4 Issue Test #6 - Kanan: The Last Padawan

You’ve seen in my past reviews that I am a fan of the Star Wars animated series Star Wars Rebels, focusing on a rag-tag group of heroes fighting the empire and forming a rebellion. The character that seems to have the deepest history is Kanan, a former Jedi padawan himself who in a particular episode hinted at having a much darker history.

It’s in this comic where that history is to be explored. Written by former producer of the series and a guy who I have showered with praise before: Greg Weisman. This comic has a strong team behind it, so let’s dig in and see what we’ve got here.

I really like this cover, particularly with way Kanan is in the background, although one issue I do take with it it's really not representative of the events in this issue

The opening text scroll reveals a little bit of back-story regarding order 66, the imperial oppression and rebels including Kanan willing to fight, we however get some interesting information that not even his crew knew that he was once Caleb Dune, a padawan fighting in the clone wars alongside his master, Depa Bilaba.

We open in present time (although pre the season 1 finale) on the ghost where Hera reveals that Fulcrum had just given her a location to pick up some supplies for the Tarkintown refugees on Lothal. The location is on the planet Kaller, a name which Kanan really isn’t pleased to hear.

15 years earlier Caleb and Depa are fighting some droids alongside the clones. He had only been her padawan for a few months but with her guidance he seems to be competent in battle. The separatist general, Kleeve, sees the attack, surprised by Depa’s leadership having being told she was unstable He decides to leave Kaller, warning the leader Gamut Key that Republic Tyranny could be worse than a separatist occupation. With Kleeve leaving the battles is won.

Depa speaks to Gamut Key who suggests that he sees little difference between a Republic or a Seperatist General. Caleb and the clones are a little annoyed by Depa ignores it, telling Ganut that they will sleep under the stars tonight. Caleb tries to ask questions to Depa but she says she will answer later as they begin training under the sunset. She asks how he feels and he says despite the suffering going on around him he feels at peace in the war.

Depa understands but warns that that life will change and he cannot grow too attached, emotions are valuable and shouldn’t be supressed but you need to control them else they’ll control you (honestly the best way I’ve ever heard the jedi way described) later they sit by the fire and Caleb asks why she didn’t respond to Ganut’s insults. Depa gives 2 answer, the first that she believes actions will speak louder than words, and second that she believes that it was a mistake for the jedi to assume rank within the military.

Caleb seems shocked by this as Depa reveals that Caleb was infamous at the jedi temple for asking too many questions, much to the amusement of the clones. Caleb asks questions to better understand decisions rather than questioning the decisions themselves. Depa reveals his inquisitive nature is exactly why she chose him to be her padawan, she gives him a holocron for him to use to answer his questions. Meanwhile we see the mysterious figure of Palepetine giving those fatal words ‘execute order 66’

Another nice looking cover, although sitting under a wanted poster when you're the wanted man, not a smart move!

Issue 2 opens with Caleb feeling pleased with the holocron he’d been given until the clones turn on them. Depa touches him and through their connection to the force they can sense that the clones are wiping out jedi across the galaxy. They fight, taking down a few clones but they’re severely outnumbered and soon their escape will be cut off. Depa tells Caleb to run, saying she’d be right behind him. Caleb knew she was lying but runs away anyway. The clones kill Depa as she makes her final stand against them.

The clones pursue Caleb but he uses some forest camouflage to stay hidden long enough to evade them and makes his way to a city. He boards a transport, wearing a cloak so he isn’t seen as the transport leads him into Plateau City. He spends many days there unable to eat and afraid to sleep less the clones catch him. He’d never really been taught survival skills as part of his training.

He encounters a Kallerian smuggler who offers him food, he asks for a place to sleep for a night and he agrees to let him sleep aboard his ship. His name is Janus Kasmir. He forces Caleb to wash but lets him a full rotation and gives him a new robe and some more food. He’ll have to survive like any other criminal now. Caleb receives a broadcast signal calling him back to Coruscant and asks Janus to take him. Janus refuses and tells him to leave once he’s finished eating. He exits the ship and is confronted by the clone troopers. They say to want to search his ship but might have some trouble doing so as Caleb takes the ship, piloting it to Coruscant.

En-route he gets a message from Obi-Wan, the same message we see in the first episode of Rebels. It tells Caleb to avoid Coruscant but it’s too late he jumps out of hyperspace and is immediately in the middle of an ambush.

It's a great cover but mislead you into believing the space scene is the bulk of the issue, it really isn't

In issue 3 Caleb fires back on the ships, clearing a path enough for him to jump into hyperspace. He decides to head to the one place they wouldn’t expect him to go, Kaller (erm… Kid? You only just left and they have no physical evidence you left the planet, they’ll still be looking for you there.) Anyway he returns the ship back to the platform it was taken from, back to Janus who is naturally quite angry about it (although that stunt probably prevented the clones from discovering any ill-gotten gains) he tells Caleb to leave which he does but he follows Janus from the rooftops, preferring to stick to what he knows.

Janus has a meeting with some fellow smugglers, the meeting goes sour and they have blasters held at him. Caleb drops down using his lightsaber to scare them off (and by scaring them off I mean killing all but one of them, who is scared off). Janus is less than pleased, their negotiation was about a fee for a job, he could’ve doubled it and still wound up ahead. Now they’re no longer an option, Caleb will have to take their place. Although he’ll need to make some changes first, especially a tell wherein he rubs his hair when he gets nervous.

He discards his jedi brades, destroys his communications device and hides his holocron and lightsaber in a drawer in the ship (ah memories). He ties up his hair to avoid the tell but still feels uncomfortable with a blaster. Janus says he won’t the next time he needs to use it and informs him he should consider adopting a new name now that Caleb Dune is a wanted enemy of the empire.

They land at the robbery site, intending to steal some droids for a black market buyer. They bypass the security locks and begin loading the droids onto the ship when they’re confronted by Gamut Key, who instantly recognises Janus under his stupid looking mask. Janus offers a plea bargain, if they don’t charge him, they can have Caleb.

I've never really been a fan of a mostly blank background, so you can see why I regard this cover as the worst of the 4

Issue 4 opens with the revelation that Tápusk, the guy who had survived Caleb’s assault ratted them out (and this is why you don’t reveal exact details of a plan to men who haven’t fully signed on) he wants claim the reward for capturing a jedi. Janus asks that he keep the droids he’s stolen as a share of the reward, 5 times what they’re worth.

Caleb is thrown in a cell while Tápusk and Gamut contact the clone troopers who say they’ll arrange his execution shortly. They leave telling Caleb to make peace and Caleb realises he’s never felt less of a connection to the force. Janus appears at the cell door, asking if he’s ready to go before a droid tears the cell open, since the other side of the cell is a force-field the guards can’t fire on him.

Janus had considered letting Caleb be taken but decided he couldn’t let Tápusk have the reward. The plan had been a success and he was considering pulling a similar stunt on other worlds, which Caleb is not on board with. However they do pull of heists and trades and such across the galaxy, having to jump to hyperspace after each job to avoid the watching eyes of Clone Troopers Grey and Styles. Janus suggests displeasure at this but Caleb reminds him that given his chosen profession it’s better to stay on the move.

They land on the planet Lahn for a trade, stolen goods for stolen goods, the only issue is that they haven’t stolen theirs yet. Janus heads off to acquire them sending Caleb to check their buyer, a Mr Jondo, has the goods they’ve requested. Turns out that Jondo is in fact General Kleeve. Kleeve says he won’t harm the boy. Both sides put their faith in corrupt leadership and neither ended up liking the new empire. They are not enemies and perhaps they never truly were.

Kleeve asks whether they have the spice, and Caleb is elated to discover that they were trading it for another ship (ok, how can he check if Jondo had the goods, if he didn’t even know what they were?) at the ship, Janus is caught by Grey and Styles who interrogate him about Caleb. He tells them he ditched him when they left Kaller. Caleb arrives, hiding beyond the rocks but decides to run, hoping that Janus would be released if a padawan never shows up.

He returns to Kleeve to gain his ship, but Kleeve isn’t happy about it. He says that Janus could be left in prison for being a thief and smuggler, or just out of spite. Caleb throws his words back at him and whilst he isn’t happy about it, he does take Caleb to his ship. They arrives at the ship and Caleb soon realises that something’s wrong, instead of reaching for his blaster he reaches the way of his no lightsaber, which he no longer has and is soon knocked out by the clone troopers (OK, why didn’t you just shoot him, you want him dead, remember?)

So, that was the first 4 issues of Kanan: The Last Padawan but does it pass the 4 issue test? Let’s take a closer look.

The writing for the most part is really good. Greg Weisman has shown his mastery of comic material before and he does so again in this story. There is one choice I question but I’ll leave that till later. The plotting is excellent and the pacing seems perfectly in tune with the nature of the book. It’s quite fast-paced whilst Kanan is on the run, issue 4 particularly. We get a really good insight into Kanan’s character, something I didn’t bring up to much in the summaries else they’d go on too long. His motivations and fears are explored throughout and it does add weight to his journey

The artwork is also really nice, it captures the Star Wars atmosphere really well but as few characters from the movies needed to be captured, there’s a fair amount of free reign in creativeity that stops the artwork looking too forced. (Christopher Jones could teach a masterclass on capturing animation in comics, as could the guys who did the avatar comics) The artwork is really detailed and colourful, the covers are all fantastic, although the first one is a tad ahead of its time.

There’s clearly still plenty to see from this series and I look forward to reading future instalments of the title. Regarding pricing it still keeps to the $3.99 plus bonus digital issue. I would still prefer a cheaper title without the digital copy but at least this time there’s no price hike for the first issue.

My only negative about the story so far is the opening section featuring the Rebels crew. It makes it feel as if they’re going to be part of the story, when they’re not. I recognise wanting something a little familiar for fans of the show but I feel this goes too far and it’s unlikely we’ll see any resolution on that hint any time soon. (Note: It looks like issue 6 is focusing on the rebels crew, may have spoken too soon on that one)

Ratings

#1 8.5/10

#2 9/10

#3 9/10

#4 9.5/10

Average: 9/10

Recommendation: If you’re a fan of the show (and you’re over the age of 12, these are quite mature stories) pick this comic up! It’s a delightful read and will give you some level of insight as to Kanan’s nature on the show. It’s not necessary to read this to understand the show (and it shouldn’t be) but it’s a great read, with great artwork.

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Next: The DCYou is in full swing, so I'll do a few of them, most of which, are not very good.

Images used in this review are from Kanan: The Last Padawan #1-4 and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use