Star Wars #50: Of the Force, Morality, and Ethics of War

Star Wars #50, the final issue of the Star Wars comic story that takes place between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, caps off Charles Soule’s run in a way that encapsulates his contributions to this galaxy far, far away while adding to the gap of time that has yet to be expanded on.

The framing device for the story takes place during the time Ben was Luke’s apprentice on Ossus as Luke is attempting to teach Ben about being a leader in the new Jedi Order and making tough decisions. To do this he imparts a story that takes place after the events of the last issue and before The Return  of the Jedi.

Luke’s story starts on the Mid Rim planet of Gazian, home to the living vergence in the Force, that Yoda’s Holocron mentioned back in Issue #20 (an editor note would have been perfect here for reference).

While in the fungus (which holds memories of those who have been in it, Luke once again meets Jedi Azlin Rell, from Soule’s High Republic Era Light of The Jedi novel, though this time he is much darker than the last time. Rell does say that he can tell him about a weapon that would help defeat the Sith. Here Soule has Madibek Musabekov draw an awesome picture of The Nameless, the creatures that can cause Jedi to loss the connection to the Force but also kill them with a touch as happened in The High Republic novels The Path of Deceit, Battle of Jedha, Cataclysm and Path of Destruction that take place chronologically before Light of The Jedi. This teaser seemed to be pointing to Rell pointing Luke towards the Rod Of Seasons that controls the Nameless.

Turns out the relic that Rell tells him about is called the Grim Rose, a device that if activated with the targets genetic sample and then it would work its way through all the people who had contact with the samples owner. This is where Luke’s story gets interesting as Leia, Luke, Lando, and Chewie debate the ethics of using such a method to ultimately kill Palpatine, weighing the number of deaths that the device would kill as it traced back to Palpatine. Before they can make a decision they travel to Naboo, where the only existing genetic material of Palpatine’s still might exist from his time in the Senate. This part of the story was great as the records administrator bests Lando in figuring out his charade, but ultimately helps them out by supplying the Emperor’s genetic code.

While the others are debating the morality of using the device Chewie activates it and it starts killing its way to Palpatine. As the body count ticks up, they begin to have second thoughts and attempt to shut it off with no success so they return to Grazian and redirect the device so it stops killing.

Soule does a great job with the Rebels debating the morality of using the Device to end the Empires reign. He also does an excellent job of showing the relationship between Luke and Ben which is a bit strained and sets up where we find Ben once he becomes Kylo Ren.

Throughout this run, Soule’s love for the franchise, characters, and themes has been captured on the page by his artist collaborators who helped bring his vision to life for readers.