Review: Time To Learn Some Patience in Marvel’s ‘Star Wars: Yoda’ #3
Yoda is a wry creature, a Jedi Master unlike any other. As more about his life reveals itself across various Star Wars media, the picture of an individual who spent his life just wanting to teach becomes clearer. Marvel’s Star Wars: Yoda has been off to a rough start despite capturing the finer details of who Yoda is. The last issue made it crystal clear that this week’s issue #3 would make or break this arc as a whole.
The lesson Yoda hopes to teach the Scalvi people and his fellow Jedi brethren isn’t all that complex: patience. There is irony in that the lesson of patience also applies to readers like me who have been struggling to understand why everyone deserves a quick bonk to the dome with Yoda’s cane. Intelligent plotting has been few and far between, but with Cavan Scott’s Star Wars pedigree, hope remained. Can he stick the landing in the final issue of this first mini-arc with a last chess move that only someone like Yoda could see coming?
Spoilers ahead…
Decades have passed since Bree killed the Crulkon leader. The action made him a hero to his people, but also fractured his relationship with Yoda. Due to the nature of him rushing in with violence before understanding the whole situation, Bree failed Yoda’s test. Simultaneously, Yoda also failed himself opting to fly away from Turrak and not return.
Since that day, the Crulkon have barely registered on the Scalvi’s radar. They have moved on, and a new generation has come to the village. The children hold onto the basics of the story: Bree saved the day, and now the Crulkon don’t bother them. Nobody cares about a Jedi and what they did to help usher in this age of peace, but that’s where Bree snaps. Without saying it, Bree harbors long-standing regret over what happened with Yoda. Bree will never see him again to make up for disappointing his friend from so long ago.
It’s a bold move to introduce such a time jump, as it adds a sense of consequence for Bree. The other thing it does is give the character a much-needed sense of urgency as his nephew, Tren, and the other children are on the verge of following the same path Bree did in his youth. Now he has to teach the lesson he painstakingly learned without the help of Yoda. But because this is a comic with erratic pacing, flip the page and Yoda is right there. The Jedi arrives out of thin air to show Bree how he’s improved on the taratti, the musical instrument given to him during his first night on Turrak.
Before they can really talk, the alarm goes off, signaling the Crulkon are near. It’s a nice case of show, don’t tell, as Yoda remains playing his tunes, forcing Bree to prove himself and make the right call. Instead of being rash, he opts to raise the village’s defenses in case the Crulkon attack for the first time in a generation. You’d think a murderous pirate horde would want vengeance for the cold-blooded murder of their chief at some point, but I guess it’s not worth explaining. Since Bree seems to have everything all under control, this leaves the Jedi Master with no choice but to gloriously pester Tren, who doesn’t understand why his uncle isn’t preparing to fight.
This issue is littered with parallels, with the new batch of children taking the initiative to infiltrate the Crulkon base before stopping to think clearly. Their impatience is rewarded when they find the new chief’s child alone and decide to capture her. Shortly after, the Crulkon return (having not attacked the Scalvi and instead carrying a bunch of empty fishing nets) to discover that they were the ones who were raided.
Back at the Scalvi village, it doesn’t take long for Bree to discover what happened, demanding his nephew undo what he did. Nothing is allowed a single breath in this issue though as the Crulkon arrive. Tren leads the charge with Yoda close behind; he did promise to defend the Scalvi if it came to that.
Bree, however, wants none of this. He comes out with the Crulkon child and a call for peace. For years, the two clans have lived apart, but what the Scalvi didn’t know is that the Crulkon have been starving. Bree proposes they share resources, which (conveniently and without any argument) begins a new peace between them, much to the delight of a little green Jedi who barely had to lift a finger this whole issue. Bree passed the test.
One last order of business as Yoda chats up Veter, who finally understands why his council mate was obsessed with helping the Scalvi. Well, kind of. The whole subplot was that Veter and some members of the Jedi Council didn’t understand why Yoda was on Turrak, and even alleged that he was turning his back on the Order. Now all this time later, he understands. It’s not like Yoda spent these last few decades with the Order or anything, but hey, all is well.
In any case, Yoda’s last act to help the people of Turrak is a request to restore the ocean life, of which there is none. Veter apologizes for not having a bit of patience and trust in Yoda.
Star Wars: Yoda #3 is about as good as it can be, given everything rooting against it. The time jump was an ambitious choice, but it happened to be paired with a story that never demanded it. Would it have been easier and a better-paced issue to pick up directly after the events of the last issue? I don’t know, but the magnitude of the time jump gave Scott some liberty from the plot trouble he found himself in. Even still, this issue still had to resolve those plots, and it failed to do it without raising some basic logical questions.
Looking back on these first three issues of the series and this issue in particular, the biggest risk it took was making Yoda a background character in his own story to elevate Bree and his journey. I consider myself a positive person, and while that risk didn’t work for me, at the very least I can see why Yoda would look back fondly on his time with the Scalvi. Now onto the next chapter in Yoda’s life.
RATING: 5/10
Nate uses his love for Star Wars and movies in general as a way to cope with the pain of being a Minnesota sports fan. When he's not at the theater, you can usually find Nate reading a comic, listening to an audiobook, or playing a Mario video game for the 1,000th time.
