Released on Wednesday of last week, issue #35 of the current volume of Marvel’s flagship Star Wars comic book by Charles Soule sees would-be Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker taking another step closer to his destiny that we saw in Return of the Jedi.
Star Wars #35 begins where the previous issue left off, with Luke having met the enigmatic Cuata (first mentioned in the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story novelization), a scientist researching Kyber crystals and lightsabers. Cuata claims to be able to hear the crystals speaking to him, and the woman named Gretta who brought Luke to meet him explains that spending too much time around Kyber can mess with one’s mind. Anyway, Luke wants Cuata to fix the yellow lightsaber he’s been using recently, and the Pantoran discovers that its crystal is cracked, so he sets to work on repairing it. But in exchange, he wants Luke to meditate using the Force and subconsciously engage with two separate Kyber crystals– one red and one clear– basically just to see what happens. For the red crystal, which Luke is ostensibly meant to free from its dark-side prison, Luke sees a vision of what appears to be an ancient Sith Lord, followed by an encounter with his own father, Darth Vader. Then, once inside the clear crystal, Luke has an entire conversation with Yoda, and eventually wakes up to find that he’s turned the crystal he’s holding green.
Naturally, as readers we know that this newly green Kyber crystal will become part of the lightsaber that Luke builds for himself prior to the events of Return of the Jedi, but that doesn’t happen quite yet in this particular issue. Instead, we get a very nice refresher course on the inner workings of lightsabers and how the Kyber crystals help make them work. This is a good download of mythos for readers, but it’s also important for Luke to learn this stuff, as well, as we never saw Obi-Wan or Yoda teach it to him. This is a quieter, contemplative issue, but I really appreciated the characters just having time to reflect on some of the murkier aspects of the Star Wars mythology. It’s pretty rare for me to have any complaints about Soule’s writing, and that holds true here, while the art by Madibek Musabekov with colorist Rachelle Rosenberg is perfectly suited to the subtler tone of this outing. There’s not a whole lot else to say except that I’m thankful we’re getting to see some key parts of Luke’s journey play out in these comics, which are often relegated to telling stories that don’t amount to much of anything in the bigger picture.
Star Wars #35 is available now wherever comic books are sold.