This week saw the release of issue #3 in Marvel Comics’ adaptation of Lucasfilm’s live-action Disney+ series Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi, and below are my brief recap and thoughts on this installment.
For those who recall the Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ series from about a year and a half ago, the third episode involved Ben and Leia traveling to the mining planet Maupuzo aboard an automated trade-route ship in search of passage back to Alderaan. The comic-book adaptation of this chapter follows the exact same narrative, which opens with Obi-Wan meditating in the Force and attempting to contact his old master Qui-Gon Jinn. Then the Jedi Master and his young ward arrive on the planet and walk through the barren landscape hoping to find rescue at coordinates provided to them in the previous installment.
Along the way, Obi-Wan begins to see visions of his former apprentice Anakin Skywalker. Then our heroes encounter a seemingly friendly alien creature driving a transport, though it soon becomes apparent that this being, named Freck, is allied with the Empire. A tense situation and one blaster fight later, and Obi-Wan and Leia meet Tala Durith, an Imperial officer who is secretly participating in the Hidden Path– a network of underground contacts seeking to protect Force users from the Sith Inquisitors. Then this issue– like the episode that it’s adapting– climaxes with a showdown between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader (AKA the helmeted Sith Lord that Anakin became at the end of the Star Wars prequel trilogy).
During this confrontation, Vader ultimately proves more powerful than Obi-Wan in his current state, but thanks to Tala and a friendly loader droid named NED-B, Ben is saved from execution, though the Inquisitor Reva takes young Leia into custody. I remember this being a particularly powerful episode of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, and the comic version mostly does it justice, though there are a few moments– like Anakin’s first appearance in a vision to Ben on Mapuzo– don’t quite land in the same effective way they did in live-action. I’m still not thrilled with artist Salvador Larroca’s overly literal interpretation of the images from the show, but at the same time it’s hard to argue that readers aren’t getting exactly what they signed up for with this adaptation. Personally I would still like to see more artistic experimentation and deviation from the original text from Larroca and writer Jody Houser, though I don’t expect that to happen anytime soon– especially with only three episodes (I mean issues) left in this run.
Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi #3 is available now wherever comic books are sold.