SPOILER SWNN Review: Obi-Wan and Anakin #5

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• War breaks out...with our Jedi caught in the middle!
• Master and apprentice come to an important realization.
• Marvel's first Jedi-centric miniseries draws to a dramatic close!

Story by Charles Soule

Art by Marco Checchetto

Colors by Andres Mossa



Today on the comic book menu, we have the last issue of Marvel's miniseries Obi-Wan and Anakin. Set between The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, the series describes a mission the master and padawan undertake on Carnelion IV after answering a mysterious distress call. They find themselves caught between two warring sides – The Open and The Closed. When we left them in the last issue, Anakin was still a prisoner of the Open, while Obi-Wan met the person responsible for distress call – a woman named Sera who is trying to inspire the young people of the shattered world and preserve the future.



Spoilers for issue #5 follow

 

As this issue opens, Anakin, left with the Open young ones, learns that they all know the mysterious caller as Scavenger. The Scavenger is sending them beautiful items from the past. Anakin teaches them that this is art and proposes that together they can fix the machines and stop the adults from killing the Scavenger – something they are doing out of fear.


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In the meantime, Obi-Wan is questioning Sera because she knew the phrase specific to Jedi order in her distress call. She has a recording of the warrior with the sword of light – recording that doesn’t work anymore and is stuck on single, black and white image. Something in the image prompts Obi-Wan to ask what color the lightsaber was.


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Sera discloses that the saber used to be red, but Obi-Wan has no time to explain to her what that really means because the Closed, called by Grecker’s flare, converge on their location calling for Scavenger’s surrender. Sera encourages Obi-Wan to kill them, which he obviously cannot do. He tries to talk to the Closed to convince them that he is not their enemy and that Sera is trying to save this world, but they are not willing to listen.


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The appearance of the Open complicates the situation with Mother Pran trying to kill Obi-Wan. He is saved by Anakin. The young Open meet with Sera who discloses that she want every adult to die so she can start anew with young children. But, Obi-Wan is not willing to serve that purpose. Instead, he brings Anakin to fix the communication unit. Sera is left alone as the young ones join the all out war. It seems that there is no hope for this world.


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The Republic forces arrive in full strength and stop the bloodshed. Obi-Wan has told them that planet’s atmosphere contains the precious gas, thus giving the people of the planet a chance to embrace peace. Anakin is surprised that only Obi-Wan’s word was enough for the Republic to come.


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We are treated to another flashback, only this time not between Anakin and Palpatine but Obi-Wan and Yoda.  Obi-Wan blames himself for Anakin’s wish to leave the order. He believes that Anakin belongs to the Jedi order and that he is not ready to stand alone. Yoda replies that Anakin is still a child and, considering his difficult past, his questions are natural. Obi-Wan is young himself. Yoda sends them to the mission on Carnelion IV. If Anakin still wishes to leave after it, he will be released. Obi-Wan would not break his promise to Qui-Gon Jinn whether Anakin is part of the Order or not. Yoda agrees, but also says that Council will never allow that which means that if Anakin leaves, so will Obi-Wan.


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Luckily, Obi-Wan was able to demonstrate to Anakin that Jedi are part of something bigger than themselves and Anakin agrees to stay in the Order.


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I am of two minds about this miniseries. In the current slate of Marvel’s Star Wars comics, it is refreshing to have a story set in the prequel era and covering the elements some of us found lacking in the movies themselves, namely Obi-Wan and Anakin’s master/padawan relationship. Another big plus for the comic, possibly the biggest one, is the relationship between Anakin and Palpatine. It seems that the chancellor had his claws in young Jedi much earlier than it was shown to us. He exploited Anakin’s past and weaknesses in a way that builds the credibility of Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side in the future. Talk about the long game!



I also liked that Obi-Wan’s youth and his difficulty with dealing with powerful and demanding student is acknowledged. It is still arguable that Anakin’s fall wouldn’t happen if someone else took the task of teaching him, considering what we know about his relationship with Palpatine now, but Obi-Wan’s inexperience certainly didn’t help the matter. Still, it was important to me to also see that Obi-Wan is Jedi through and through despite his youth and that he is not blind to Anakin’s flaws and dangers he is facing.



The art of Marco Checchetto, helped by Mossa’s coloring, is often breathtaking, implying scale we rarely see in the comics.



On the down side, I feel that the story of the Open and the Closed is a complete throwaway. Once the Republic and other Jedi arrive, none of them appear on the page again – not Mother Pran, not Sera, not even Kolara. The only function they had was to teach Anakin a lesson and once the point was made – their utility ceased to exist. We don’t know how any of them ended up. I guess I hoped for more effective secondary characters like the ones we already got in these comics, characters like Aphra, Queen Trios or Eneb Ray.



In the end, Obi-Wan and Anakin is a decent addition to the new Star Wars canon, especially in terms of exploring Anakin’s relationship with Palpatine and Obi-Wan. Even for a canon completist like I am, reading this comic does not seem necessary. But, if you are tired of the same time period set between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, this comic might be a nice change.



Obi-Wan and Anakin comic will be replaced by Han Solo on June 15^th.


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Great review @LadyMusashi ! Read it this morning and truly enjoyed it as the end of this mini-serie. Agree with you, it is a pity the story about the Open and the Close, as well as that interesting recording it's set aside. I'm not familiar with the pre-PT old Legends stories so it would have been interesting to explore further on the new canon.

The art of Checchetto and Mossa is really good, as well as the way of depicting an internal conflict between two factions who consider any outsider as ignorant (I think sometimes Star Wars has some parallels with reality lol).

One of the things I enjoyed was the lesson we witness Anakin is taking from his master. We saw in the previous issues the influence Palpatine is already having in the young padawan, but it is good to see a glimpse of the master/student relationship that Obi-Wan and Anakin had. Also I could see how young Anakin is learning the importance of duty and to be part of something greater. I explored some parallels I saw from this issue and the other one released today (Star Wars # 19) on this thread.

Agree, maybe it is not necessary but I reckon it is nice to read, especially if there is a feeling the storytelling and the motivations behind the characters in the PT were a little bit loose.

 

Great review, @LadyMusashi ! I'm glad I'm not the only one who was let down by the abrupt ending. Absolute throwaway of the established characters. It almost feels like there might have been more issues planned but they realized they only had 1 issue to wrap up the story. It's a nice addition to the cannon, but a really sloppy way to end it. I liked this series and hope we revisit Carnelion IV at some point.

 

Awesome review, @LadyMusashi! I felt that this last issue needed just another one to have made it a greater story, with exposition on what Anakin may have done on his own, more about the Sith on the world of the Open and Close, and having more scenes after the Republic arrives with at least Kolara. It was, still, a great miniseries, just below the Lando one in my opinion. I'm just really glad we got prequel stuff!

 

The ending was indeed abrupt. I was especially surprised how quickly the Jedi arrived on the planet. They seem to arrive within five minutes or so. I had the idea that the planet was somewhere in the Outer Rim, but, if the Jedi arrived that fast, it must have been close to Coruscant and the spaceships should have been on standby. In a very opportunistic galaxy, with smugglers, weapons dealers, pirates, slave traders, and scavengers, it is remarkable that no one had taken advantage of the people on this planet. Someone could have sold weapons to one or both sides of the conflict and made much money.

 

This story wrapped up too quick. The only part of this issue that I liked was Obi Wan asking the question we were all wondering; what color is that lightsaber?

 

Yeah, and I feel like they could have gone further. I wish they had one more issue to wrap everything up. I'm kind of OD'd on Han Solo (the replacement to this series)at the moment and could think of ten other characters I'd prefer they focus on.

 

I'm kind of worried they're going to reign in on the ongoing titles in favor of putting out these 5-6 issue mini series, that all seem to wrap up a bit too quickly. Give these stories some time, if they're so worth telling.
Once DV is over, is Star Wars the only ongoing title left?
As much as I liked the Lando mini, I could've done without it and all the other short runs in favor of just reading an ongoing SW, DV, and Kanan.

 

I think that Poe Dameron is an ongoing series now too.

 

@LadyMusashi great review! Overall I really enjoyed the comic series, and if I'm being completely honest, would have preferred this over TPM as Episode I (just switch out Kolara for Padme, make a few mentions of Anakin's mother, and boom). The ending could have been done far better, but the run was a solid addition to the Star Wars lore. And now, on to Han Solo!

 

Great review as always LM... thanks.

 

could I watch a TV show set in this timeline Yes. could I read more comics and books in this part of the timeline, yes. Will they explore more of this time in Anakin's life. Doubtful. Did I like this comic run, yes but I didn't love it. It showed some of the potential that is there. Anakin struggling from the beginning to adapt to being a Jedi. Obi-Wan Struggling to control Anakin and the problem is right there, He never allows Anakin to be the jedi he needs to be ,but perhaps that is the true fault of Obi's training. He's trying to make Anakin something he's not. Granted with good intention but I think it shows how different Anakin could have been had Qui Gon trained him. Qui Gon I think didn't care what the order thought, he would have gone his way. Sometimes Obi-Wan was always competing like a brother with Anakin and not as the fatherly figure Anakin needed. I know Anakin did say that he was like a father to him but I'm saying more of the feeling I get when I see them on screen and page. Off topic I suppose for this review, which was a great review. Agreed 100 percent.