"The Last Siege, The Final Truth" concludes the story of Jedi Quinlan Vos' betrayal of the Jedi, a story that began with Count Dooku's courtship of the wayfaring Jedi from Kiffu in Republic #49 (Clone Wars Volume 1: The Defense of Kamino). Over a period of five months prior to the battle of Coruscant, Republic forces lay siege to the city of Saleucami, where a CIS cell under the leadership of former Jedi Sora Bulq is cloning an army of Morgukai and training them in assassination techniques of the Anzati. Jedi Master Tholme infiltrates the Separatists' underground laboratories and carries out hit-and-run guerilla attacks, while a clone army ground assault is led by Jedi Master Rancisis and supported by Vos, Aayla Secura, Sharad Hett, Ausar Auset, Sian Jeisel, and K'Kruhk.
All the characters and all the story arcs of the past three years are gathered together here in a tale that easily beats Revenge of the Sith for complexity in character and story development. To cover his Separatist identity, Vos is forced into a fiery master/padawan duel in the lava-filled caves of Saleucami, a confrontation reminiscent of the Vader/Obi-wan showdown of Return of Sith. Vos must later take on Sora, his long-time rival for the favors of Count Dooku, and is again called to prove his loyalty to the Separatists by killing his lover Khaleen, who reveals the last great twist in this saga of duplicity and deceit.
As they have done throughout their series of adventures following Vos, Ayala, and Tholme, writer John Ostrander and artist Jan Duursema do a fine job of weaving together text and illustration, keeping the exposition pointed and crisp and letting the dialog and pictures carry most of the story.
No review is complete without ticking off a couple of weak spots, but there is little in this story with which to find fault, except perhaps the limited space given to Master Zao and the absence of Vilmarh Grahrk.
If you haven't read any of the previous Dark Horse Clone Wars graphic novels, this is perhaps not a good volume with which to start. But it's a fantastic one with which to finish.