Today saw the release of the fifth issue in Marvel Comics’ adaptation of Lucasfilm’s live-action Disney+ series Star Wars: Ahsoka, and below are my thoughts on this installment.
The fifth episode of Ahsoka on Disney+ was far and away the most talked-about chapter of the series, with actor Hayden Christensen having returned to reprise his role of Anakin Skywalker, who shows up in a vision to finish his Padawan’s training at long last. In comic book form, writer Rodney Barnes has adapted Dave Filoni’s script faithfully once again, starting us off on the planet Seatos, where New Republic General Hera Syndulla, her son Jacen, and their trusty (though often sociopathic) droid Chopper are searching for their missing friends Ahsoka Tano and Sabine Wren. Instead they come across the ancient professor droid Huyang, and artist Steven Cummings cuts away to the World Between Worlds, where Ahsoka has awoken to find herself face-to-face with her old master Anakin Skywalker for the first time in several decades.
Here the comics, much like the television series episode before it, alternates back and forth between our heroes on Seatos and Ahsoka “completing her training” as she relives battles from the Clone Wars with Anakin in that other, more ethereal realm. Again, Barnes and Cummings as a talented creative partnership have chosen to (or were more likely instructed to by Lucasfilm and Marvel) hew extremely closely to what happened in the show, so there aren’t a lot of surprises here, though I feel they both did a good job in recapturing the mysticism and mood of this installment that had prequel trilogy and Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series fans cheering for the long-awaited reunion between master and apprentice.
I often struggle in coming up with things to say about these comic-book adaptations of Star Wars content we’ve already consumed in other visual media, but here I’ll remark that I enjoyed revisiting this storyline that features Captain Carson Teva of the Adelphi Rangers helping Hera hunt for Ahsoka and Sabine. Though while reading through this issue, I couldn’t help but remember how frustrated I was at this point in the season (as a devotee of author Timothy Zahn’s memorable contributions to the Star Wars mythos) that Grand Admiral Thrawn had not yet shown his face with only three episodes left to go after this. But rest assured Thrawn and his Night Troopers will show up in the next issue, as Star Wars: Ahsoka adapts the next chapter, entitled “Far, Far Away.” Until then, I’m glad for the Anakin Skywalker fans out there that they now have this episode to consume in another form, and as always I’ll look forward to more.
Star Wars: Ahsoka #5 is available now wherever comic books are sold.