote:I hate Durge. He is wank.

Durge was specifically developed for the Clone Wars multimedia project to become the fierce new bounty hunter villain to follow in Jango Fett's footsteps. His peculiar alien physiology came about to answer the questions raised by his prowess. Specifically, how could he pose a threat to the Jedi if they could simply cut him down with their lightsabers? And secondly, if he is indeed so powerful, why didn't he become the template for the clone army? His scattered nervous system and regenerative abilities answered the first question. His extended hibernation trance answered the second.
Just look how BAD and blatent this is. "We need a cookie-cutter Jango Fett replacement (not to mention Jango Fett is just a Boba Fett for the PT by Lucas, itself shitty and derivative) for the EU!" Then make him basically physically invulnerable so the Jedi can't kill him - contrivance number one, and then make him convienently unavailable before AOTC - contrivance number two. It so bad.

I was not impressed with the creativity that created Durge either. Both Durge and Asajj annoyed me because it seemed that they were both wanked up to be more of a threat. The only logical in-universe explanation seems to be that a vast majority of Jedi in the comics were sub-par.

Even taking into account Durge's regenerative powers and unique nervous system, he should be no match for a Jedi.

God there was another storyline where some Jedi Padawans were on a planet torn apart by way and a completely normal human commander of the enemy successfully killed four or five Jedi Padawans. That just struck me as ridiculous.

Utsanomiko · Post by **Utsanomiko** » 2005-06-04 11:08pm

Galvatron wrote:
Utsanomiko wrote:Yeah, the kind of heros who are all Jedi raised by Wookiees (because the Empire killed their parents, naturally), and are busy slaying Stormtroopers on Tatooine and blowing shit up in their souped-up YT-1300. Oh, and Hand Solo or Boba Fett stop by every so often to deliver a badass line and tell them they're pretty cool too.
Jesus, that's pitiful. Then again KOTOR was nearly as bad, yet I enjoyed it.

Which would be on-par with the 'omgz lets all play wacky Rebels and fighte teh empire!' example setups sadly promoted by both WotC and WEG.

Also, is that Gauge as your avatar?

You bet her sweet ass it is.

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2005-06-04 11:13pm

Crom wrote:God there was another storyline where some Jedi Padawans were on a planet torn apart by way and a completely normal human commander of the enemy successfully killed four or five Jedi Padawans. That just struck me as ridiculous.

That was the battle for Jabiim, and the enemy commander only actually killed one Padawan, who he shot as she was stabbing him to death. He wounded another one, and got his leg cut off for it.

The rest were killed at various points during the battle.

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2005-06-04 11:43pm

Well, we know that with surprise on their side a squad of Stormtroopers can murder Jedi Council members... CANON! Then again, you could try claiming some shroud of the Dark Side shenanigans.

Anyway, at least in the other examples from the movies to beat a Jedi Knight you need either a kick butt Force user such as a Dark Lord of the Sith (Maul, Dooku), superior firepower+shields (Droidekas) or tricks and armor up the wazoo to augment a normal being (Jango, Grevious). That or superior numbers and bad tactics (Genosis arena). So yeah, in general, non-force individuals taking on Jedi need to be pretty high powered. Durge had to be extra wanky to be a threat due to the extremely high powered nature of the CW Jedi I guess.

Crom · Post by **Crom** » 2005-06-05 02:47am

Petrosjko wrote:That was the battle for Jabiim, and the enemy commander only actually killed one Padawan, who he shot as she was stabbing him to death. He wounded another one, and got his leg cut off for it.

The rest were killed at various points during the battle.

I seem to recall he stabbed a Padawan in the back as she was concentrating on the phrase, "Size matters not."

That entire storyline was painful to read.

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2005-06-05 05:04am

Crom wrote:I seem to recall he stabbed a Padawan in the back as she was concentrating on the phrase, "Size matters not."

That entire storyline was painful to read.

I just reread it, and you're right that he did nail one who was focusing on moving an AT-TE.

Not sure if she was a Padawan or a Master, but that part was legit... however, the lamest part of that particular panel was that if you look in the background there are a couple of Nimbus commandos just standing around like nothing is going on.

Cykeisme · Post by **Cykeisme** » 2005-06-07 03:55am

Next EU enemy: a giant Cortosis-armored monster Ysalamiri! That shoots sun-killing quantum pulse torpedoes out its ass!

Edit: Biotech sun-killing quantum pulse torpedoes!

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2005-06-07 04:53am

Not as bad as the new EU sith- A Super strong DS Yuzhan vong whose captured a number of jedi masters including Kyle Katarn (from the web site).

If you ask me in the comics any non movie Jedi have a nasty negative character shield,
For example: in one of the empire books Vader was in some trouble against a few dozen poorly armed thugs, he even got hit by a blaster bolt due to being overwhelmed and was bailed out by Boba Fett.

Cykeisme · Post by **Cykeisme** » 2005-06-07 05:00am

No kidding?

Weren't the Yuuzhan Vong supposed to have no connection to the For...
Oh wait, this is the EU we're talking about. Never mind.

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2005-06-07 05:20am

In the Unifying force omni the Jester was revealed to be the true leader of the vong and was using the force vergere style to make poisons[size=12][/size].
Jacen only defeated him by surrendering to the force, realizing that there is no dark side and becoming more powerful that he could possibly imagine.
The rest of the book was good though.

Cykeisme · Post by **Cykeisme** » 2005-06-07 06:14am

Ah, so there's no Dark Side. All those silly Jedi and Sith and their delusions.

I guess a lot of SW EU books are decent as books go, and there are a lot worse books out there.. so it isn't my point that they're bad books per se.
Just clearing that up.