Today saw the release of the first issue in Marvel Comics’ new miniseries Star Wars: Inquisitors, and below are my brief recap and thoughts on this installment.
Inquisitors #1 begins on the planet Targyon, where a peaceful group known as the Diagu have vowed to protect the location of Jedi Knight Tensu Run in the years following the execution of Order 66 and the subsequent purge of the Jedi. The Grand Inquisitor (first seen in the Star Wars Rebels animated series, but also featured in Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi and other canon materials) threatens to wipe out all of the adults in this civilization if no one turns over the Jedi, and then he follows through on that promise after he’s given a false lead, taking the children with him back to the Empire. Then we see a meeting between the Grand Inquisitor and Darth Vader, the latter of which tells the former the story of how Tensu Run became a shining beacon among the scattered Jedi who survived the purge. It seems that Run rescued a group of refugees from an Imperial prison camp on Regis Kor, and as they say, the rest is history.
The dialogue-light flashback to those events is beautifully told across a number of pages thanks to the visually stunning work of artist Ramon Rosanas (Star Wars: Age of Resistance) via the skilled writing of Rodney Barnes (who recently adapted the first two seasons of Star Wars: The Mandalorian for Marvel Comics). And then back in the “present” of this comic– which is, of course, set between the events of Revenge of the Sith and the original Star Wars movie, AKA Episode IV – A New Hope (the only period when the Inquisitorius was in operation)– Darth Vader tells the Grand Inquisitor why it is so important to eliminate Tensu: it would mean the death of hope for the survivors of Order 66 and those who would oppose the Empire. Then on the planet Zayron, we are introduced to some of Run’s allies, who are also implied to be Jedi on the run. He even visits his master, an elderly Jedi named Elan, who is hiding out on an old ship called the Voyager Dawn (we’ve seen this vessel before in Star Wars: The High Republic comics, which are set hundreds of years earlier).
Meanwhile, the Grand Inquisitor continues his hunt, and eventually receives a tip that leads him to the Voyager Dawn, where he murders Master Elan and the other Jedi remaining there, though Tensu Run has vanished once again. The final scene sees Tensu back on Zayron with his R5 droid and friend, vowing to take the fight to the Inquisitors themselves instead of continuing to flee from them. I enjoyed the first issue of Inquisitors quite a bit, and with this group of dark-side baddies having popped up in so much Star Wars media lately (in addition to the examples listed above, there’s been the Jedi – Fallen Order video games, Charles Soule’s Darth Vader comics, the Rise of the Red Blade novel, and the Tales of the Empire animated shorts) it makes perfect sense that Marvel Comics and Lucasfilm Publishing would want to explore them some more. I just hope we learn a little bit more about the history and inner workings of the Inquisitorius as a whole rather than just a simple seek-and-destroy mission for the Grand Inquisitor. But I absolutely trust Barnes and Rosanas to deliver an entertaining story either way.
Star Wars: Inquisitors #1 is available now wherever comic books are sold.