Star Wars: Legacy of Vader #2
REIGN OF KYLO REN PART 2
Even after killing Snoke and taking the mantle of Supreme Leader, Kylo Ren still struggles with forging his own path in the shadow of his family’s legacy.
His quest to kill the past took Kylo to Fortress Vader on the planet Mustafar, where he was met with guardians defending the dark lord’s former home.
One he made it inside, he was greeted by a mysterious figure from Vader’s past. One who promises to show Kylo a way forward….
Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: Luke Ross
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Colorist: Nolan Woodward
Cover artist: Derrick Chew
Editor: Mark Pannicia
Publication date: March 12 2025
We open, as so many Star Wars stories do, on the largely deserted world of Tatooine as Kylo Ren and the head – yes, just the head – of Vaneé, carried by a crab-like droid, walk through the deserted streets of the Outer Rim world. Ren doesn’t understand why they are there, but Vaneé reminds him of the importance of Tatooine to Darth Vader, and why that makes it important to Kylo. Tatooine was where he first stepped into the dark side, where his mother Shmi died, where he met his future wife Padmé. If Anakin was the inferno, Tatooine was the fuel, and Kylo asks how Vaneé knows this; he knows because Palpatine knew it, and after Vader and the Emperors ‘death’, Vaneé used Vaders security codes to learn more about the Emperor, and with that more about Vader. Now, that knowledge will become Kylo’s, and as we walk through the wreckage of the abandoned Mos Espa arena, Vanee explains how young Anakins greatness was first displayed here by winning the Boonta Eve Classic, despite being a slave (something Ren was unaware of). How the Jedi saw his power, and took him from his home, leaving his mother behind. From this point of view – one Anakin would have very much subscribed to – his life was a crucible of pain, loss and suffering, despite the incredible opportunity to do good that lay before him.
We see a doube-page spread of Kylo’s own upbringing as Ben Solo, of warmth and prosperity, the extended family Anakin never had. Loving parents and opportunity, all the things he turned his back on when he took the mantle of Kylo Ren. Their thoughts are interupted by a trio of desert dwellers who come to rob Ren and Vanee, talking of Luke Skuywalker ands how he took out an entire First Order fleet, unaware that they’re talking to the Supreme Leader of the First Order and the former loyal aid of Emperor Palpatine. You’d expect it to not end well for them, and you’d be right. Using the Force he makes two of them turn their guns on one another and fire, killing them and leaving the third to flee and tell others to never mention the name of Luke Skywalker again before asking Vaneé who it was that once owned his grandfather.
We arrive at Watto’s wrecked and vacant junkyard, but as Kylo imagines (and we see) the revenge Vader must have wrought on the Toydarian, Vaneé tells him that no, Vader was too busy to enact revenge on his former owner and that Gardulla the Hutt was the one who sold Shmi and Anakin to Watto. The Hutt still lives in a desert fortress, and keen to erase Anakin’s ignominious past he sets out on a swoop heading into the sands and finds the fortress and Weequays protecting it. Another steps out on a huge rancor, warning him to not take another step, and he doesn’t. Instead. he hurls his lightsaber to kill one and leaps to attack the other on the rancor, as another rancor moves in. Using his undoubted skills he takes them both down and we soon see Ren walking into the court of Gardulla the Hutt, who doesn’t know who he is or why he’s there. He explains how she once owned his grandfather, to which she tells him that’s not or ever has been a crime in Hutt space. Ren tells her the past must die, and tired of his words she orders her guards to attack, and we see him quickly dispatch them before a shocking turn as his lightsaber is torn out of his hands and he is flung back, only for is to see a squat new character with white lumpy skin and bulbous green eyes, sat next to Gardulla, her protection against the Force after what happened to Jabba decades before. She does indeed know why he’s there, and tells him that his grandfathers story shall soon be his too as we end the issue with Kylo battered and bruised, hung up in chains.
What could have been a straight-forward history lesson becomes an fascinating parallel as the tortured life of young Anakin Skywalker is held up against the privileged childhood of Kylo Ren. That juxtaposition serves to show us the huge differences between Anakin and Ben, how the torment of the Chosen One was a true tragedy, whereas the descent into darkness of Kylo was largely a choice (albeit one accelerated by external factors like his uncle attempting to kill him in his sleep). While the middle act of the comic (the scavenger assault and the rancor fight) is comparatively by-the-numbers, showing Ren’s strength and determination, the final pages are another goldmine as we meet once again Gardulla the Hutt and the mysterious creature that is able to not only deflect but best Ren him when he attacks.
Another very interesting issue, and one that takes another step to explaining the motivations of Ren and the journey he is on, informed as it is by his families tragedies and triumphs. More of this please; how the First Order came to be and took the galaxy still feels lightly sketched in a franchise that has crawled, flown, swam and strode into every nook and cranny of the timeline apart from that of the sequel trilogy. It’s coming, no doubt, but titles like this only whet the appetite for its arrival. On to issue 3.
