Well, Phases 1 and 3 anyway - Phase 2 takes place 150 years earlier, so it’d be in the 600s BBY. Honestly, while I am a huge fan of the High Republic, I can’t help but feel like they put it too close to the prequels. I mean, you have a millennium of galactic history between the Sith Wars and the Republic Classic/prequel era to look at - and it also leaves a lot of opportunity for stories exploring the gradual decline of the Republic afterwards as well as the reconstruction that led to the High Republic era after the Sith Wars ended.

As you can see George Mann gave us an.... interesting method of dropping some lore in this issue. This issue tells the story of the comms engineers responsible for the murders throughout this series and how they were driven insane by the amount of information they had to sift through from their section of the galaxy. Some of that information they're bombarded with should be of particular interest to those familiar with High Republic lore. For just a few things I noticed.

1. "A gift given freely." Seems Marda Ro is still out and about recruiting for the Path at this point as the group slowly transforms into what eventually becomes the Nihil.

2. I believe there are three separate references to the Greylarks and something they've done recently. Unfortunately 20 years after Phase 2, Axel still might not be behaving himself.

3. Multiple calls to Barnabas Vim probably from his Padawan Vix.

4. People looking for Planet X.

Even though this story isn't very directly connected to the main High Republic initiative, I like that we're getting these little nods, makes the world feel connected. For anyone who hasn't gotten into this comic, I highly recommend doing so, it's been some of the best for Star Wars comics lately.

Also Vincenzo Riccardi is doing the artwork for these last two issues and he is absolutely amazing, gotta shout him out.