Star Wars #20 (2020)
DANGEROUS LESSONS
After feeling the pull to continue his Jedi training, Luke Skywalker journeys to many planets to find anything left of the Jedi that the Empire had yet to destroy.
With the help of a man once saved by another Jedi long ago, Luke uses his connection to the Force to attain a holocron containing a message from Jedi Master Yoda….
Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: Marco Castiello
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Cover artist: Carlo Pagulayan
Editor: Mark Paniccia
Publication date: January 12, 2022
We’re on the world of Al’doleem with Luke Skywalker and R2-D2 as they watch a message played from a Jedi holocron of Luke’s master, Yoda. Revealing one of the key Jedi lessons, one would expect Luke to be thrilled to not only find a holocron but for it to contain such wisdom from his master, but instead he is far from thrilled as the lesson imparted has been told to Luke before, during the events of The Empire Strikes Back and his time spent on Dagobah. In his frustration he levitates a rock, as he did Artoo back on the swamp planet, and considers abandoning his training until his astromech suggests he open the holocron once more.
That is a wise move. Yoda speaks of vergences, locations where the Force is at its strongest. Coruscant, Jedha and the Living Sea of Gazian, in the Mid Rim, which is where Red Five roars to, landing on its mushroom-like surface. Luke steps on it, only to be sucked under and waking up to find himself face-to-face with a Jedi of The High Republic era, Elzar Mann.
Mann explains that the Living Sea takes an ‘imprint’ of the visitor, reproducing that person exactly as they were when they visited. Mann came for wisdom after a vision, while Luke – still early in his own development – is looking for knowledge of the Jedi. Elzar explains how things were going badly for the Jedi of his time, and Luke tells Mann of the Jedi he knows. Obi-Wan, and Yoda who of course is familiar to Elzar. Finally he describes the fallen Jedi Anakin Skywalker.
Around them, the landscape changes from the spongy redness of the ‘mushrooms’ to the clearing in front of the tree on Ahch-To to the opulence of The High Republic era Coruscant, Jedi Vectors flying high over the buildings. Luke reveals his frustrations, of the pressure of being the hero of the Rebellion, and the loneliness of learning the ways of the Force largely alone. Elzar explains how it was for him, and we see Mann, Stellan Gios and Avar Kris ready for action, how the Jedi fight, instruct, reflect and when their numbers are depleted, be that last flickering light of hope.
Mann tells Luke he doesn’t have to be a Jedi, that there are other ways, and as we see them swimming in an ocean, the figures of Qui-Gon, Avar, Yoda and others around them their meeting ends as Luke gazes upon his black-clothed, Return of the Jedi era self, the echo that remains in the Living Sea as he wakes. Composing himself he views the decomposing Jedi who remained, and grabbing a journal from one of those bodies he claws himself out and back to the platform where his X-Wing and Artoo are waiting.
From what could have been a trying, obvious link to The High Republic era, Charles Soule pulls out an absolute gem of a story that harkens back to Luke’s own journey as well as the path the Jedi have trodden for centuries. As Elzar says, no matter what he lessons absorbs, he’ll never stop learning, or wanting to learn, and that lays down a potential dark path as knowledge leads to power, access to more knowledge, more power and eventually the shuttering of self-awareness and wisdom and the arrival of vanity and the selfishness of the Sith. It’s a lesson for Jedi of any era.
Complimented by powerful art by Marco Castiello and well-chosen colours by Rachelle Rosenberg, this really is a treat for fans of all eras and a reminder that yes, The High Republic may well be over two centuries ago but its lessons and stories are as relevant to Luke Skywalker in the GFFA as they are to us in 2022. Top drawer storytelling from all involved.
Star Wars #21 @ ForbiddenPlanet.com
