Story By: Greg Weisman
Art By: Pepe Larraz
Published By: Marvel Comics
Dipping into this issue, it instantly becomes apparent that this was a story that absolutely needed to be told. While Kanan Jarrus has been a definite fan favorite, there was a lot to his story that we never really got to fully explore. We knew him as a cocky and sarcastic space cowboy who was once a Jedi but his transition to a renegade has stayed mostly hidden. Marvel has finally given us his story in the form of Kanan: The Last Padawan and this first issue is an absolute joy for fans of the Star Wars universe.
The first page gives us a nice little recap of events and helps introduce the characters and timeline for the ever expanding Star Wars universe. It’s nice to have and makes the comic a little more friendly for fans who might not be as familiar with Kanan Jarrus. It also helps hammer out the timeline as the comic begins with Kanan on his ship, the Ghost, and flashes back to his time as a Jedi when he was known as Caleb Dume.
The flashback is where the story gets interesting. While Kanan’s time as a Jedi was by no means hidden, there’s been much discussion about what exactly influenced his decision to give up the Jedi life as well as exactly what went down during the infamous Order 66 event (which was an order to kill all Jedi). Writer Greg Weisman made the genius decision to begin Kanan’s story during the Clone Wars, specifically during the battle on Kaller. By doing this, we get just enough introduction into Kanan’s time as a Jedi without needing a large setup to launch us into the events of Order 66 and the pace moves quite quickly without overloading the reader with tiny details.
What Weisman does focus on, however, is Kanan’s education as a Padawan. Fans will be happy to see that Depa Billaba makes an appearance and that much time is spent on her giving Kanan pieces of advice that most certainly shaped him into the person he became. It sounds like a bit of foreshadowing at times but it makes a rather excellent opening issue when you consider that the bulk of the series will involve Order 66 and the fallout of that event. It’s the calm before the storm and gives it all some great breathing room, especially since the issue begins with Kanan and Billaba fighting on Kaller.
Pepe Larraz is a great fit for the series and his art really shines during battle sequences. Larraz also devotes a ton of time to background and environments which was a pleasure all on its own. I found myself spending extra time on each and every panel just because there was so much to see. People get blasted in the background, smokes settles on the horizon, and troops guard over the camp. There’s so much to look at that the world itself takes on a life of its own, which is wonderful to see in a Star Wars comic since the world has already been established so vividly across media for decades.
There’s a lot going on in this series which is a great thing and the setup of issue #1 promises that the future issues will at the very least contain some stellar stories (in both the present and the past). Fans of Star Wars will be happy to see that quite a few characters make an appearance and the mere mentioning of Order 66 is sure to excite and draw in readers. This is a great start to what’s sure to be a great series and fans should definitely be picking this up.
