As a lifelong Star Wars enthusiast who grew up with the original trilogy and delved into the Expanded Universe, this final chapter of the Marvel Star Wars comics has left me absolutely spellbound! The intricate plot weaving, the masterful blend of old and new characters, and the thought-provoking moral dilemmas – it’s been an emotional rollercoaster ride that I simply can’t get enough of.
2 special issues will conclude Marvel’s Star Wars comic series in September: “Star Wars” #50 by Charles Soule and Madibek Musabekov, and “Darth Vader” #50 by Greg Pak and Raffaele Inco. A new phase in the galaxy far, far away will start in October with a comprehensive relaunch of all comics, linking the New Republic era and the rise of the First Order. The 50th issue of Star Wars, titled “The Hopeful Journey,” wraps up the comic storyline set between “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi,” a time period before the Rebellion defeated Emperor Palpatine and the Imperial Empire.
The story begins some time before The Force Awakens, when Jedi Master Luke Skywalker has taken Ben Solo as his Jedi apprentice at the First Temple on the Outer Rim planet Ossus. Believing Ben could become a leader in the New Jedi Order, Luke recalls on a story that may guide his nephew in the future. Leaders have to make “choices about life and death,” he tells his padawan, reflecting on a time when Han Solo was frozen in carbonite as a prisoner of Jabba the Hutt.
In a flashback to the Age of Rebellion, Luke returns to Gazian, a planet in the galaxy’s Middle Rim. (Through a living vergence in the Force, the younger Luke met an echo of the High Republic Jedi Elzar Mann, who would eventually lead Luke to Ahch-To and the sacred Jedi texts seen in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.) The planet is covered by a network of fungus that imprints and records a duplicate of any alive mind it encounters — including the fallen High Republic-era Jedi Azlin Rell.
Luke journeyed to Gazian in search of wisdom to vanquish the Sith, but it was actually the combined consciousness of the Jedi that aided him previously. A blind Jedi imparts his own insights: “A method to eliminate your adversaries without any danger to you or those dear to you.” Rell dispatches Luke’s allies – Leia Organa, Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian, and robots R2-D2 and C-3PO – to a desolate planet in the Inner Rim, covered in ice. There, they vanquish an Imperial outpost and uncover an ancient relic hidden beneath the frigid tundra.
Three-Cee deciphers the ancient scripture and unveils the artifact as the Grim Rose, an instrument of destruction. Prior to the First Order developing their planet-obliterating superweapon, the Rebellion controlled a weapon that could eliminate anyone, anywhere in the galaxy. The Grim Rose operates by requiring a sample of one’s genetic material, then it employs “mysterious spiritual energy,” as described by Three-Cee, to trace a path throughout lives connected to its intended victim: Emperor Palpatine.
Luke believes that the Grim Rose relies on the Force rather than technology or science. Leia comes to understand that they can obtain Palpatine’s genetic information from his home planet, Naboo, where he previously served as senator prior to becoming chancellor and then emperor. As senators are obligated to provide two sets of genetic samples for biometric identification within the Galactic Senate, Lando manages to infiltrate the royal archives and extract a segment of Palpatine’s samples from an archive clerk who is supportive of the Rebellion.
Luke, Leia, and Lando discuss whether it’s right to use a device to kill Emperor Palpatine. Meanwhile, Chewbacca doesn’t have these concerns and programs the machine to eliminate Palpatine. Translating Chewbacca’s Shyriiwook for Threepio, he explains that the Empire took over their home planet Kashyyyk and made Wookiees into slaves. Essentially, Chewbacca says, “You claimed this device could kill Palpatine, so I used it to do just that.
Threepio uncovers that the machine doesn’t merely eliminate its intended victim, but anyone who was near its trajectory. Luke and Leia aim to prevent this lethal device, but Lando opposes, warning that it would be Imperial officials, dignitaries, and administrators who would be unwitting victims rather than innocents. “I don’t mind if a hundred lives are lost,” Lando asserts. “Let it continue.” Luke intuits that the Grim Rose path is multiplying into the thousands and must be deactivated before it selects additional targets, so he tries to destroy the weapon with his own powerful tool – his distinctive yellow-lit lightsaber.
In their second visit to the Gazian Living Sea, Luke encounters a new character, Lor San Tekka, who later helps conceal Luke’s whereabouts from Kylo Ren in The Force Awakens. Here, they first meet Azlin Rell, who informs Luke about the Grim Rose and its ability to cause mass destruction when it finds its target. However, Luke learns that the target can be altered, leading him to consider using it against someone already deceased, like the preserved bodies in the Living Sea.
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2024-09-12 05:10