WRITER: CHARLES SOULE / ART: WILL SLINEY / PUBLISHER: MARVEL / FORMAT: SINGLE ISSUE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Kylo Ren, formerly known as Ben Solo, is one of the most intriguing characters in the Star Wars sequel trilogy; he’s the brutal, formidable leader of the First Order, consumed by destructive rage, troubled by self-doubt and inner conflict. As his story arc comes to a close in The Rise of Skywalker, this four-part comics miniseries looks back to explore his beginnings.
The first issue, after a short prelude introducing us to Kylo’s future homies, the Knights of Ren, is primarily set shortly after the burning of Luke Skywalker’s Jedi temple, as glimpsed in The Last Jedi. As three surviving Jedi investigate what happened and pursue the seemingly guilty Ben, he seeks advice on what to do next from his other master, the one who’s been pulling him towards the dark side – Snoke.
Writer Charles Soule, who has a solid Star Wars CV already, having penned series following Poe Dameron and Darth Vader, captures the voice of Ben Solo perfectly, injecting his confrontation with the other Jedi with the arrogance you’d expect from a kid who’ll go on to become the leader of an army of Space Nazis, while also probing at the character’s insecurities; this is a Ben who’s not yet sure of his path and has much further to fall before he’s ready to impale his own dad.
Art comes from Will Sliney, who previously worked on the comic adaptation of Solo: A Star Wars Story. There’s a cinematic feel to his compositions, effectively matching the cinematography of the Last Jedi sequence being revisited, while his convincing likeness of the young Ben is as emotive as any of Adam Driver’s powerful performances. Guru-eFX’s colours back up this art strongly; they’re dramatic and foreboding but not gloomy, making the book a joy to look at. A particular visual highlight is the design of the location at which Ben meets up with Snoke; one of the more unusual places we’ve seen in the Star Wars galaxy, we hope to see more of this place.
And there is a lot more to see. The narrative here implies that there’s more to the burning of the temple than we might think from The Last Jedi, so there are many questions yet to be answered, while future issues promise to go further back to show us Luke’s training of Ben and their first encounter with the Knights. With that in mind, it’s difficult at this stage to judge how well the story is filling in those gaps we want filled, but this first instalment certainly has us hooked.
