Star Wars: Jedi Knights #2: Rise Of Atha Prime

Star Wars: Jedi Knights #2 is the long-awaited debut of Atha Prime the character originally created to be the main villain for an unreleased Kenner toy line in the ’80s, following of Return Of The Jedi intended to continue the success of Star Wars action figures following the release of the Original Trilogy.

In introducing this Atha Prime, Guggenheim uses Yoda and Venta Mooncrest, a disabled / cybernetically enhanced Jedi Knight, due to a congenital condition, created for the series.  Mooncrest’s introduction is done well as it is addressed as the story unfolds and not done in a way to portray her as any less of a Jedi because of it.

As a character, Atha Prime still has plenty of room.for development, but his motives for wanting to oppose the Jedi is still vague, although, after going toe-to-toe and even getting the upper hand against Yoda, does well to establish him as a palpable threat to the Jedi Order. Prime’s “creations” seem to be a combination of the Alien Xenomorph’s and The Nameless from The High Republic stories, although without The Force nullifying abilities.

This seems to only be the beginning of a larger story arc involving Atha Prime which will hopefully continue to play out and eventually intersect with the arc that launched the series: the mystery assassin who attacked Qui-Gon last issue and who Obi-Wan has seen killing his Master in his Force Vision.

This thread is revisited in the last few pages but doesn’t add much to the thread aside from Obi-Wan revealing to Qui-Gon about his vision and why he is unable to focus during the training session.

Madibek Musabekov’s art and Luke Ross’s colorwork continue to work well and bring the story to life.