If there’s one thing I love reading, it’s annotations to popular works that I enjoy. Alex Ross’ Kingdom Come? Excellent. Neil Gaiman’s American Gods? Even better. Well, I went to the comic store this past week and picked up two stand-alone Star Wars comics that deserve annotations of my own.
Star Wars: Visions #1 by Takashi Okazaki
Last year’s Star Wars: Visions on Disney Plus was a series of amazing pieces of Japanese animation. The stand out for me was The Duel, starring a disgraced Sith turned repentant wanderer known as The Ronin. Already steeped in both Japanese history and aesthetics as well as a deep understanding of Star Wars design, it was incredible to watch! A red blade being unsheathed from a scabbard – something that doesn’t exist in our Star Wars, but does in Japanese samurai culture. If you want a better idea of how it all worked out, check out the Art book that came out a few months ago. Fans liked it so much, Lucasfilm even released a full-on novel of an original story. While that didn’t grab me in the same way as the short film, I enjoyed it regardless. Now, on with the annotations!
We come across this mysterious individual in the snow, white hair, Jedi-like robes and an R2-type unit wearing Japanese-style accoutrements. He’s stopped by a ton of bandits, all wearing remnants of Stormtrooper armor, just like they did in The Duel. Something about this guy – is he blind? Or is he blind in the traditional way “blind” Jedi see through the force in our traditional Star Wars comics (it’s this last one, BTW). This blind guy looks like an older version of Afro Samurai, the manga and anime hit from the early 2000’s. He was voiced by Samuel L. Jackson. More on this later, but the guy looks like an old man version of that character. Beware, the clip below is NSFW.
Next up, we see our boy The Ronin with his little astromech buddy in a snow sled that looks like a hollowed-out AT-ST on skis. The bandits, complete with bad teeth, pieces of Stormtrooper armor and tattoos, fire upon The Ronin and his droid. I think they want the droids for some reason and don’t care who they kill to get the tech. The red blade is relased from its scabbard and The Ronin reflects the blaster bolts back to the owners very forcefully, apparently killing a bunch of them. Our bad guys accidentally hit the droid who plugs into his AT-ST to activate it (very cool visual touch). His snowmobile lights up like a Christmas tree with weaponry. He then kills off the rest of the bandits.
We next see our two characters (Old Man Afro Samurai and The Ronin) at a hot springs that apparently is only known by fellow warriors. The droid is soaking in a nearby pool of oil, and we get a better look at both OMAS and his coolly-dressed droid along with a scarred and shirtless Ronin. If this were 20 years early, The Ronin would be played by Last Samurai and Bullet Train actor Hiroyuki Sanada. He’s got that cool as hell samurai vibe. Anyway, we learn that Ronin feels he deserves his scars and pain to make up for what he did. According to the book, he decimated his entire fleet, I assume that history follows him here canonically.
The next page shows a whole plethora of Sith villains, mashups of alien species and samurai warriors. From the top left hand side and clockwise: one character who looks like Shredder from TMNT; another who wears a B-Wing pilot space helmet. Next is an Admiral Ackbar Mon Calamari; a guy with a really large dunce-type hat or maybe a Cerean (like Ki-Adi Mundi) with Japanese protective bamboo helmet; a hip-hop Sith with a puffy jacket, jewelry and a glowing symbol in his hand; another creepy looking guy with robes and a monacle; a super-yoked muscular Gree; two old men: one appears to be a sad-looking Twilek with a beard and forehead tattoos and the other one with a beard and a Constable Zuvio hat. There’s also an anime-like youth with a top knot and apparently chewing on a tiny lightsaber toothpick; a long-necked woman with a long staff and tattoos; a Garindan with a similar farmer’s hat; maybe a dog-like creature with a mask? An interesting-looking Rodian with a headband of some kind standing next to another Twilek with a headscarf, jewelry and robes. Finally, there’s an elf-like woman with Native American-like jewely and a deadly Japanese fan. All have some sort of red lightsaber, indicating them to be Sith The Ronin has killed.
Next couple of pages, OMAS tells his tale. There’s a great shot of dozens of Clone Wars-type troopers with armor that has Japanese tints to it, along with vehicles that look like they came from this part of the Star Wars OMAS states he was once known as Shogun, a name familiar to The Ronin. A Shogun was a military dictator back in Japan’s Feudal past. He was apparently some kind of Jedi. Well, right before the war (their version of the Clone Wars, perhaps), Afro Samurai was hit by lightning, blinding him and throwing him off his traditional Japanese building. He survived this and was presented with a giant version of his god, who looks like The Father from the Mortis Trilogy from Clone Wars. The Father sent him on a seemingly impossible quest to find a temple on a planet that he has never heard of. So he wanders with his droid, blind. Now, as I said before, Afro Samurai was voiced by Samuel L. Jackson. Jackson also played Mace Windu. A few days before the end of the Clone Wars, Jedi Grand Master Mace Windu was dueling Darth Sidious and was struck by his Sith Force Lighting, throwing him from a building and plummeting him great heights. Now it’s unknown if Mace survived this (presumably not) and went on his own journey throughout the galaxy. I believe this Old Blind Man Afro Samurai is The Duel-verse version (or variant, MCU-Nick-Fury-style) of Japanese Mace Windu. My final evidence: OMAS has a purple lightsaber, appears to be deadly with it and states at the end: “This party’s over, man.” Which paraphrases Mace at the end of Attack of The Clones, “this party’s over.”
Another page shows the two droids chilling in the oil bath playing dice against four Ewok children, playing with acorns as money. Amazing imagery. The Ronin’s droid is apparently a gambling addict.
The two men talk a little more, about warriors and the fact that one of the casinos just lost all their henchmen to a man with a red lightsaber. They all leave at daybreak and proceed down the same road before saying they have to go their own way. The location is apparently a temple of some sort, with ancient Buddha heads everywhere with a creepy tree. This conversation may or may not have happened as seen on the page: The Ronin is convinced OMAS is going to kill him and they have an epic duel – although all you really see is the initial tension, followed by large images of the two of them fighting with red and purple lightsabers. The Old Man is triumphant and sheathes his lightsaber back in his walking stick.
However, it didn’t happen that way and the two men (and their droids) depart peacefully. The Ronin believes that if he did unsheathe his lightsaber against the Old Man Shogun, he would be dead. The entire duel took place in the minds or in the Force, or whatever. They battle and The Ronin would have lost to a superior Jedi opponent. The droid gives a BB-8 style thumbs up with a lighter and the two start walking towards a TIE Bomber. The OMAS gets another drink in the town down the road.
Final crazy thing: Ronin calls his droid Master. I’m not sure if it changes their dynamic but it is interesting. Never before in Star Wars was a droid master to a human.
All in all, another cool entry in not only the unique universe of Star Wars-adjacent Ronin-verse, but also for the Visions imprint.
To be continued with Revelations…