The Bad Batch returns to Disney+ for season 3 this month on February 21st, 2024 with a 3-episode premiere. This will sadly be the final season of The Bad Batch and will likely lead to the death of a lot of characters we’ve grown to love from this show and The Clone Wars.
Here’s the trailer if you want a refresher…
In this post, I’m going to…
- Make a few predictions about what I believe will happen in the final season of The Bad Batch
- Discuss the characters who are either confirmed to appear based on the trailer and characters NOT confirmed who I think have a decent to great chance of appearing
- And what key issue comic books that comic speculators should be monitoring as we inch closer to February 21st
But first I have a quick note for the comic speculators and collectors. I am going to list out the key comic issues for each character that I mention in this post. I am not saying you should go out and buy them all up. I have not been paying close enough attention to the price of all of the comics listed to know what prices you should be targeting. Or if appearances in previous media have proven there is a market for the books.
READ NEXT: All Star Wars Comics & Books Coming Out Next Week
This is for entertainment purposes and I am simply creating a list of comics to pay attention to that MAY see a bump in value and a rise in demand due to their involvement in the show. Only buy what you want to buy at the prices you want to buy them at.
In other words, a comic is not guaranteed to go up in value because it’s on this list or the character appears in the show.
Now that that’s out of the way let’s dig in. I’m going to start by going through the characters I know will or think could appear in the show and then I’ll wrap it up with some big-picture predictions at the end.
But before we get started, be sure to follow @drunkwooky on Threads, Twitter/X, and Instagram.
Ready? Me too! Let’s do it.
Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, Echo, and Crosshair
First off, of course, they’ll be in this show. It’s about THEM. The main looming question about the 4 original members of The Bad Batch is whether or not Tech survived and was subsequently captured by the Empire. As much as I like Tech as a character, I hope he remains dead. We bring back characters far too often in Star Wars. Sometimes it’s a great decision, other times not so much. But we need to see that the stakes are real for actual heroes in the story.
Comics to watch:
Star Wars: Darth Vader #23 Lucasfilm 50th Anniversary variant by Chris Sprouse – The first cover appearance of Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, Echo, and Crosshair. They don’t appear in the story but this is their first time illustrated on a comic. See eBay listings.
Star Wars Hyperspace Stories #10 from Dark Horse Comics – The first full comic appearance of Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, and Crosshair. See eBay listings.
Omega
I separated Omega from the fellas above because she’s clearly different. Not only was she the final clone to join Clone Force 99 but she also does not have accelerated aging. So while she’s technically older than the other members of the Bad Batch… she’s, in reality, a child amongst adult soldiers.
To me, this entire series is about Omega. I think the Bad Batch was created all of those years ago as a vehicle to introduce her into the timeline and that she is the key player that will make it out of this story to have a larger impact.
I also think we’ll find out that she’s force-sensitive. The writers of the show have gone out of their way to highlight her importance. From the way Nala Se interacts with her to the great lengths, Lama Su goes to get her back after she flees. She’s referenced as a Phase 3 clone trooper and the only leverage that the Kaminoans had with the Empire.
UPDATED: See All Drunk Wooky Comic Variant Checklists Here
My opinion is that Clone Force 99 a.k.a. The Bad Batch were test clones used as experiments for creating genetically enhanced clones. With the end game of creating clones that can become Palpatine’s vessel to transfer his consciousness upon his death. Omega is the end-game clone for them. The key to their survival. The moment they cannot get her back into their control, The Empire destroys their entire species.
It makes a lot of sense when you think about it.
- Hunter has incredible tracking abilities and near-force-like intuition when something is about to go awry. He senses danger like average clones do not.
- Wrecker has unnatural strength and endurance. He’s basically the Juggernaut with a better attitude who loves stuffed animals.
- Tech is a genius who has elite-level problem-solving, technical, a strategic abilities
- Crosshair has the best shot in the galaxy and can hit targets that other soldiers can’t even see at the time.
And so far Omega has not shown any obvious mutations outside of being a woman version of Boba Fett. But she does show tendencies of what’s to come.
We’ve seen her
- make amazing shots with a blaster with essentially no training like Crosshair
- learn to fly and repair items quicker than most people like Tech
- and emulate Hunter’s intuition by sensing problems before they happen and tracking down enemies, beasts, etc. with ease
She picks things up quickly. And seems to be absorbing the abilities of her mentors. While this could simply be her learning from her brothers, since she’s considered more important than them by pretty much everyone in the show, I think there has to be more to her abilities.
Her being the initial vessel experiment from Palpatine would also explain this quote from the trailer from Palpatine.
“There is nothing of greater importance to secure the future of this Empire. Whatever is needed to accomplish this goal… you will have it.”
The only thing that makes sense for Palpatine to be referencing there is the Mount Tantiss project and Omega in my opinion. Palpatine is what kept the Empire together. If he could become immortal the Empire would be nearly impossible to take down.
In short, I think Omega is the original Grogu. A force user that is important to the ongoing process of trying to create force-sensitive clones.
Comics to Watch:
Omega has never been in an illustrated comic. But she will get her first cover appearance on the Women’s History Month variant of Star Wars Obi-Wan Kenobi #6 by Stephanie Hans. You can still order that on TFAW here.
Clone Captain Rex
Captain Rex has become the face of the Clones in Star Wars. He easily has the most screen time and is playing a huge role in the post-Order 66 clone storyline. He’ll likely spend this season “waking up” his brothers and creating his own squadron of free-thinking clones as the effects of Order 66 begin to wear off on the other clones as we saw in Season 2.
Comics to Watch:
Star Wars: Clone Wars #1 – First comic appearance of Captain Rex and Ahsoka Tano. It’s already an expensive book and I don’t think this show will do much to its value. But here are the eBay listings if you want to monitor them.
Clone Commander Cody
Commander Cody reluctantly worked with Crosshair and The Empire in Season 2 of The Bad Batch and will still have a role in this season. I think Captain Rex will get through to him and he will join the fight against the Empire.
Comics to watch:
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith #3 – The first appearance of Clone Commander Cody in a comic book. This is an adaption of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. See eBay listings.
Clone Commander Wolffe
Clone Commander Wolffe is seen in Star Wars Rebels alongside his brothers Captain Rex and Clone Commando Gregor. He’s also seen in the trailer. We’ll likely be getting the backstory as to how those three ended up living together during the Galactic Civil War.
Comics to watch:
Star Wars: The Clone Wars #8 – First full appearance of Clone Commander Wolffe. See eBay listings here.
Clone Commando Gregor
Unless I missed it, I don’t think Gregor was in the trailer but I do think that he’ll be in the show alongside Wolffe, Cody, and Rex at some point.
There are no comics to watch because Gregor has never been in a comic book. He’s a TV-only character at the moment.
Fennec Shand
In season one of The Bad Batch, Fennec Shand is sent by Nala Se to find and safely return Omega before Lama Su gets to her. Nala Se had developed motherly feelings for Omega and didn’t want her handed over to the Empire. Fennec ultimately failed as The Bad Batch stepped in and took her first.
But I do think that Fennec will play a big role in keeping Omega safe at some point in season 3. And hopefully, we finally get some backstory about her since we know very little since she first appeared in season one of The Mandalorian.
Comics to watch:
Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #8 – The first mention of Fennec Shand in comics. I don’t think this is ever going to be a big-money book but if you’re a huge Fennec fan it’s a fun book to have in your collection.
Star Wars: The Mandalorian #5 – The first full comic appearance of Fennec Shand. She also has her first cover appearance on the 1:25 variant by Rachael Stott. See eBay listings here.
Cad Bane
As I mentioned above, Cad Bane was hired by the Prime Minister of Kamino, Lama Su, to find and bring Omega back to him so he can continue his work on the Phase III Clone Troopers. Hiring Cad Bane for the job further illustrates the importance that Omega has in this story.
I don’t believe that Bane is loyal to the Empire at all but he was hired to do a job and will continue to do that job until it’s complete. He’ll likely be a thorn in everyone’s side before eventually giving up.
Comics to watch:
Star Wars: Darth Maul #2 – First full appearance of Cad Bane in a comic book. See eBay listings.
Star Wars: Darth Maul #3 – First cover appearance of Cad Bane. See eBay listings. See eBay listings.
Star Wars #55 Galactic Icons Variant by Rod Reis – This isn’t a key issue but people love it and it has become a prized variant for Cad Bane collectors. See eBay listings.
Asajj Ventress
This is the appearance that everyone is talking about. Asajj mother-kriffin Ventress is back! Which came as a surprise to many. Asajj dies in the book, Dark Disciple, leading many fans to wonder if the book was getting retconned for this story. But Lucasfilm was appropriately ahead of that reaction as they referenced the concern directly in this post on Starwars.com saying…
“We love Asajj Ventress. She’s a character that we’ve been wanting to tell more stories about,” Brad Rau, supervising director and one of the executive producers of the series, tells StarWars.com. And he makes clear that her return will honor prior tales, including the book in which the character perished. “We don’t want to spoil anything, but want fans to know that any new storytelling with Ventress will align with the events of Star Wars: Dark Disciple.”
See eBay listings for Dark Disciple (hardcovers are not cheap)
In Dark Disciple, Asajj Ventress, Nightsister & Dooku’s former apprentice, has become a famed Bounty Hunter. She trains Quinlan Vos in the Dark Side so that they can team up to kill Dooku. Something that the Jedi order surprisingly encouraged. Quinlan and Asajj eventually fall for each other, fail in their mission, and Asajj dies. Quinlan then takes her body back to Dathomir and lays her to rest in the water of life. This all takes place before the events of The Bad Batch Season 3.
But now it seems she’s not actually dead. Sure, her appearance could be a flashback, but I don’t think it is. I think she either was never fully dead (and Quinlan knew that somehow) or she was resurrected by one of the surviving Nightsisters who escaped the Massacre of Dathomir.
Comics to watch:
Star Wars Jedi: Mace Windu #1 (2003) – The first appearance of Asajj Ventress in comics. This is already an expensive book but a great collector’s piece for Ventress fans. See eBay listings here.
Star Wars: Republic #52 – First cover appearance of Asajj Ventress. See eBay listings here.
Star Wars: Republic #60 – Origin of Asajj Ventress. Lower priority than the two above. See eBay listings.
Star Wars #41 (2020) John Tyler Christopher Negative Space Asajj Ventress Variant – This recently came out and is not a key issue. But it rules and seems to be a big hit with fans. I could see people wanting it for the beautiful cover art.
Here’s mine that I got a few weeks ago…
Quinlan Vos
Now we’re in full speculation territory. I have no proof that Quinlan Vos will be in this show but I will do my best to explain why I think it’s likely here.
Lucasfilm has made it clear that Asajj’s appearance in Season 3 of The Bad Batch is intended to not erase what happened in Dark Disciple but rather expand on it. With that in mind, I cannot fathom that they would not include Quinlan in that story considering they were minutes away from leaving their lives behind and running off together. Their stories are intertwined heavily.
But more than that, Quinlan has been set up to appear in this show for years in my opinion. Here’s some evidence:
Quinlan and The Path: Quinlan Vos was mentioned in the Obi-Wan Kenobi show, after Kenobi saw his name carved in Aurebesh on the walls of the Jabiim hideout, as someone who helps “The Path” smuggle force sensitive people to safety. This is important because it makes it canon that he survived Order 66.
Quinlan has connections to Kashyyyk: In Legends Quinlan Vos was on Kashyyyk during Order 66. There’s a whole arc about it in the Star Wars Republic comics from Dark Horse. He was also supposed to be on Kasshyyyk during Order 66 in Episode III Revenge of the Sith, where he’s killed by his Clones, but the scene was cut. Here’s the animated mock-up that George Lucas had created for the death scenes.
The importance of this is that we’ve been to Kashyyyk in the show already. AND it involved smuggling Gungi, a former Jedi padawan, and Wookiee, back to his people on the planet. Quinlan wasn’t involved but to me, it’s setting up important locations and themes to connect this show to The Path.
Quinlan has a history with Cad Bane – In the Clone Wars show, while investigating the disappearance of Ziro the Hutt, Quinlan and Obi-Wan face off against Cad Bane who somehow escapes them. It would be a fitting place to have them Clash again.
I think that Quinlan and Asajj are going to play huge roles in Omega’s future in this show and possibly beyond. If I’m right, and Omega is force sensitive It would be amazing for Quinlan and Asajj to assist her in her escape from all of this madness. I could also see Gungi playing a role as well in this since he was only briefly in the last season and his future needs to be explored as well.
Comics to watch:
Star Wars 17 (2000) from Dark Horse Comics – The first appearance of Quinlan Vos in comics. See eBay listings.
Star Wars #19 (2000) from Dark Horse Comics – The first cover appearance of Quinlan Vos. See eBay listings.
Final Predictions for The Bad Batch Season 3
I’m going to keep this brief. But I think there are a few things that are likely to happen based on the trailer and where the story has taken us.
To me, this story will have a few main arcs that will happen in parallel and will all converge at the end of the season.
Crosshair and Omega work together to escape Mount Tantiss. It will be a struggle for both at first as Crosshair will insist he’s not like his brothers and will hold onto his angst. But, much like what happened with the audience, Omega will grow on him and they will escape with critical knowledge about what is happening there and the real purpose of the cloning project.
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Rex will build a team of enlightened clones who no longer wish to serve the Empire. This will include Wolffe, Howzer, Gregor, Cody, etc. Together they will start the Clone Rebellion against the Empire. One that parallels the main rebellion forming with the likes of Mon Mothma, Luthen, Saw Gerrera, etc.
Asajj Ventress and Quinlan Vos will introduce The Path to the story and we’ll get insight into how Jedi and force users have been escaping the Empire since the purge began.
As the stakes and tension rise this will all culminate with Darth Vader being called upon to squash the threat that can no longer be left unchecked. Leading to a battle between the clones and their allies vs. Vader and The Empire. I think every member of the Bad Batch and some familiar clone names die… but with their main goal a success. Keeping Omega away from the Empire and destroying/delaying project Necromancer and Mount Tantiss.
There will be other stuff and a lot of my predictions will be wrong. But either way, it sounds like a great time and I cannot wait to see how this all wraps up.
Until next time…
May the force be with you!
Grand Admiral Babu
