Star Wars (2020) #43
THE HEALING FORCE
Before being pulled into the fight against the evil scourge, Luke Skywalker was continuing his Jedi training, seeking out the secrets of the kyber crystals on the planet Christophsis.
With the help of his friend Gretta and her Auntie Fee, Luke was able to enter into the red crystal again, returning to the hidden fortress in the blood-red sea that he had briefly glimpsed before.
Luke had been attempting to heal the injuries and sorrow that turned the crystal to its ominous crimson shine, but now he has encountered a power determined to offer him some pain of its own….
Writer: Charles Soule
Penciller: Steven Cummings, Jethro Morales
Inker: Wayne Faucher, Jethro Morales
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Cover artist: Stephen Segovia
Editor: Mark Paniccia
Publication date: February 21 2024
We open issue 43 where we left in issue 42 as Luke Skywalker – in a trance under the watchful eyes of Auntie Fee and Gretta – sits trapped, beaten and bloody inside the prison of an ancient Sith, who reminds him that the good days blend into forgettable pulp, but the pain is what one remembers. Luke insists he only came to help, but she is immovable and tells him that pain is part of our history, and how together they could build a better version. After reminding him that his lost hand will never heal we see Luke pause to think, remembering the severing if his hand by Darth Vader and stepping out of this ‘mind prison’.
He’s outside in the snow, where he finds a small child – a baby version of the Sith imprioning him – and we see him back in his original prison, now restored. He starts again wirth the young Sith, as she grows through bullying and derision until he puts his hand on her shoulder, telling her pain isn’t the only path, but she reacts by swinging her lightsaber at Luke, and in defence he ignites – to his clear surprise – the green blade we know so well from Return of the Jedi, presumably seeing it for the very first time here in this vision, and they clash in a fierce fight as she calls him a fool for following the Jedi path and he clips her saber out of her hand.
She tells Luke how this place ‘chimes and echoes’ with pain, and he turns to see Darth Vader, and suddenly they’re back on Bespin fighting but this time Luke is in black with his green blade, and using his skills in the Force he leaps over Vader and runs, fast for the exit. We see shadows from his past, images of Owen and Beru, Ben’s death, Han in carbonite, the wampa attack and himself as a bay on Polis Massa. Vader is before him once again, and Luke stands firm, telling Vader he knows its their shared destiny to face each other again and how he didn’t begin as Darth Vader, he was someone else and we see the glowing silhouette of Anakin Skywalker as Luke tells him ‘no one is beyond help’.
Seconds later he’s falling, back to where his physical body lies with a satisfied smile on his face, and he’s back in the room with Gretta and Auntie Fee, who’s impressed that Luke has indeed managed to heal the crystal. He’s not learned much more about the Sith, onces very different from the Sith of today, but he did learn much about himself, and we end as he holds aloft a green kyber crystal as Fee and Gretta look on.
Dreams and visions issues like this are always trickly, because nothing we see has actually happened, but here the visions have a tremendous effect; Luke sees his green blade for the first time, understands he is fated to face Vader again, and resolves to find the good in Vader when they do meet. It’s an interesting way for Luke to ‘figure it out’, and as he falls back to his physical self with a warm satisfied smile on his face it’s clear that internally he really has figured it out, and has a route towards what he needs to do. As his sister would say decades in the future ‘we have everything we need’, and right now Luke would appear to have all the constituent parts required to achieve the impossible. An unexpectedly satisfying issue that has unveiled far more than first impressions might show.
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Soule, Charles (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 22 Pages - 03/06/2024 (Publication Date) - Marvel (Publisher)
