Star Wars – Obi-Wan #5: The Empire at the Door

Starting just before the Disney+ series Kenobi and finishing a few months later, this series acts as a companion piece to the show. The fact that the show is named after his last name and this series his first goes to prove that in itself. However, the show and comic series do not overlap much, so it can’t be said that they are directly connected. The series follows Kenobi as a child, a teen, a knight, a general, and an old Jedi master in each issue, respectively. There is a space in between the fourth and fifth issue where the TV show would fit. Strangely enough, after forty-five years of being a major Star Wars character, this series is his only self-titled series. For being only five issues long, it had to cover a lot of time. Skipping over and telling stories in between the obvious major moments in Kenobi’s life, as seen throughout various shows and films, was a good choice. It gives this series a uniqueness without just relying on piggybacking off of other more famous stories. This issue fills in some holes in Kenobi’s development, which seems always to be the main goal of “Star Wars” comics with Marvel. They do a great job strengthening the film media, and this series excels at it. This particular issue makes for a fantastic book end because it leads right up to about the time of the original film. All in all, between the various animated and live-action incarnations and this series, Master General Obi-Wan Kenobi’s entire life, in which he has devoted to the Jedi, is told.

This particular issue wraps up a lot of things very nicely. When the final issue of a series can do that, it makes for a great graphic novel to come out later. The end of the storm is one way it is wrapped up nicely. With the end of it, so comes the end of Ben’s writing. This acts as a very nice transition device into the present. The sands of the past are behind him, and the old hermit looks toward the future. This issue wraps up his time on the desert planet by giving him one more look into the lives of the Tusken Raiders and other local beings. It also gives him one more time to humanize the Empire as he attempts to rescue a wounded stormtrooper. Seeing the wounded soldier reminds him of the clones he commanded and the futility of life wasted on war. The absence of his faithful eopie mount in the original film is even explained. Finally, Obi-Wan gets to drop his famous line of “hello there,” which ties this to the original trilogy, the prequel trilogy, and Kenobi by association. Coming to a satisfying close, this series has accomplished much in five short issues. It has a resonance on not only the short future of the character but his long past as well.

Despite being a very well-done Obi-Wan story by itself, this series has a noticeable impact on the overall saga. To help this along, a team of various artists was employed to give the series a richness in different styles for different eras of Kenobi’s life. This issue features some great art through the faces of the characters within, adding much-needed characterization to the Imperials, in particular, for whom Kenobi must also humanize along with the reader. Almost the entire issue takes place at night, and the color reflects that well. Deep navy skies and cool dusty rocks paint the cold desert nights of Tatooine well. Even the scaly Dewback skins look awash in a nightly hue. The moonlit glow of the stormtrooper armor adds to the effect as well. When fighting begins, the cool colors of the night are slashed with red laser fire. By the end of the issue, it is morning and the pages are soaked with the light  and yellows of the two suns. Not only is this a fitting end to a series about a long storm, but it represents the dawn of a new day that will ultimately lead to Obi-Wan Kenobi’s ultimate destiny on the horizon.