SWNN REVIEW: Marvel’s Star Wars: Kanan #11
Well, in my last review I inaccurately referred to issue #10 as the penultimate issue. It was not. This is. Kanan is winding down but certainly looking to go out with a bang here. If you are a Rebels fan this issue will certainly please you. Kanan is a complicated fellow, as we’ve learned in the close to two seasons of Disney XD’s solid Star Wars animated show. After this companion comic series ends, I think we’ll all have a better idea why Kanan began the series as a reluctant hero. It goes without saying there are spoilers ahead here for the issue.
Over the last two issues, only a few minutes have passed for the Rebels gang on Kaller. Kanan, in stasis, is slowly becoming aware of the sticky situation unfolding outside his Bacta tank. With every word uttered by either Stormtrooper of Ghost-crew, it brings the Last Padawan back to his days learning the ways of the Force under Jedi Master Depa Billaba. Kanan’s days when he was known as Caleb Dume call to him, reminding him of an important and troubling milestone at the Battle of Mygeeto.
Young Caleb just watched his only peer, Stance, a Clonetrooper his age, killed in battle. You can gather from the frame above that he’s not exactly taking it in stride. Kanan recalls the first time the Dark Side touched his senses and the rage it awoke. General Sear, the Kage warrior responsible for slaying young Stance, fights on behalf of the Separatists. He’s about to find out what happens when you push a Padawan a little too far. Pepe Larraz has done some exciting work in this series. I wasn’t crazy about the art and action of this issue overall, but these frames of Caleb enraged are great.
Depa Billaba is busy in a fight of her own. My only criticism of this issue, which I still think is great, comes down to the frames of this fight. It felt very claustrophobic to me. The colors David Curiel adds to Larraz’s art are on point, but the frames themselves seem a bit jumbled. I still feel we have yet to see an EPIC fight of a Jedi versus General Grievous. I think the baggage that Billaba brings to this fight (in case you forgot, she lost a battle and several lives to Grievous) makes her a worthy candidate for that treatment. It was a little bit of a let down, but that’s all. I was still happy to see her battling her way against Grievous through each frame. Issue #10 established the Battle of Mygeeto as a pretty panoramic experience, so I was confused why we were pushed so far up close. Perhaps it’s to give that gritty, personal, ugly feeling to war.
Caleb comes out on top, but General Sear is not going out quietly. I quite enjoy that villains like Sear justify their actions with a righteous act, such as fighting tyranny. The most interesting villains in storytelling are the ones who believe their murderous acts are for some sort of greater good. It can get old quick when villains realize how awful they really are. The Sith know they are evil, so it’s interesting to see how great a job they do manipulating someone as strong as Sear. Sear’s last words show how so many believed so strongly in the Separatist movement and that the Republic had become too powerful. It makes me wonder how Luke or Leia would have turned out had they been born into a Separatist movement.
Caleb is forced to take down General Sear, as the general’s suicide was a fiery one and threatened the Padawan’s life. The First Blood arc reveals the story behind it’s name. I can’t imagine the weight a boy would feel taking a life. General Sear killed his friend, but Caleb learns more killing will not bring Stance back. He attacked the general enraged, feeling the tips of the Dark Side’s reach, but manages to resist the primal instincts that are easy to tap into. At the end of the fight, it doesn’t matter much to Caleb that he managed to resist the Dark Side. Another life lost, only this one was by his hand.
The dust settles, and the only lesson Depa has to teach her Padawan is that victory is not everything. There were few true victories in the Clone Wars, and Depa saw too many die. The ghosts of the past haunted her every step, all the way back to the Jedi Temple, and she seems to have accepted her mistakes. Obviously, she didn’t get Grievous, but retribution is not a Jedi trait, and her calling off the Clones instead of ordering their pursuit of the fleeing Grievous demonstrated that to her Padawan. Caleb knows he will remember the Battle of Mygeeto, as the ghosts he left behind will stay with him, no matter how much his life is turned upside down the world in the fate we all know awaits him.
Well, looks like Kanan’s awake. I won’t spoil the end of this issue, but it looks like the final issue of this series will give us a full Rebels treatment via the Marvel team. I’m very excited and you should be too.
Aside from my early criticism, this issue is another great addition in a series I’ve mentioned many times I will very much miss. Kanan, coupled with the new Obi-Wan & Anakin, give us a great look at Jedi Order in it’s golden age. It seems that Kanan come full-circle here, and there’s probably not much of a story to tell about Caleb Dume. The next issue picks up from the events on Kaller, and I doubt there will be much flashback, because I don’t think there is much left to tell. Still, I wouldn’t complain if Greg Weisman or someone else at Marvel came up with another Kanan story down the road. As we know in the Star Wars Universe, a lot can happen in a very short amount of time. Maybe Caleb and Depa run into trouble on the way to Kaller. I don’t know, but I do know that I’m looking forward to the last issue, despite the bittersweet feelings I will have reading the end of this great series.
I would also like to mention the cover of this issue, by Mark Brooks, is one of my favorites in all of the Star Wars comics that have been released this year. Excellent!
This issue can be purchased at your local comic shop or digitally on comiXology.
Kyle Larson lives in Portland, Oregon. When he's not running trails, he's reading and writing.
Glad it’s almost over. Leaves less room to tell Kanan’s story in Rebels and SW has way too many ongoing titles as is. I’d like to see a lot of them cancelled in favor of miniseries like DH used to do.
Marvel currently has two ongoing Star Wars titles. That’s way too many?
In the same mined the fuck out time period.
Why do the stormtroopers look like freaking candy canes?
Their shock troopers…
Are they supposed to shock people with their ridiculous-looking uniforms?
They look waaaaaaaay better than stormtroopers.
No, they look like candy canes.
No they look awsome.
Shame that stormtroopers also do not have different colors on armor.
The Imperials are supposed to be devoid of color – everything is supposed to be sterile grays, blacks and whites, and without any flashy design at all. This is because the Empire is an oppressive regime lacking all creativity and beauty. George Lucas specifically designed them to be that way.
Right, well these aren’t Imps yet, so…..
I was talking about stormtroopers. Stormtroopers are Imperials.
These aren’t Imperials. You should know this.
Stormtroopers aren’t Imperals? Since when? Was talking about why stormtroopers shouldn’t have color on uniforms.
Dude, the cover art does not feature stormtroopers. They are clone troopers. The Empire does not yet exist in the timeline of this comic. Your argument about stormies with “candy cane” markings is invalid. That is the point you are apparently missing.
We have still yet to see any stormies in Canon materiel with any markings.
I bet we see them in Rogue One.
Agreed.
If you had read the conversation, it was suggested that STORMTROOPERS should have the same color markings as these clone troopers. That’s what I was referring to when I said stormtroopers should be colorless, not the clone troopers.
Those are clone troopers. Ermahgerd, you’re a Star Wars fan, you should know this.
If you were actually following the conversation, it was suggested that stormtroopers should have similar color markings like these clonetroopers do. That’s what was being referred to.
I was, dude. You are a moron. The whole thread initiated from your comment:
Crixxxx
•
3 days ago
Why do the stormtroopers look like freaking candy canes?
RE READ IT AS YOU SEEM TO HAVE FORGOTTEN
Not the comment I was responding to, chief.
“No they look awesome. Shame that stormtroopers also do not have different colors on armor.”
That’s what I was responding to. Next time don’t comment on a discussion if you don’t know what’s being discussed.
Holy crap, man! You started this whole thread by saying the stormtroopers on the cover looked stupid basically, and you were schooled that they weren’t, and now you want to talk about the “possible” stormies that have yet to show up in canon material as “possibly” looking stupid? Give me a break.You started this thread with incorrect info and then got mad because you got called on it.
Lame.
Yeah, I got the name wrong. I was totally “schooled” on getting the name wrong. Big f’n deal. The point was not the correct name, but that they looked stupid, which they do. The poster was the one who brought up stormtroopers having color on them, to which I responded that the Empire is designed to be colorless. But I guess this progression of the discussion is beyond your capacity to understand.
Go back to the top of the threead and start reading again, as you seem to have forgotten what YOU said, “Chief”
You still don’t get it, do you? It was suggested by the poster that STORMTROOPERS should have color markings on them like the clone troopers do. I responded by saying that the Empire, of which stormtroopers belong, is designed to be colorless. Why is this so difficult for you to understand?
Those are Clone Troopers. OMG
Wasn’t talking about clonetroopers. Was talking about color markings on storm troopers like those on the clone troopers.
No storm troopers have color markings. The ones on the comic’s cover are Phase II CLONE troopers.
Those are NOT Stormtroopers. They are Clonetroopers and they are painted in Red to distinguish their division. Those are elite Clonetroopers.
So the more elite you are, the more goofy-looking your armor is.
Is this series ever gonna end?
It’s ending next issue…
there were at least five times they said it would end
Kanan
in his mental narrations mentions a “pyrrhic victory”. The phrase Pyrrhic
victory is named after king Pyrrhus of Epirus, whose army suffered
irreplaceable casualties in defeating the Romans at Heraclea in 280 BC and
Asculum in 279 BC during the Pyrrhic War. This means the Greeks and Romans
existed in the Star Wars universe.