This week saw the release of the sixth issue in Marvel Comics’ adaptation of Lucasfilm’s live-action Disney+ series Star Wars: Ahsoka, and below are my thoughts on this installment.
Ahsoka #6, naturally, adapts the sixth episode of the series, which was entitled “Far, Far Away,” and within the first two pages of the comic-book version we get the reminder that a character– namely the ancient droid Professor Huyang– finally spoke that famous introductory title card line aloud in live-action Star Wars media. Those two pages are also quite notably the only appearance of the title character of this series in this issue, as Ahsoka Tano and Huyang ride through hyperspace in the mouth of a Purrgil space-whale, with the focus immediately shifting thereafter to Morgan Elsbeth and her allies Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati. These villains arrive at the fabled witch-inhabited planet of Peridea, meet up with the three Great Mothers of that world, and bring their hostage Sabine Wren along with them into their castle.
Meanwhile, Baylan and Shin plot out their ulterior motives for accompanying Elsbeth on this journey, and Grand Admiral Thrawn finally makes his first appearance in Ahsoka by way of his run-down Star Destroyer the Chimaera. The scenes between Thrawn, the witches, Morgan, and Sabine are just as enthralling here on the comic page as they were on Disney+, and I’m pleased to say that writer Rodney Barnes and artist Georges Jeanty have done a great job of maintaining the tension and pacing of this episode in adapting it to sequential art. The scenes featuring Sabine on her trek out into the wilds of Peridea to track down her old friend Ezra Bridger are especially breathtaking, considering they are mostly devoid of dialogue and rely on comic-style visuals (including a well-choreographed action sequence) in order to get the story across to readers.
Fans of the series will remember that this is also the episode that reintroduces Ezra into the fray, and the reunion between him and Sabine plays well here too, as does Thrawn’s realization that Ahsoka may indeed still be alive and headed toward his position at breakneck speed. All told I think this may be my favorite issue of Star Wars: Ahsoka so far, just as it was one of my favorite episodes (if not my absolute favorite, I don’t recall how I reacted to the remaining two– must revisit now that I own the season on 4K disc) of the show it’s been adapting. For whatever reason, this chapter just had the right amount of beats to fill out the page count this time around, which I am sure can be a tricky thing for the creative team to navigate when it doesn’t work out that way. With two issues left to go, this is shaping up to be one of the stronger Disney+ Lucasfilm adaptations that Marvel Comics has put together.
Star Wars: Ahsoka #6 is available now wherever comic books are sold.