SPOILER Marvel's Star Wars Kanan #12

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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 follow


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!

 

Read it! Some people didn't like it, but I did because we spend a lot of time in Kanan's head. You might want to explore a little and find the short stories that precede the novel (one about Sloane and one about Count Vidian who is the main villain).

I really enjoy Sloane a lot. She is definitely showing up everywhere. We'll see if she will appear again in Aftermath, particularly in Empire's End or if she is gone for now.

Yeah, I knew this issue wouldn't be for everyone. The art bothered me a bit too. But, I liked it for what it was, though I hoped for something better giving the quality of overall series. Well, new comics are on the horizon.