BOOK I, PART III
THE LAST PADAWAN
It is the birth of the Galactic Empire. The evil Emperor Palpatine has taken control of the galaxy and commanded Imperial clone troopers to purge the peacekeeping JEDI ORDER.
Now, no place is safe for the young Jedi Padawan CALEB DUME as he is hunted by Imperial troopers. Stealing a ship from a Kalleran named Kasmir, Caleb attempts to travel to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, only to find himself surrounded by Imperial fighters.
With nowhere to turn, Caleb must learn to do what it takes in order to hide his Jedi past and training if he is to survive….
Issue three and in a short space of story time we’ve seen young Caleb develop and grow as a padawan, finding ‘his lot in life’ and having a purpose. That’s been shattered away from him as Order 66 explodes across the galaxy and we find him alone and in trouble as the clock’s ticking….
The Review
Quite apart from the art, which is really top notch, the thing I’m enjoying most about Kanan is the sense that we are exploring the Star Wars galaxy and its characters, which – so far – isn’t something I’m getting from any of the other titles. Of course, Caleb/Kanan is a brand new character that we know very little of indeed, so it’s all going to be new. But where the other titles feel like they are going over old ground this feels fresh and vibrant. Happily, the third issue reaches the high levels of the first two.
Kicking off we rejoin Caleb in huge trouble as Imperial vessels swarm around his ship. Thankfully, he stole a tough (and beautifully designed and drawn) ship as he evades danger and hops into hyperspace, heading back to the planet he believes his enemies would least expect him to go to, back to Kaller. In a Star Wars story this is perfectly logical. Where did Ben hide Luke? On the world his father came from. Who in their right mind would do that? At least Caleb changed his name…
On his return to Kaller he’s greeted by Kasmir, who isn’t too thrilled to say the least, and Caleb makes a very sweet reference to not calling him kid (anyone else notice that in the first 10 minutes of Spark of Rebellion the word ‘kid’ must have been said about 20 times?) They part ways acrimoniously but Caleb has nowhere to go, no one to follow so he sticks close to Kasmir in the shadows as the days pass, and leaps in to ‘save’ him when he sees a deal go wrong. It isn’t, but Kasmir opts to take on Caleb and changes his look, making him appear to be anything but the Jedi he really is. He destroys his Jedi communicator, stashes his holocron and lightsaber away and goes to work for Kasmir in a heist that goes terribly wrong and ends up in Kasmir betraying him to save his own skin.
There are cliffhanger moments that work and ones that don’t. Star Wars may have soap opera elements, but it isn’t as soap opera and the very nature of comics demands that the final page gives readers a reason to retrun next month and spend their hard-earned money. Kanan is getting that part of the equation very right at the moment, leaving each issue on a knife-edge and making the wait for the next issue feel like an eternity. Again, a minor complaint is that the plot of the issue could be fit into a sentence without commas, but for the little plot there is there’s a heap of character development. In the same way that the ‘Han Solo has a wife?’ debate over in the main title will no doubt lead to as deeper story and a logical conclusion, so this has young Caleb already morphing into a mini Kanan (and in order to stop being called ‘kid’ he’s going to have to find a name soon). With only 2 issues to go before the next Marvel mini series kicks off I’m excited to see where it goes.
And Marvel, if you’re listening, start planning a second Kanan mini series. Annual 5-parters like this showing Kanan develop into the man we know from the TV show would be very welcome.
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