“The Invasion of Syrinx Prime”
Creative Staff:
Story: Marc Guggenheim
Art: Madibek Musabekov
Colors: Luis Guerrero
Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles
What They Say:
FIRST ISSUE IN THE PREQUEL ERA! It begins here: MARVEL’S first series focusing on the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy: THE JEDI KNIGHTS! Featuring your favorite JEDI like QUI-GON JINN, OBI-WAN KENOBI, YODA and MACE WINDU alongside BRAND-NEW JEDI sure to become fan favorites! And who is the mysterious new villain targeting Qui-Gon Jinn?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The period before The Phantom Menace has had some exploration through comics before which have been fun to watch since there are a lot of good characters and open stories to play with. For this new series, Marce Guggenheim is on board to chart these tales and he’s done a number of Star Wars projects that capture a solid space opera kind of approach that works. The main characters obviously can’t be broken but there’s a wide cast of original characters to work with here that allows for interesting areas to explore. The series makes out strong from the start with Madibek Musabekov on the artwork as they’ve done some really solid work on Star Wars before and have the style and approach down well, resulting in some great-looking characters and familiar and new places to explore. Luis Guerrero brings it all together well with the color design so that it feels just slightly different from the “modern” stories with a richer palette that stands out while Cowles’ letter is just perfect as always throughout.
The opening to this run does tease a larger storyline toward the end but initially, it’s all about trying to broker a peace between two warring worlds that the Council doesn’t know much about. Assigned the task by the Chancellor, the group that goes is sizable enough since it has to split between Vekura and Syrinx Prime to try and bring them both to the table for peace. The problem is that the Jedi don’t know much of what’s motivating this war and the sides refuse to explain beyond Syrinx Prime’s representatives presenting themselves as fending off an invasion. It’s fun to watch our known players like Yoda and Qui-Gon engage with each side while knowing that they’re not getting the truth and trying to figure out how to approach things to get it. It also helps that they’ve got several Jedi with them that are taking in other parts of the world to do the same and discover that, obviously, not all is as it seems.
There is a bit of an obvious heavy-handed approach to dealing with the problem that comes about and it certainly feeds into why there will be a growing separatist movement as the Jedi operate in a way here that has them as the deciders of everything in what’s ostensibly a democracy. While negotiations begin they’re done under threat from this “outside” force and it does not speak well for the Jedi. Where things take an unexpected turn is early on with Qui-Gon as he and his negotiating partner end up attacked by some unexpected individual. There’s no revelation here about who they are or why, they’re completely covered in disguise, and they end up blowing themselves up when the fight goes badly. But as we see later, Qui-Gon was the target separate from the events of this mission and had a tracker secreted on his robes. That sets the tone for something larger for the next few issues to deal with as it looks like it’s going to be mildly episodic for the moment as the Jedi tackle various problems.
In Summary:
I’ve enjoyed a number of stories that take place before The Phantom Menace as we’ve had before but they’ve been limited in scope and scale, which I understand. This series looks to broaden things just a bit but my hope is that we do start to see more triggers as to what will cause the Separatists to begin their rise. And this opening issue certainly makes clear the heavy-handed aspect of the Jedi under the Republic. There are a lot of characters running about here which is both good and bad but it’s a solid mix of familiar and new that should be a good draw overall. The script keeps things moving, there’s some good scale to the events, and the artwork looks great with a color design that gives it its own life. I’m looking forward to more tales of this era and to get more of snarky Qui-Gon Jinn.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: March 5th, 2025
MSRP: $4.99
