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| STAR WARS No. 7, September 2015 |
Focusing upon the exploits of the wizard who “is just a
crazy old man”, this "special one-off" stand-alone tale taken “from the journals of
old Ben Kenobi” was the fourth highest-selling comic book of July 2015 and sold
an astonishing 160,000 copies upon its initial publication. However whilst this
magazine was somewhat surprisingly not the most popular of the “Marvel Worldwide”
“Star Wars” titles for the month, that honour falling to the first issue of “Lando”,
it was arguably the best written, with Jason Aaron’s captivating narrative
of a Jedi “in hiding on Tatooine” making many of the science fiction series’ fans
clamour for “Ben the forgotten hermit” to be awarded his very own strip.
Indeed, if the tense, quietly restrained violence and action of
this twenty-page periodical is anything to go by then the Alabama-born author
would certainly seem to have struck a potentially rich vein of future storylines
depicting Obi-Wan’s adventures on the first planet in the binary Tatoo star
system. Especially as this withdrawn, almost timid “Ben the relic” is a far cry
from the laser-sword welding Army of the Republic General previously seen in
the motion picture “Revenge Of The Sith”.
Fortunately despite it having ‘been years since he’s touched
a lightsaber’ and having spent all of that time dwelling “far out in the Dune
Sea, where nothing but womp rats and Tusken Raiders ever dared go”, Aaron still
manages to give the former member of the Jedi Council plenty of enemies to
fight, including a nod to the bounty hunters of “The Empire Strikes Back” with
an early appearance of the “ambitious protocol droid” 4-LOM. These notable
confrontations, such as Kenobi dispatching an entire speeder full of Jabba’s
killers in order to protect Anakin’s young son, are full of suspense and
also provide the disillusioned doubting protagonist ample opportunity to
demonstrate that Qui-Gon Jinn’s Padawan is still more than capable of using the
power of the Force; “There’s something out there, picking us off one by one!
Shoot it!”
Just as well drawn as this comic book has been written, is the
artwork by Simone Bianchi. The Italian graphic designer’s illustrations are
incredibly animated and absolutely packed full of detail. In fact the Luccan
art instructor’s representation of an almost destitute galaxy-weary Obi-Wan Kenobi is
arguably worth the cover price of this comic alone, with the one-time Jedi Master’s
aging appearance being a clever blend of both Ewan
McGregor and Sir Alec Guinness' facial characteristics.
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| The regular cover art of "STAR WARS" No. 7 by John Cassaday |
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