Comic Review – Force Wielders Broker a Fragile Peace In the Outer Rim in “Star Wars: Jedi Knights” #1
Today saw the release of the first issue in the new ongoing series Star Wars: Jedi Knights from Marvel Comics, and below are my brief recap and thoughts on this debut installment.
This initial arc of Jedi Knights takes place prior to the events of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, with Obi-Wan Kenobi still a young teen Padawan learner serving under his Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn. Issue #1 kicks off on the planet Syrinx Prime (newly introduced here), which has recently been invaded by its neighboring world Vekura. A number of Jedi– including about half of the High Council– have been dispatched to these Outer Rim planets by Supreme Chancellor Vallorum in order to broker a peace. Their instincts, in a group led by Master Yoda, are to defend against the attack while Qui-Gon and a brash young Jedi Knight named Berem Khana (another new creation by writer Marc Guggenheim) meet with the Vekuran leader General Lafco. Berem attempts to use a Jedi Mind Trick to sway Lafco’s position, to no avail, and the pair must return to the others to regroup. Meanwhile, Adi Gallia and another new Jedi named Seera Longa investigate a prison camp on Syrinx Prime and find that the invasion may not be as black-and-white as it first seemed.
On their way back to confer with the other Jedi, Qui-Gon and Berem are attacked by a silent, masked assassin wielding dual swords. They are able to fight off the assailant, who then suddenly disappears in a cloud of smoke. At a council meeting conducted via hologram, the assembled Jedi put the pieces together about what’s really been going on. It turns out that President Hoss of Syrinx Prime had taken hostages from Vekura, which is what prompted the attack, but neither side wanted to talk about it with outsiders due to a tradition of secrecy on these worlds. Here’s where the whole thing starts to feel like a thinly veiled allegory for real-life struggles like the Israeli/Palestinian conflict in the Middle East. Regardless, the Jedi find themselves at an impasse as it seems neither faction is prepared for peace. So their plan becomes to hobble both sides’ abilities to wage war and force them to come together after sabotaging their respective implements of destruction. This raises a question that I feel has been coming up a lot lately about the Jedi Order– what right do they really have, even as instruments of the Galactic Republic, to impose their will on other societies uninterested in conforming to the ways of Coruscant?
That conundrum isn’t really addressed here with any depth just yet , but instead Guggenheim and artist Madibek Musabekov (Star Wars: Obi-Wan) cut back to the Republic’s capital planet, where the Jedi have chalked up their mission as a win. But Khana has done some more research into their assailant, finding that Jinn may have been the specific target of the ambush. Meanwhile, Obi-Wan has a startling series of future visions while training with Yoda, cluing the reader into some of the directions this series might be headed as it progresses. But as Yoda remarks, “The future is like water, always flowing, forever changing." So armed with foreknowledge that may or may not even come to pass, such as the murder of his own master, Kenobi looks toward trials yet to come with stunned trepidation. I thought this was an interesting launch to the series, and knowing that we’re getting at least ten issues of Jedi Knights in the coming year I do really hope that Guggenheim (who previously penned the Star Wars: Han Solo & Chewbacca miniseries in 2022) has– and more importantly, takes– the chance to explore some of the ideas presented here in satisfying ways. Like Obi-Wan Kenobi as a Jedi Padawan, this series has a lot of potential.
Star Wars: Jedi Knights #1 is available now wherever comic books are sold.