SWNN Review: Marvel’s Kanan #12

Kanan12-cover

First Blood Epilogue: The Ties That Bind

 

Story by Greg Weisman
Art by Andrea Broccardo
Colors by David Curiel
Cover by Mark Brooks

 

• The rebels’ adventures on Kaller come to an end!
• But when a friend from Kanan’s past needs help, he stays behind…
• The look into the past of the former Jedi concludes here!

 

We have come to the end of Kanan’s comic adventure which started in The Last Padawan and continued in the First Blood. After twelve issues, it’s time to say goodbye to our favorite cowboy Jedi, at least in this incarnation.

 

 

Spoilers

 

 

Seeing the previews for this issue a couple of days earlier, filled me with a bit of dread. The comic was great so far and I was afraid of lukewarm or, worse, bad finish. Well, I can’t say exactly that it ended with a bang, but it was good and certainly a demonstration that we are dealing with firmly unified galaxy.

 

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At the end of the last issue, Ghost crew managed to get out of a tight spot after Kanan recovered in the bacta tank. At the beginning of this one, they are on their way out of Kaller. Kanan and Ezra stay behind to help Morfizo of Moraga, “the oldest friend Kanan Jarrus has”, with the help of Gamut Key. We have met Morfizo at the end of issue 5, when Kanan breaks off from Janus Kasmir and uses his new name for the first time.

 

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Morfizo’s wife informs Kanan that her husband was taken by the Empire to planet Lahn because he joined the Rebel cell. Kanan promises to rescue him. While we still don’t know much about Morfizo (including his species), it is clear Kanan and him remained friends over the years with Morfizo keeping and hiding Kanan’s old ship – Escape.

 

On Lahn (whose tropic appearance bears a resemblance to leaked beach images from Rogue One) , Kanan and Ezra come up with the plan to rescue Morfizo from Ilmak Island Spaceport. It’s a plan that screams Star Wars: Rebels and, naturally, things don’t go as planned not just because Ezra encounters “the one bucket-head in the galaxy with half a brain” but because Kanan encounters the old foe. None other than Rae Sloane.

 

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If you are an avid follower of new Star Wars canon, you know that Sloane and Kanan have met before on Gorse in John Jackson Miller’s novel A New Dawn. Sloane, who has since advanced in the imperial hierarchy to vice admiral, made Kanan “her hobby” trying to learn everything about his history. Of course, at the time, Kanan wasn’t using his Jedi powers which is why Sloane is quickly dispatched and Morfizo rescued.

 

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After their escape, Sloane gets surprised by this particular visitor who is on Kanan’s tail.

 

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After reuniting Morfizo’s family on Kaller, Kanan demands from Ezra to explain why he was late to the meeting point. Not knowing Lahn as well as Loth, Ezra was cornered by stormtroopers and rescued by a “random guy”.

 

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Of course, there is nothing random in Star Wars and the mysterious rescuer is none other than Janus Kasmir. It appears that, even after all these years, Kasmir remains partnered with Kleeve and he still has a soft spot for random street rats. Or maybe he is just sentimental.

 

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The Kanan run was, in my opinion, one of the best Marvel has done so far. Greg Weisman has managed to give us part of Kanan’s rich past and tie it to the overall history of GFFA in a way that was exciting and tugged at our heartstrings at the same time. We have witnessed Order 66 through the eyes of someone who survived it and got the insight into Jedi Order from the inside. We have learned what made Kanan the man he is now and met the people who shaped him.

 

I missed the art of Pepe Larraz in this issue, although I liked Andrea Broccardo’s contribution as well. He tends to sometimes cram his panels and I didn’t like how he draws some of the expressions, but overall I was satisfied. (I grew up with Sergio Bonelli Editore comics for which he worked in the past, so I might be sentimental as well.)

 

Kanan is undoubtedly one of the coolest characters in the new canon and probably one of the best developed. However, this issue in particular gave me the impression that we just scratched the surface. The running gag of the issue was that Kanan says “Never mind” every time he doesn’t want to discuss something including when Sloane asks him if he lied to Hera as well. I wonder what other secrets and from whom Kanan is hiding.

 

As I said, I wanted the comic to end with a bang. What we got is essentially an episode of Star Wars: Rebels which isn’t a bad thing. It certainly made various connections to other canon material – The Grand Inquisitor to the show and Rae Sloane, who is becoming a through-line of the new canon, to A New Dawn, Aftermath and several stories. It was a decent ending to a comic I will miss very much and for which I am hoping will get a continuation some time in the future. For the time being, Kanan Jarrus, a newly minted Jedi Knight and space cowboy (Jedi cowboy!) will continue to ride in Star Wars: Rebels.

 

If you still haven’t picked up any of new Star Wars comics, Kanan is a good place to start. At twelve issues, it’s not too great of investment and it’s still long enough to give you a well developed story. It was the most consistent comic in Marvel’s new repertoire in terms of story, art and character development and I wholeheartedly recommend it. Read it!

 

 

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Staff member, comic and book reviewer. Cheers for the Light Side, but would drink with Grand Admirals.

Jelena Bidin (LadyMusashi)

Staff member, comic and book reviewer. Cheers for the Light Side, but would drink with Grand Admirals.

16 thoughts on “SWNN Review: Marvel’s Kanan #12

  • March 17, 2016 at 12:02 am
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    Rae Sloane! Finally I see her! Epic!!! when is this chronologically set exactly?

    • March 17, 2016 at 12:56 pm
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      ~5 years before Ep. IV (the ‘present’ scenes); the flashback / young years would be the aftermath period of Ep. III / Order 66…

      • March 17, 2016 at 5:34 pm
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        i meant specifically on the rebels timeline

        • March 17, 2016 at 5:56 pm
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          OOOOoooooohhhhhh, dukes! Reading comp fail!

          I’m actually not sure about that one…

    • March 17, 2016 at 1:00 pm
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      Sometime during season 1 of Rebels.

      • March 17, 2016 at 5:34 pm
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        obviously, but when?

        • March 18, 2016 at 2:37 pm
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          They haven’t given us an official placement on the timeline, but it is sometime before episode 8: Path of the Jedi, since in the comic, Ezra doesn’t have his lightsaber yet.

          • March 18, 2016 at 8:36 pm
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            thanks

  • March 17, 2016 at 12:26 am
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    Well this is the only Star Wars comic I enjoyed reading. Hate to see it go.

  • March 17, 2016 at 1:10 am
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    Rae Sloane!

  • March 17, 2016 at 2:40 am
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    Sloane!

  • March 17, 2016 at 10:31 am
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    I love the art style of this comic!

    • March 17, 2016 at 4:10 pm
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      Best in the Marvel series by far.

  • March 17, 2016 at 2:15 pm
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    I have loved the consistent artwork of this comic, but I have to say I was disappointed that Larraz did not lend his pencils to the final issue here. They did the same in the epilogue to the first 5-issue arc (issue # 6) by bringing on Camagni. Here they brought on Broccardo for the epilogue to the second and final arc of this series. His work is good, but I just really love Larraz’ pencils which gave a different interpretation to the characters, whereas Broccardo basically did a comic version of the Rebels TV character models.

    Art aside, this is possibly the best Marvel series in the Star Wars canon to date and is definitely worth checking out. However, if you have not read any of it yet, I recommend that you get your hands on the first trade paperback which has the first six issues, and pick up the second volume with the remaining six issues when it is released on May 4th. This will save you money and will also give you the opportunity to read each story arc as a single cohesive story.

  • March 17, 2016 at 7:51 pm
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    So fun to see Sloane make an appearance, one of the most facinating new characters in canon

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