Obi-Wan #1 is Fun, But There’s Not a Lot There

Hello there! With a Disney+ show launching at the end of the month, everyone’s favorite Jedi with a loose definition of “the truth” gets a miniseries spotlighting his past exploits. First up, in Star Wars: Obi-Wan #1, an adventure of tween Obi-Wan from his Jedi Temple days, written by Christopher Cantwell, art by Ario Anindito, colored by Carlos Lopez and lettered by Joe Caramagna

Tony: Austin! It’s May the 4th time! You know what that means!

Austin: Shameless tie-ins to Star Wars products and puns galore? I kid, but I do truly love this marketing-driven, made-up holiday!  

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

Tony: So I wasn’t quite sure what to expect out of this mini, outside of corporate mandated tie-in media (be sure to tune into Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney+, May 27th!). I feel like what we got was a lot quieter and introspective than anyone might have expected.

Austin: Definitely a little surprising. The opening pages, setting the series as, presumably, a series of flashbacks to Obi-Wan’s pre-exile life on Tatooine, hit the tone I was expecting. We see Obi-Wan go about his day, resignedly preparing for a coming storm (a literal and, presumably, metaphoric one as well), before settling down for a bit of good old-fashioned journaling. But the tale which follows, presented as the entry he’s writing, is a lot quieter than I was expecting it to be, especially for a first issue. There’s nary a lightsaber in sight! 

Tony: Starting with the McGuinness version of Obi-Wan was a bit of a delight, and I really dig the idea of exploring his life through his journals. 

Austin: It’s a technique that was used a few times in the first volume of Marvel’s relaunched Star Wars book (from 2015) to feature some “Obi-Wan on Tatooine” flashback stories, so it’s a nice bit of narrative precedent. 

A Night Out 

Tony: I can’t think of any story, expanded universe, main canon, etc, that has covered Ben Kenobi’s childhood before. I think the earliest we may have gotten were some of the novels about his younger Padawan days. Cantwell treads new ground for me here, and I REALLY like that it started there. The only issue I have with the main portion of the story is that young Ben looks like a very generic youngling, which really isn’t the fault of Anindito. We‘ve never seen young Ben before, there’s no model for him. Plus I doubt many people have seen baby pictures of Ewan MacGregor, so it’s not like he could use that.

Austin: Is Obi-Wan without a beard even Obi-Wan (yes, I know, he was clean shaven in Phantom Menace)? 

I agree about the unfortunate yet unavoidable generic-ness of young Obi-Wan’s appearance here, but otherwise, Anindito’s work is pretty solid. In particular, the scenes set in Coruscant’s underbelly do a nice job of mixing up the level of detail in the backgrounds, such that sometimes we’re presented with a tableau in which specific buildings and structures are visible, while at other times, the art is more concerned with creating the sensation of the characters operating inside a dark, claustrophobic underworld.

In terms of the plot, I’m curious to see if this series (which is clearly going to be telling tales from across Obi-Wan’s life) will have any kind of overarching thread to them. The thematic implication aside (more on that below), there really isn’t much to this story. Making it part of a larger arc might help give it a little something. 

Tony: While I liked the issue, the plot was pretty basic, and I feel like we’ve seen this in Star Wars a lot. That’s not bad and it might be a way to ease us into what Cantwell is going to be doing. I’ll be interested to see if Gehren pops back up.

Austin: Ditto. On the one hand, Adult Obi-Wan says he never saw Gehren again. On the other hand, Adult Obi-Wan is a known liar (sorry, known believer in truths from very specific points of view), and Gehren NOT coming back (or at least being referenced in some capacity) makes the plot of this issue even more of a nothing-burger. 

Follow the Stars

Austin: One of the tricky things with any Jedi-focused story in the Prequel Era is that it almost always has to tackle the sticky “Jedi have no attachments” issue. Here, Gehren is clearly meant to parallel Anakin – both remain attached to a suffering parental figure and grapple with the question of staying with the Order or leaving to help their loved one; both take their concerns to Yoda and get brushed off – yet the crux of the action in the story comes from the fact that Obi-Wan is attached to Gehren, and fears what will happen if Gehren leaves. 

Yet it is that attachment – his concern for Gehren’s well being – which ultimately leads him to let Gehren go. We’re also reminded that the Jedi younglings train in clans and bunk together; all things that would seem to breed attachment. Does this seeming contradiction bug you, too, or am I just making something out of nothing? 

Tony: Yeah, I like that they fleshed out the Younglings a bit more (apparently they’re called a Clan), but it definitely creates a contradiction. I liked that though. One of the main points of the prequels and The Clone Wars was that the Jedi had basically become so mired in rules and bureaucracy that they weren’t the protectors the Republic needed. (Side note, I think if The High Republic did one thing well, it was showing that the rules of the prequels were more guidelines in that era. Really condemned the Jedi Council of the Clone War era.)

So it was good to see the Jedi were such hypocrites. To me, at least.

Austin: Oh, I definitely like it when stories point out the shining hypocrisy of the Prequel Era Jedi. It just reaches a point where I struggle with taking any of the characters seriously because THEY fail to see the hypocrisy. Like, we’re supposed to accept Yoda as this wise figure yet he completely misses the contradiction in telling his younglings to avoid attachment while grouping them together to foster attachment to each other. Or, if Obi-Wan truly had no attachment to Gehren, then he’d have dragged Gehren back to the temple rather than let her go. Yet in the end, Yoda seems pleased with the lesson Obi-Wan has learned. He can see that Obi-Wan has escaped his personal fear of not having Gehren around to look after him, but misses that he did that because he cared more about Gehren than being alone.   

I know, I know, that hypocrisy is the point, but the in-universe ignorance of it still rankles me whenever it gets heavily underscored, like in this story. We’ll have to see if this is a theme the series returns to in the future, or just a one-off result of the particular setting of this tale. 

Force Facts

• Next issue is a Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon team-up, a pairing that I think needs its own series (ongoing or mini).
• Is the coming (metaphoric) storm Obi-Wan senses approaching at the start of the issue the events of A New Hope and his ultimate death? The encounter with Maul in Rebels? Or something specific to this mini? 
• It’s ultimately not important, but how did Gehren get a jeweled necklace from her family if she was taken as an infant? 
• The Black Sun affiliate whom Gehren uses to try and get off planet, Nodrus Cay, is a Zabrak, related to Darth Maul’s species. 

Austin Gorton

Austin Gorton also reviews older issues of X-Men at the Real Gentlemen of Leisure website, co-hosts the A Very Special episode podcast, and likes Star Wars. He lives outside Minneapolis, where sometimes, it is not cold. Follow him on Twitter @AustinGorton

Tony Thornley

Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.