I've been following this series quite closely and the first two issues were really starting to build up to open warfare in the Star Wars Universe. Does issue 3 bring that or does it disappoint?

What it's All About... Luke Skywalker's New Jedi Order has been called in to help the evacuation of yet another world which has been attacked by the Yuuzhan Vong. Finn Galfridian, survivor of the invasion of Artorias, has not completed his Jedi training but Skywalker has allowed him to be part of the rescue mission. When Skywalker, the Jedi and some New Republic commandos land on the invaded world it is a dire situation. Some survivors are surrounded by Vong siege beasts, giant worm looking things, and a species controlled by the Vong called Chazrach. If they don't act quickly there is a great risk that this will turn into a massacre. Meanwhile Finn's sister is busy trying to engineer an escape attempt from the Vong slave ship she now calls home. As she gains the trust of the ships commander she is busy devising her and her comrades escape.

What it Does Well... The artwork in this edition is fantastic. It is the first issue to really show off a full on war zone and it looks great. The use of colour in the explosions gives them a movie look and they are quite impressive, especially the panel where the X-Wing crashes. Once again the story and the way it is handled continues to impress me. I like they way that you see it from the perspective of this one family, the Galfridian's, and the little things like Finn's commentary on Luke Skywalker's impressive Jedi abilities are nice. This issue did not feature as much of his sister but I think that will be a more common thing now as it looks like the next issue will focus heavily on his sister's plight so they are going less of a 50/50 split between the two. There were plenty of shocks along the way which kept things interesting for the reader. Also we finally got to experience a full scale war zone in Invasion and I liked it. There were X-Wings flying in for air support, there were crazy Vong siege creatures and there were heroes on both sides doing impressive things. I definitely liked this portrayal and I can't wait to see a proper New Republic fight back, maybe even a space battle.

What it Didn't... I really liked this issue, I thought it was well written and drawn but there was one segment that I think could have been removed. For about one page they show a friend of Finn's father who has been captured by the Vong on Artorias. He is having terrible things done to him whilst the Vong terraform the planet, which has not been explained yet, and we see some guerilla actions against the Vong facilities. You are lead to believe that Finn's father is leading these actions but you just don't know, it was too short a segment to really do much for me. I would have preferred it to be at the start of issue 4 and they expand on it for 2 or 3 pages so we can understand a little more about the situation on Artorias because it was a good idea, guerilla fighting on the planet, but it seemed like an afterthought for this issue.

Memorable Moment... (Massive Spoiler) When Master Le'ung gets killed. I didn't want to have to tell you this because it is a very shocking moment but it is also a brilliant moment in the comic. Le'ung is one of the New Orders Masters and a member of the Council so he should be a formidable Jedi. Unfortunately not much is known about the Vong and Le'ung is caught by surprise when a Vong warrior sneeks up behind him and spears him. The Vong, we discover, are invisible to the Force so the Jedi cannot track their movement. To see a Master killed so easily was just shocking and also says something about the power and the threat the Vong face to the galaxy, if they can dispose of Jedi that easily then what hope do the rest have?

What it All Means... Invasion #3 sees things get turned up a notch in terms of action and excitement. There are some big story shocks, some revelations about the moral character of certain people, some big explosions and plenty of cool Jedi action from Luke Skywalker. Aside from one minor story issue which made it seem like they tried to cram too much into one issue I thought it was great and I'm giving Star Wars Invasion #3 9 out of 10.