Star Wars: Age Of Republic - Obi-Wan Kenobi #1 - Marvel Comics

STAR WARS: AGE OF REPUBLIC - OBI-WAN KENOBI No. 1, March 2019

Disappointed Star Wars fans eager for an Obi-Wan Kenobi spin-off movie featuring Ewan McGregor were probably still very relieved in January 2019 that “The Walt Disney Company” hadn’t yet committed to any ‘Silver Screen’ motion picture if Jody Houser’s narrative for this twenty-page periodical was indicative of the storyline the entertainment conglomerate might have been contemplating. For whilst the “author who wrote the 2017 comic adaption of the film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” certainly provides the book with a somewhat scintillating conclusion as Ben battles a formidable array of space pirates on the planet Dallenor with his lightsaber, the Jedi Knight’s confrontation with Hudso Shaku is frustratingly fleeting and follows something of a tedious tale about the titular character’s doubts as to whether he is suited to train an adolescent Anakin Skywalker in the ways of the Force; “Perhaps the Master is meant to be as much a student as the Padawan.”

Of course Ben’s misgivings as to his ability to make good upon his “promise to his dying master to train” Shmi’s son in the ways of the Force has arguably always been an underlying theme of George Lucas’ as to just why the prophesied Chosen One would eventually transform into the Sith Lord Darth Vader. Yet the Rod Parker Fellowship-winner’s story seems to take such great delight in portraying Qui-Gon Jinn’s former student as a distrustfully impotent teacher that Kenobi even has to be ‘told’ by Yoda to take his young apprentice with him on their first “quest” together, and debatably few of this publication’s 36,392 readers were subsequently surprised when the diminutive Skywalker, rather than the boy's bearded companion, ultimately bests the leader of the Krypder Riders by hurling a small scattering of stones at the back of his bird-shaped head. 

On the plus side to Issue One of “Star Wars: Age Of Republic – Obi-Wan Kenobi” however, artists Cory Smith and Wilton Santos do seemingly try to keep the future Clone Wars General constantly within the book’s spotlight, courtesy of some well-pencilled panels which quite delightfully capture the Scottish actor’s facial likeness. In fact, alongside Walden Wong’s inking and Java Tartaglia’s colouring, this “third one-shot in the comic book anthology series” is a rather visually enticing affair, even if the beak-faced inhabitants of Dallenor disconcertingly look far too cartoonish to be taken seriously as the antagonists of “Mission”.

Writer: Jody Houser, Pencilers: Cory Smith & Wilton Santos, and Inker: Walden Wong