SPOILER 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 Bloodarc 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 Rebelstreatment 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!

 

Indeed, I thought Kleeve's presence was great and added to the dilemma of casting all Separatists as villains. No one knew they were rallying behind the Sith

 

Those were my thoughts as well. There's a lot happening in the rest of the galaxy during that trip. I hope we get to revisit Kanan someday. The series has been a pleasure to read and review.

I'm glad you and @LadyMusashi enjoyed the Kanan eye candy. @Hard Case brings up a good point about female heroes traditionally being hyper-sexualized in comic history. Larraz is bringing it back the other way! I think after Slave Leia, the embodiment of pretty much everything wrong with female objectification, male figures of SW are due for some shirts off scenes.