Comic Review - "Star Wars" and "Young Jedi Adventures" Both Get the Free Comic Book Day Treatment for 2025
This past weekend was the 2025 iteration of Free Comic Book Day at comic shops around the country, and this year both Star Wars and Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures were included in the celebration. Below are my brief recaps and reviews of these two complimentary titles.
First up is Marvel’s flagship Star Wars title, which actually relaunches today (I will go pick up my copy of issue #1 as soon as I’m done writing this review) with stories set after the events of Return of the Jedi and The Battle of Jakku maxi-series from last winter. But for Free Comic Book Day 2025, Star Wars gives us a trilogy of stories tying into three of Marvel’s current titles from A Galaxy Far, Far Away: Star Wars (starring Luke Skywalker, et. al), Star Wars: Legacy of Vader (starring Kylo Ren and Vaneé), and Star Wars: Jedi Knights (starring Qui-Gon Jinn and friends). The first of these three stories is entitled “Past is Prologue" and was written by Star Wars scribe Alex Segura with art by Phil Noto.
“Past Is Prologue" sends Luke to a former Imperial space station near the planet Maldran, where he is hunting down stolen New Republic hardware with the help of Rebel Alliance / NR pilot Rynn Zenat. The duo confront some back-alley merchants to recover generators stolen from NR trading vessels that were attacked and destroyed, killing dozens of innocent citizens. They extract information from these goons about further ambushes planned by black-market dealers and return to a hangar, where they board their X-wing starfighters and head out to intercept the assault before more lives are lost. That story will continue in Star Wars #1 (again, out today), and then in “Legacy of Vaneé," writer Charles Soule and artist Stefano Raffaele fill in the gap of what happened to Darth Vader’s former attendant between the second Death Star’s destruction and the beginning of Star Wars: Legacy of Vader. This was definitely my favorite story of the bunch– it’s weirdly tragic and inspirational in its own twisted dark-side kind of way– and it helped further understanding of a comic that I was already really enjoying.
Thirdly, we check in on Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and Jedi Knight Tensu Run (from Marvel’s Star Wars: Inquisitors miniseries, which takes place years later in the timeline) between issues #2 and #3 of Star Wars: Jedi Knights in a story called “The Moon of Death." Here Qui-Gon and Tensu are on the moon of K’shar investigating the shadow assassin named Corlis Rath who’s been hunting Jinn. During their inquest they are mugged by a trio of aliens who overestimate their ability to take down two Jedi, and then they discover that their contact has been murdered by Rath before they had a chance to meet with him. Qui-Gon claims he has never met Corlis before, but we see in a flashback to the Jedi’s youth as a Padawan training under Master Dooku that this isn’t necessarily true. This story continues in Jedi Knights #3 next week…
Lastly, in Dark Horse’s Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures Free Comic Book Day 2025 outing, writer Dave Scheidt (Star Wars Adventures) collaborates with artist Andy Duggan to have Master Yoda bring the Jedi younglings-in-training Lys Solay, Kai Brightstar, and Nubs to the swamps of Tenoo– with the help of their similarly aged pilot friend Nash Durango– for a challenging scavenger hunt. This lesson helps the youthful Force-users learn how to utilize everything in their environment to complete a task, and I bet it has served as a good intro to the Star Wars franchise (and to Young Jedi Adventures specifically) for curious kids since its release four days ago. And that’s what I like best about these Star Wars FCBD titles– they help get new readers and fans on board who might not otherwise be aware of what’s going on in Lucasfilm Publishing’s comic-book world. I buy ‘em all anyway, but hopefully these two releases bring more devotees into the fold.
Star Wars and Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures (Free Comic Book Day 2025) were both distributed for free at comic book shops this past Saturday, May 3rd.