High Republic – Shadows of Starlight #4 First Appearances

Star Wars: The High Republic Shadows of Starlight #4 by Charles Soule and Jethro Morales came out yesterday Wednesday, January 3rd, 2024. There was an interesting first appearance included in the issue.

See every comic, book, and variant for Star Wars: The High Republic Phase III here.

But before I talk about that first appearance I wanted to give a quick spoiler warning. If you haven’t read the issue and don’t want to be spoiled… now is the time to run away.

First Appearance of Baron Boolan

It seems the main purpose of Star Wars: The High Republic – Shadows of Starlight #4 is to introduce Marchion Ro’s new brain trust, the Ministers of the Nihil.

There are three of them and their purpose is to help Marchion Ro in his efforts to establish the Nihil as more than a band of raiders and make them a legitimate threat to the the republic through structure.

Ghirra Starros – The Minister of Information – Ghirra Starros was introduced in the High Republic Phase I Young Adult Novel, Star Wars: The High Republic – Out of the Shadows, and first appeared in a comic in Star Wars: The High Republic: Trial of Shadows #2. She’s a former Republic Senator who defected to the Nihil and became Marchion Ro’s love interest/plaything before earning her new title. Her role is to act as a politician and ambassador for the Nihil to advance their interests.

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General Viess – The Minister of Protection – Viess was first introduced in Star Wars: The High Republic – The Blade #2 but her first FULL appearance is generally considered Star Wars: The High Republic – The Blade #3 since she’s on more than one page. In the Blade, she’s the leader of a mercenary group that clashes with Porter Engle and Barash Silvain in Phase II of the High Republic. More than 150 years later she’s now serving under Marchion Ro as his military leader.

And then there’s Baron Boolan. His first appearance is in Star Wars: The High Republic – Shadows of Starlight #4 which came out this week.

Baron Boolan is Marchion Ro’s Minister of Advancement and is essentially a mad scientist like character who likes to test the boundaries of scientific research at the expense of morality. In other words, he performs experiments on test subjects even if it means torturing them.

Baron Boolan is credited for creating the Children of the Storm who are force sensitive beings who end up captured, multi, and experimented on by Boolan and the Nihil to make them more powerful and fiercely loyal to Marchion Ro.

However there have been some hints that they are actually more loyal to Boolan. Here’s a quote from High Republic author Cavan Scott from a few weeks back, “He [Baron Boolan] has secret bases throughout the Occlusion Zone filled with the results of his labors and prowled by the sinister Children of the Storm, who answer only to Marchion Ro. Or, do they?”

We see the first Child of the Storm in Star Wars: The High Republic Phase III #1 by Cavan Scott with the first appearance of Brother Lycos.

As it’s mentioned in this comic, Boolan is also going to perform experiments on the Nameless to make them more powerful and obedient to Marchion Ro. Boolan is familiar with these gross looking murder dogs as he was a member of the Path of the Open Hand in Phase II of the High Republic. Not only making Boolan well over 150 years old… but also familiar with Marchion Ro’s ancestors, Marda and Yana Ro.

Time will tell if this is a long lasting character and if this first appearance is a big deal or not. But It’s one of the more significant first appearances in Phase III of The High Republic thus far.

That’s all for now!

For light and life my friends!

Grand Admiral Babu