Review: ‘Star Wars’ #43 – Luke Skywalker Confronts Current and Ancient Sith in ‘The Healing Force’
Luke Skywalker finds himself imprisoned by an ancient Sith Lord inside a red kyber crystal in the 43rd issue of the main Star Wars comic series, an intriguing set up for an important story that ultimately shows us how Luke gets over his PTSD from the events of The Empire Strikes Back.
While we don’t learn anywhere near as much about the ancient Sith Lord as I’d have liked, this is still a strong issue. You can clearly see Luke becoming the man we see in Return of the Jedi as he learns an important truth about himself. There’s also a good bit of lightsaber action in the issue, which contains its own small surprises.
It didn’t quite provide all the answers I wanted about the villain, but Star Wars #43 gave all the answers it needed to about our hero. This two-issue arc is a must-read for the character of Luke Skywalker and it didn’t disappoint.
Spoilers ahead…
The issue picks up right where it left off, with Luke Skywalker inside a prison cell talking to the ancient Sith Lord who inhabits the kyber crystal. Luke is intent on healing the Sith of their trauma, but they don’t want any part of it. Sadly, this one subscribes to the old Sith maxim that pain equals strength, and that being healed of it would make them weak.
They intend to hurt Luke enough to join his pain with theirs and make the crystal even stronger with the dark side. A longer arc might have dragged out this process, but thankfully Luke escapes his prison pretty quickly and goes on a healing mission.
He finds the Sith at various stages of their life, moments of pain that shaped the memory inside the kyber crystal. We see that their parental figure died when they were a baby, then that he was accosted by bullies at various points in his life and possibly contemplated suicide. Luke provides words of hope and encouragement at every turn, determined to heal his pain.
The Sith is furious with Luke’s actions (possibly afraid that he might actually succeed) and flips the scenario back at him. After a cool lightsaber fight — in which Luke is surprised to learn that his lightsaber blade is green — the Sith points out that he cannot heal others until he faces his own pain.
We never see that Sith again from this point, as they morph into Darth Vader. Luke is immediately transported back to Bespin and is forced to confront his father once again. This time though, his newly acquired experience leads to him to realize that it’s his destiny to fight Vader again. He has the presence of mind to realize that his father wasn’t always Darth Vader, and therefore there must still be good in him.
It’s an excellent mirroring of Luke’s first encounter with Vader in the Dagobah cave. Rather than freeze up and give into anger, Luke’s compassion gets him through it this time, allowing us to clearly see his personal growth. It’s an excellent way to show us how Luke came to the realization that there is still good in Vader before the events of Return of the Jedi. It makes me wish that we’d seen this encounter in live action somehow.
As soon as he comes to this realization, he cleanses the kyber crystal of the dark side and it turns white, allowing Luke to return to the real world. He gives the white kyber crystal to Auntie Dee, recognizing that while he learned very little about the Sith, he learned a lot about himself.
This is exactly the kind of journey Luke needed to go on before Return of the Jedi, and Charles Soule has done an excellent job at writing that journey. Now all Luke needs to do is build his new lightsaber and we’ll be set.
Rating: 9/10
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.
