a lot happened Star Wars There are comics recently. Like, let’s be honest, there’s a lot of crazy stuff, because Marvel managed to fit a year in between: The Empire Strikes Back and Jedi Counterattack Not only are there 50 issues of the main book on the way, but there are also crazy stories spanning books like Darth Vader and a standalone event series, making this year for Canon one of the craziest we’ve known yet.
It’s fitting, then, that Marvel is preparing to say goodbye to the book and chart an interesting future for it Star Wars In the comics, it poses an issue that largely does what the series has always been: an issue that connects many different eras Star Wars story, asks big questions, and is definitely not afraid to be completely, completely weird in all the right ways.
Star Wars #50, published today, by: high republic Scribe Charles Soule, along with art by Madebek Musabekov and Rachelle Rosenberg, and text by Clayton Cowles, are already there where you’d expect it to pulse in a framing device. Although largely “set” in the aforementioned busy year – as events Jedi Counterattack Getting Closer – The issue is framed by flash-forwarding to the blurry era between Jedi Counterattack and The Force Awakenstraveling to Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Academy on Ossus. There, Luke delivers his final lesson to his most promising student, his own nephew Ben, trying to impart a crucial piece of advice: The cost of doing good cannot be justified by doing great evil. To this end, he told Ben a story that flashed back to the “now” before the comics.Rotje Luke, Leia, Lando and Chewie find themselves on a completely ridiculous mission.
In this era, most of Soule’s strengths were brought into play. Star Warseffectively weaving together the past, present and future of the franchise. Returning to the planet Gazian, a vast “ocean” of fungi that serves as a biological archive of everyone who has ever visited it, Luke attempts to learn from the Jedi Order’s past in order to find Palpa The final outcome of Emperor Ting. When one of Gazian’s memories, the soul of the dark traitor Jedi Azrin Reel, leads Luke to a mysterious ancient artifact that is essentially a magic gun in the shape of a box, he battles against the darkness Passing by, it’s a tense feeling: put your blood into it.
It’s a crazy concept, and Soule, Musabekov, Rosenberg, and Cowles had a lot of fun getting around it, and not just because of its connection to his work in the arts. high republic material, but equally pulls the thread on how the group went on the adventure of obtaining it Star Wars‘ sign. There’s a disguised heist, a trip to Naboo, a look back a few years after the prequels, and some important acts of resistance that show that anyone can be a hero in the face of the greatest evil. Although we logically know that this adventure won’t end with the Rebel Alliance actually using the artifact – at least not successfully – when our heroes surround it with the key to killing Palpatine and begin to weigh the grim circumstances There is still a fascinating tension.
It turns out that the device works by analyzing the target’s genetic material and tracing the lineage through the lives they’ve touched, connected in the Force – relatives, colleagues, people who have felt the target’s overwhelming influence – all of which have been Used as a network to ultimately deliver the killing blow to the intended victim…killing everyone in the webway in the process. It’s absolutely crazy and unlike anything we’ve ever seen Star Wars before, but simultaneously rooted in the ideas and arguments that forever defined the soul of the series: Who is guilty of participating in Palpatine’s galactic conspiracy? Who deserves redemption and who doesn’t? How many lives are worth paying to prevent further loss under the continued imperial regime? As the Box sets out to find a way to kill Palpatine, we begin to see the form of arguments that we as the audience know will now begin to play out over the next 30 years. Star Wars storytelling. We know the Rebels didn’t need the proverbial assassination box to kill Palpatine, Vader killed him on Endor. We know he will eventually return, raising a new wave of followers and admirals, sparking a new conflict that will claim billions of lives. Star WarsCurrently, cyclical conflict becomes a theoretical debate rather than known history. What would happen if it all happened this way instead of what we see Jedi Counterattack?
The interesting thing about all this is Star Wars #50 doesn’t really come to a clear conclusion, like it knows we know where this is all going to go. The event itself is not important; This is a lesson learned from them. Luke imparts his lessons to Ben, and the story fades away, setting the stage for the inevitable tragedy we know is coming. The “present” is also vaguely cut off after Luke chooses to trick the device into finding another inert target, leaving this era Star Wars Comics are both logical and open-ended. While not entirely satisfying at the moment, it feels reflective of a very strange time for Marvel Star Wars About to enter.
The latest volume doesn’t immediately launch a direct successor, but rather a trio of miniseries that adapt and re-contextualize some of the earliest ideas from the reboot canon about what happens after the reboot. Jedi Counterattack. Otherwise, the publisher has been mum about its location. Star Wars Next up are books. subsequent period Jedi Counterattack This would be the most logical next step; arguably, it’s as fraught with continuity as the minefield the comics of the last few years have woven into the time frame. empire and returnalbeit for very different reasons. Review the following events The Mandalorian and its myriad spin-offs in this hiatus, especially as the times are still changing as it gets fleshed out with live-action film projects, will be a challenge Star Wars The comics haven’t really had to deal with that yet, and the liberties they’ve taken have filled in the gaps between the known quantities of the original trilogy. Looking back to the past and the prequels avoids this minefield and simply offers opportunities that the book already mined for the original trilogy of prequels, albeit with more wiggle room given the wider time frame.
Whatever comes next, though, will hopefully capture the scope and diversity of what the current era encompasses…perhaps, at least, on a wider canvas.
Want more io9 news? Check out the latest release dates for Marvel, Star Wars and Star Wars, what’s next for DC Universe movies and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
