In the penultimate issue of Marvel Comics’ Star Wars: Yoda miniseries (released yesterday), the diminutive green Jedi Master partners with Anakin Skywalker to combat a so-called Megadroid during the Clone Wars.
Yoda #9, written by Marc Guggenheim, begins where the previous issue left off– with the Megadroid staring down Anakin and the titular Jedi Master on the surface of the planet Golatha. This abnormally large droid is made of impenetrable durasteel that even the two Jedi’s lightsabers can’t cut through, so Yoda is forced to improvise during the battle. He tells Anakin to distract their foe while he climbs its enormous structure, opens a panel, and climbs inside. Unfortunately this action triggers a transformation mode, with the droid turning into a UFO-shaped spacecraft, hurtling into the planet’s atmosphere and beyond into space. As the temperature grows colder and his oxygen supply begins to dwindle, Yoda accepts what might be his ultimate fate until young Skywalker shows up at the last minute and initiates a rescue– but not before Yoda imparts one last lesson about how Anakin needs to learn to believe in his own abilities with the Force. Yoda survives this incident, of course, and the issue ends by flashing back to the “present” of the comic (the period set between the events of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back) where he must come to terms with the recent death of his old friend Obi-Wan Kenobi.
We also get a fairly interesting bit of character development for Yoda in the last few panels here: because he failed to detect Sheev Palpatine’s designs on claiming the Republic for his own (and also lost to him in a one-on-one lightsaber duel on the Senate floor), he blames himself for the fall of the Jedi Order and rise of the Galactic Empire. Yoda even goes so far as to say that “better off the galaxy is” without him in it. Now, anyone considering this turn of events in the context of recent Star Wars content will put two-and-two together and realize that Guggenheim is likely intentionally echoing Luke Skywalker’s self-imposed exile in 2017’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi. And with just one issue of Star Wars: Yoda left to go, I’m guessing that writer Cavan Scott (who is set to deliver the final outing) will impart the story of how Yoda came to trust in himself once again, just in time for him to train Anakin’s son Luke Skywalker in the ways of the Force when he arrives on Dagobah. I’m definitely enjoying how this is all coming together, and despite a minor nitpick or two (like the explanation why Yoda is able to cut through the droid from the inside) I thought this was a really fun, fast-paced issue. Like I said last month, it’s cool to see Yoda and Anakin paired up and to watch their personalities bounce off each other, and artist Alessandro Miracolo did a great job of bringing Guggenheim’s narrative to life on the page.
Star Wars: Yoda #9 is available now wherever comic books are sold.