Review: ‘Star Wars’ #42 – Luke Returns to Face an Ancient Sith Lord in ‘The Sith and The Skywalker’
I had been eagerly awaiting this issue of the main Star Wars comic for a while, ever since Luke first interacted with the red kyber crystal last year and encountered an ancient Sith Lord for the first time. The prospect of Luke Skywalker interacting with another Sith Lord who isn’t Darth Vader will always be appealing, particularly for fans of the Legends stories where Luke met many other Sith Lords after Vader’s death.
While Star Wars #42 finally gives us that Luke vs Sith encounter we’ve been waiting for, it takes its sweet time getting there. A lot of the issue is spent building up to the ritual Luke has to do to re-enter the kyber crystal, presumably because this mini-arc has to last two issues. There is definitely some juicy drama at the end, but not quite enough for the whole issue.
Instead, too much time is devoted to meeting a new character and learning what her shtick is. She’s perfectly likeable and wise, but not as interesting as an ancient Sith Lord, so even though Luke’s interactions with her are interesting, I spent most of my time impatiently waiting to just get to the action already.
We do get there by the end, and although not enough time is spent with the Sith for my liking, it does end on a great cliffhanger for what should be a Sith-heavy showdown in issue #43.
Spoilers ahead…
STEVEN CUMMINGS (A)
Cover by STEPHEN SEGOVIA
The issue gets off to a fun start. We’re reintroduced to Gretta working away when she senses an intruder, spinning around and firing a shot off at Luke. Shockingly, Luke manages to deflect the baster bolt with the Force right before it hits his palm, the same trick that Darth Vader pulls on Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back. Luke claims it was instinctive and he had no idea he could do that, but seems to just brush it off as yet another cool thing he can do with the Force. Considering we never see him use that tactic in Return of the Jedi, it’s probably best to let it lie.
He asks Gretta for her help in communing with the red kyber crystal again, but she tells Luke she can’t help him. That’s when her auntie Feez shows up, who is much more of an expert in these things than Gretta. I don’t think this character was really necessary for the story — it would have been much simpler to let Gretta have all the required skills — but then perhaps it would have made the issue less interesting if it was just Luke and Gretta talking in a room for two-thirds of the story.
Feez is warm and likeable, with plenty of sage wisdom to offer Luke, but not interesting enough to make me happy to wait for the exciting stuff with the Sith. She initially refuses to actually do the ritual with Luke, as they could get in deep trouble if the Imperials discovered them, but she reluctantly has Gretta call him back once she realizes how much her niece cares for him.
She was absolutely right about Luke’s priorities though; it didn’t matter how strong Gretta’s romantic feelings were for him, he was way too occupied with the Force and everything else going on to notice. Perhaps Luke and Gretta’s relationship will get revisited in the comics post-Return of the Jedi. That’s something I’d like to see.
Once they finally sit down to the ritual, Luke gets sent back into the kyber crystal, tumbling back into the Sith’s hall in some cool imagery. We’re warned before the ritual that it would be easy for this memory of the Sith Lord to trap Luke’s mind in there forever. While Luke pushes back the Sith Lord’s red-lightsaber-wielding followers with ease, he is helpless when the Sith grabs him with the Force, levitates him up high and slams him down to the floor.
Luke is immediately detained in a jail cell and the Sith Lord tells a teasing story of the last Jedi he encountered. It’s appropriately dark; apparently he turned the ancient Jedi into his jester, who felt the only way to escape was to commit suicide by jumping off the battlements. Nevertheless, Luke announces his intention to redeem the Sith Lord and show him back to the light.
This seems to anger the Sith a little bit, who instructs his guard to start pummelling Luke. He claims this is to break Luke’s resolve, to show him that his efforts are futile, but I wonder if Luke managed to touch a nerve. We’ll learn more in the next issue, as the issue ends pretty quickly after this, with it being made pretty clear that Auntie Feez has no idea that Luke’s in danger.
I do love Luke’s motivation for redeeming the Sith Lord. He says at one point that if he can redeem this Sith in what he expects to be a safe test environment, then maybe he can successfully redeem “other” Sith Lords too. It’s a brilliant idea from Charles Soule, making it so this encounter with an ancient Sith is actually a key moment in Luke’s character arc. We know that he is able to turn Darth Vader back to the light side in Return of the Jedi, so it’s a fantastic idea to have this already exciting encounter as the moment where he learned that redemption is possible.
With Luke now in the thick of the action with the Sith, I’m excited for the next part of the story.
Rating: 7/10
Josh is a huge Star Wars fan, who has spent far too much time wondering if any Star Wars character could defeat Thanos with all the Infinity Stones.
