The Sequel Trilogy backstory begins.
Creative Staff:
Story: Charles Soule
Art: Will Sliney
Colors: Guru-eFX
Letterer: VC’s Travis Lanham
What They Say:
WITH BEN SOLO’S FALL… COMES KYLO REN’S RISE! Young Ben Solo is legendary Jedi Luke Skywalker’s most promising pupil. As the son of Rebel Alliance heroes Leia Organa and Han Solo, as well as Luke’s own nephew, Ben has the potential to be a great force for light in the galaxy. But the Skywalker legacy casts a long shadow, the currents of the dark side run deep, and Darth Vader’s blood runs in Ben’s veins. Voices call from both his past and his future, telling him who he must be. He will shatter, he will be reforged, his destiny will be revealed. Snoke awaits. The Knights of Ren await. Ben Solo’s path to his true self begins here.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As much as I enjoy the sequel trilogy of films, there’s a lot of poor and bad setup done in the films that wasn’t going to be dealt with until the trilogy itself was done. Charles Soule, who pulled off a fantastic Lando miniseries previously and some strong Vader work, sets us to understanding the origin period for Ben Solo more as he transitions to Kylo Ren. Working with Will Sliney, we get some really great work when it comes to the Knights and their armor, ship design, and more. I’m totally not a fan of Sliney’s version of Kylo but most of the comic interpretations have felt awkward or not right in some way so there’s a kind of consistency there I guess. Mostly, it’s a solid-looking book but the title character just does not come across well at all.
This installment largely takes place around the moments after Ben Solo has struck back against Luke and events have caused the temple they were all being taught in to be burned down. No signs of life are there beyond Ben, which are seen by a trio of Jedi apprentices that are returning from an off-world mission. They can’t believe what they’re seeing and even as Ben talks of what he’s done, they still don’t believe it for the most part. One of them, Voe, ends up challenging Ben as she believes he’s done what he’s said he’s done and is intent on stopping him from causing more problems. The other two get caught up in it more than anything else and it turns into a bit of a chase thing until Ben can get off-world and away, allowing him to reconnect with an unexpected-looking Snoke on another world, who is ready to help him find a place to fit in.
The book also gives us some time with the Knights of Ren, which were underused and explored in the films to the point of a throwaway device. Knowing that they operate under the command of the Emperor, we see them looking for new recruits and dealing with that at the start, giving us a look into their methods. It’s a nice setup and you can see how Ben will be a part of them eventually and drawn into the group on some level. But it really is all the material wit Ben that works so well here, showing us how he dealt with the aftermath of his panic and fear – which we know was nudged and whispered into his ear by Palpatine, manipulating him into what was needed. It’s not really deep or terribly rich in details bu it succeeds in fleshing out this event more, showing other Jedi that were in training that survived, and reveals more of just how conflicted Ben was at that point even as he became more assured of the rightness of his path.
In Summary:
Similar to what Soule has done in other Star Wars works, I’m hopeful he can take the couple of wispy strings and sentences that exist regarding all of this and make something engaging and interesting with it – and with the Knights of Ren. The potential is there and I definitely see it in some of what’s going on here, especially since so much of what we saw in the film was a matter of perspective from who told it. I like seeing that there were other apprentices that survived as it opens some new paths as does his running to Snoke all while the Emperor is pulling the strings from behind the scenes. There’s plenty of places this can go and I’m excited to see what Soule has in store.
Grade:
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: December 18th, 2019
MSRP: $4.99