Marvel’s Next Star Wars chapter plays with the dirty feelings left behind after Return of the Jedi

Most of what we know about the events immediately after Return of the Jedi in the present time star Wars continuity has been left in broad strokes for almost as long as rebooted canon has existed. In moving forward The Force AwakensLucasfilm’s transmedia efforts made great strides to begin framing the total collapse of the Empire and the creation of the New Republic, but over the past 10 years, those stories have faded into the ether—out-of-print books and comics, mobile games. it has long been closed, even the broad bones of this transition period star Wars‘ the narrative of the galaxy is always a patchwork. Now, Marvel is revisiting that momentous moment to stitch it up—and in the process, giving us an amazing look at the rest The Skywalker brothers felt as the second Death Star burned above Endor.

The first issue of the Star Wars: Battle of Jakku – Rebellion Rebellion—the first of three Marvel miniseries exploring the prime time period Return of the Jedi and the Battle of Jakku that officially ends the Galactic Civil War just over a year later—by Alex Segura, Leonard Kirk, Stefano Raffaele, Rachelle Rosenberg, Alex Sinclair, and Joe Carmagna, hit shelves today, and it’s starting to weave. together the various threads that played out at this time nine years ago in what would be known as “The journey to The Force Awakens” transmedia project. We cover everything from Acolytes of the Beyond to Chuck Wendig’s After that novels, on the rise of Imperial Governor Adelhard in the Anoat Sector (screened in the deleted EA mobile game, Star Wars: Rebellion), the first issue manages to effectively condense and squarely encapsulate the big picture of the Rebel Alliance’s immediate challenges after its conquest of Endor. But its best scene is one that was never really explored in those early canonizations, and it raises an intriguing question: how did Leia Organa feel about Darth Vader’s death?

We know a lot about Luke’s insides, thankfully Return of the Jedi. Knowing the truth, knowing his true connection to Leia, he rescued the man that was Anakin Skywalker, and laid him on the pyre that took Darth Vader’s ashes. But The Rise of the Rebels #1 gives us a poignant mirror at Luke’s quiet acceptance of what he knew about his father through a complete set of Leia moments.

Sneaking through the festivities of Endor, we briefly see Leia visit the burning remains of the pyre Luke built, as she tries to wrestle with how she should feel about her father’s death. It’s an important reminder that Leia’s experience with Vader at this point in Marvel’s movies and comics is one of constant fear and contradiction—an agent of the Empire who imprisoned and tortured her, who brutally ripped her away from the man she loved, who was the very thing she stood for in the Rebel Alliance. He didn’t we have seen side Vader introduced to Luke in the middle The kingdomthe climax or the whole place Come backor in the midst of all his humor, the man is pushed and pulled between the seeming inevitability of his dark destiny and the light that was once his dominant part. So Leia’s reaction to this fact of who Luke is to her, and who Vader is, is not sympathy or understanding, but anger.

For Leia, her father is already dead when Tarkin and Vader pull the trigger on Alderaan. The family he accepts is the one he made in the Alliance, and he prepares to make it with Han, not the connection he now knows he has with Vader. It’s a short but powerful scene that made it all the more powerful when the issue followed the next day—by having Luke confront Leia about her reaction, emotions, and anger, for being eager enough to know what she did the night before. It takes the mirror established in the previous scene between Leia and Luke and makes it even more real as they argue. Luke begs his sister to understand, knowing the compassion he felt for his father, and offers Leia a chance to channel the anger she felt at him last night, but Leia. he doesn’t want to. They are quickly interrupted by the Rebel development which ends the story, but this scene plays with an interesting idea of ​​what we know about the Jedi in the first season as it is decided. Leia doesn’t want to suppress or compartmentalize what she’s feeling at this moment—sadness, anger, joy, love—the way Luke can. His compassion for their father and his ultimate redemption is unusual for him as his anger at this time is with Luke.

We know that eventually, in time, Leia will accept her share of Skywalker’s bloodline, both in the true form of her father, and as someone who will be part of the next generation of Jedi and her brother. But in this early, raw moment, we get to see what really sets Luke and Leia apart as characters in an interesting way—something we hope to learn more about as the series progresses.

Looking for more io9 news? Check out when you can expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe in film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.