Comic Review - Rey Seeks Out the Sith Wayfinder in Marvel's "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" Adaptation #3
Last week saw the release of the third issue in Marvel Comics’ Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker adaptation, and below are my thoughts on this installment.
The Rise of Skywalker #3 opens with the scene from the movie in which General Hux reveals to Poe Dameron, Finn, and Chewbacca that he is indeed the spy feeding the Resistance information from within the First Order. Sadly this decision does not play out well for poor Hux in the end, but writer Jody Houser and (especially) artist Will Sliney have a lot of fun recreating that turn of events on the comics page. I’m also enjoying the moody colors by Guru-eFX, but I have to say I was taken out of the moment by the moment when Kylo Ren says to Rey, “Your parents were no one. They chose to be. To keep you safe." I still think this is one of the dumbest moments in Star Wars history that immediately undoes one of the boldest and most interesting creative choices from the previous entry in the Skywalker Saga, The Last Jedi.
Still, Houser and Sliney continue to make the best of the uneven source material they’re working with here, and I’ll add additional praise to the artist for making such interesting choices with his interpretation of the scenes that play out in this chapter. On Houser’s part, we do get another added conversation (not contained within the body of the film) between Resistance technician Rose Tico and General Leia Organa about the Final Order and its fleet, plus some new lines of dialogue that– thankfully– make it more clear what Finn wanted to tell Rey, and what his relationship with the Force might be. We also get to see a flashback of Jannah in her First Order stormtrooper armor and a vision Rey has of Darth Vader dueling his son Luke Skywalker in the second Death Star’s throne room, but the rest is a fairly straightforward adaptation of the movie, which is fine and works well enough.
I have complicated feelings about both The Rise of Skywalker and adaptations of existing Star Wars material in general, but after three issues of this miniseries I still believe that the members of its creative team are bringing enough of their own personal styles and input to the proceedings to make reading it worthwhile to fans, whether you’re into this particular entry in the saga or not. There are pages and panels here– I’ll call out one specific example in the middle with Rey facing her dark-side mirror-image– that I would consider frameable as art unto themselves, and that elevates this comic above the standard retelling.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker #3 is available now wherever comic books are sold.