While it's not really an art issue, they're at it again with the Greek alphabet. On the covers for "Infinity's End," Greek letters were substituted for similarly shaped, but phonetically different, Latin letters. This time, apparently, they are being used as ideographs, written upside down, right side up, and sideways in the word balloons belonging to tall skinny participants in the obligatory creature congregation scene, perhaps to create the impression of alien language transcribed in the language's own script, without unduly straining the letterer's imagination.

Doug Petrie's script consists overwhelmingly of play-by-play commentary by Yoshi Raph-Elan -- i.e., exposition. There's scarcely anything we see that isn't explained to us as we see it. Even while explaining so much, Petrie never bothers to explain such things as why young Yoshi is out in space alone in the first place, or even where he is: the planet he crashes on goes unnamed. No information is included that would establish this story more firmly in the Star Wars context and give it some depth.

The characters and situations are all fantasy genre standards, even clichés, recycled.

Yoshi is essentially a plucky but hapless young knight; stick him on any planet, anytime, with weapons iron-age or space-age, no one will notice the difference. Yes, Yoshi talks to himself. A lot. And being a Jedi and genderbender gives him a slightly novel spin, but . . . the latter characteristic might not be intentional, and Yoshi isn't much of a Jedi. His Force powers, unless genderbending is a Force power, are feeble, indeed, and rarely used -- he scales a tower wall Batman-fashion when a Force-leap would serve his purposes bette, his mind tricks fall flat, and his insights in combat do no more than get him shot up. Neither does he behave like a Jedi, at least any canonical Jedi: No sober-faced stoic of the Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan school is young Yoshi, but a perpetually surprised, face-making, wisecracking dolt.

And where there's a plucky young knight, there must be a damsel in distress, no? Enter Princess Lourdes, the beautiful princess who is a) in distress and b) very deadly -- a princessly trait no longer novel. She even comes equipped with a grumbling but loyal servant, in butler's garb straight out of the terrestrial 19^th century.

But how can this capable young royal be in distress in the first place? Enter the salacious alien menace -- in this case, very slug-like, which, in this context, means very Hutt-like, as mentioned above, and therefore a stock villain in a Star Wars tale, and doubly hackneyed.

There's even a Mechanical Monster for our heroes to contend with, a favorite, or at least well-used, since Victor Frankenstein's patchwork pal first gave folks a metaphor for science run amok.

And the situations in which Petrie places these characters -- a shipwreck in a strange land, an occupied and oppressed kingdom, an imminent political marriage, a celebration degenerating into a combat -- these were ancient when Homer was a wee lad. More recent, but still all too familiar, is a motivational hologram teased from a droid (a battle droid, but, strangely, nothing like those seen in Episode I), even if it shows Yoshi not a princess, but a princess's home.

Recommendation:

Is this supposed to be a spoof? It's not witty, or even funny. Surely it's not intended to be taken seriously? Its connection to the Star Wars milieu is superficial, at best: Subtract the lightsaber, the word Jedi, and the few references to the Force, and it's generic fantasy fare.

It's a one-shot; it's boring. Collectors will want it to keep the series complete; anyone else can as easily skip it, since it has nothing to do with anything else in the ongoing series, and nothing on its own merit to justify the $2.99 price.

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(Dexter's passion for Star Wars, still undiminished nearly a quarter-century later, began in May 1977, when a late-night showing of A New Hope set his young imagination ablaze. An avid action figure collector, he has been known to lurk about local toy shops at ungodly hours, in hopes of beating the competition to the latest wave of Hasbro goodies. When not tracking down the latest resculpt of Darth Maul or Qui-Gon Jinn, he devotes his free time to pondering the most efficient use of his dwindling free storage space. His other passions include his library, and writing.)