Star Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren

You know, I liked all three movies of the last “Star Wars” trilogy.  Individually.  Taken together, they’re a really great argument for having one solid vision behind any planned three-film cycle.  If this recent trilogy had that kind of planning behind it, a miniseries like “The Rise of Kylo Ren” might have been completely superfluous.  That’s not to say this is a bad miniseries.  In fact, it’s quite good as veteran “Star Wars” writer Charles Soule draws us a pretty clear line from Ben Solo’s transformation into Kylo Ren, starting with the wreckage the character left when he fought off Luke Skywalker during the flashback scenes in “The Last Jedi.”  Still shaken by the ordeal, Ben isn’t in the best state of mind when he’s confronted by three Jedi-in-training who have just returned from off-world.  After fighting them off, he takes off to find the one person he knows he can trust after what has gone down:  Snoke.

Snoke’s advice is to find the Knights of Ren, who aren’t a real highlight of this volume as they, and their leader especially, come off like a bunch of jumped-up dark side thugs.  They do put Ben to the test, however, and it’s more interesting to see them act as a crucible of sorts that he needs to pass through.  Which is good because this is Ben’s story and Soule gives us a compelling take on the character as someone who doesn’t want to be the bad guy.  The problem is that the weight of everyone’s expectations is crushing him down and embracing his inner villain winds up becoming the best way out for him.

Will Sliney illustrates this story and most of it is decent.  He’s got the “Star Wars” style down and offers up solidly detailed art throughout.  Where he keeps falling down is on the character’s faces as a good portion of them wind up looking squashed, or distractingly off-model for some reason.  I’m harping on this because I felt that the story deserved better.  Ben Solo’s fall is a genuine tragedy and Soule communicates that well here.  I know the writer is busy with the “High Republic” initiative right now, but maybe Disney should consider what a new trilogy would look like under his pen.