Today saw the release of the sixth and final issue of Marvel Comics’ adaptation of Lucasfilm’s live-action Disney+ series Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi, and below are my thoughts on this climactic installment.
Over the past six months (and before that, as well) I’ve made no secret of my general disinterest in direct adaptations from movies or television into the comic-book form, and Marvel’s Obi-Wan Kenobi adaptation has done very little to change that. As I’ve noted before, it’s essentially a beat-for-beat, line-for-line, and nearly shot-for-shot translation of the series into sequential art, lending almost nothing creatively of its own from either the writing (by Jody Houser, who has done much more impressive work elsewhere, like in the current Star Wars: Thrawn – Alliances novel adaptation) or the illustrations (by Salvador Larocca, whose drawings have always just looked like traced screenshots and are undoubtedly the number-one reason why this entire enterprise fell flat for me).
Thankfully, this is the final issue of Obi-Wan Kenobi (for the time being, and as far as we know) so I can go back to looking forward to owning the streaming series on 4K disc at the end of April. You’ll recall from the show that this climactic episode sees the title character on the run from Darth Vader (the Sith Lord who was once Obi-Wan’s Jedi Padawan Anakin Skywalker) and the evil Galactic Empire. In an effort to help Doken and the other members of the Hidden Path escape, Obi-Wan takes a shuttle down to the surface of a nearby planet, luring Vader to another lightsaber duel in a desolate landscape. Meanwhile on Tatooine, the former Inquisitor Reva has tracked young Luke Skywalker to the Lars homestead, where Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru put up defenses to ward against the invading warrior, who herself was once a Jedi Youngling.
Here’s the thing– if this is your bag, by all means pick up this comic and enjoy consuming the exact same story with no creative spin put on it in either the visuals or the dialogue. To me, this was a dull, lifeless exercise, and I really hope that Marvel goes a different way with future adaptations of Lucasfilm media. I know there’s a Star Wars: Ahsoka comic miniseries coming up later this year, and I can only cross my fingers that the writer and (especially) the artist for that title find ways to make that memorable and unique in its own right rather than simply transcribing and copying what we’ve already seen on Disney+.
Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi #6 is available now wherever comic books are sold.