‘Star Wars: The Fall of Kylo Ren’ #1 continues to connect the dots

Marvel’s Star Wars line has excelled at filling in the gaps between the events of the movies, and no area of the franchise has needed more gap filling than the sequel trilogy era. While full of great characters and interesting themes, by the time Rise of Skywalker came around to multiplexes it was clear that there was a lot of story beats that just weren’t ever going to be touched upon in those films. The sheer amount of “this happened outside of the movies” hand waving and dot connecting that movie committed was almost enough to break even the most devoted Star Wars fan (myself included), but it has been nice to see Marvel pick up the pieces from that trilogy and attempt to weave something cohesive out of them. The latest experiment from the House of Ideas is Star Wars: The Fall of Kylo Ren, with Legacy of Vader writer Charles Soule returning with new artist Will Sliney to flesh out the events between The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker from the perspective of one Ben Solo. Serving as a sequel of sorts to Legacy of Vader, Fall of Kylo Ren finds our Supreme Leader returning to the First Order flagship The Finalizer after his trip to Mustafar. Filled with a new purpose and mission to bring order to the galaxy, Ren’s first order of business is to straighten up the First Order’s leadership under his rule. With Ren at the helm, the infighting and backstabbing from Admiral Hux and new Officer Pryde will be put to rest, and the Order will have a new path to victory after narrowly defeating the Resistance on Crait. But that is easier said than done, as even Ren’s abilities in the Force are blinding him to the unrest within his ranks, and the self-doubt that has plagued him since he turned to the Dark Side still lingers within him. I have to hand it to Charles Soule: he’s one of the best Star Wars writers Marvel has for these kinds of series. From his underrated Darth Vader book to both of his former titles starring Kylo Ren, Soule has a real knack for being able to work within the established canon of the franchise to find new and interesting angles for these characters to work in. Soule finds the inner voice and struggle of Ben Solo expertly in this opening issue, and is even able to make this feel fresh for people who maybe missed Legacy of Vader when it was first released. Fall of Kylo Ren is less of an action book than one may expect though, with the big battle we’re promised happening completely off panel. Instead, it’s a book peppered with interesting political intrigue and deception that, if it can live up to what’s being teased here, could stand tall with Keiron Gillen and Salvador Larroca’s Darth Vader series. Marvel For as good as that intrigue is, the fact that this story takes place between two films (especially one as final as Rise of Skywalker) does hurt the plot of the story a little bit. Since we already know how these character’s plot beats end from that movie, it takes a lot of suspension of disbelief to really go with this narrative about the fight for the First Order’s second in command. Soule’s script does a great job of giving us the inner conflicts of the First Order and Kylo’s mindset that Rise of Skywalker could never devote time to, but there are some elements in this opening issue that feel tonally out of place from what we got throughout the sequel trilogy. I am sure they will be explained away before the series ends, but it can still feel odd to have Vader’s voice taunting Kylo and not go “why wasn’t that in any of the three movies that came out recently?” Will Sliney is on the art duties for this go around with Kylo, and while he’s a change from Legacy of Vader artist Luke Ross, his style is fairly close to what was established in the previous series. Most impressive of Sliney’s work here is the way he depicts the classic Star Wars vehicle aesthetics, something that can be a challenge for even the best artists in the industry. However, some of Sliney’s character work, especially with Kylo himself, can look a little awkward at times, with uneven posing and the occasionally odd looking likenesses that come with the licensed comic territory. It feels like Sliney is at odds with what he wants the art to look like versus what it needs to look like to meet the expectations of Star Wars fans. The Fall of Kylo Ren likely isn’t going to have a broad appeal to those that aren’t Star Wars obsessives or burgeoning sequel apologists (it may seem too early to start acknowledging this, but it’s going to happen soon, trust me). But for those that have been following Soule’s work on Ben Solo and his struggles with the Dark Side, it’s another great piece of character work for the best character of the sequel trilogy, and shows there’s still potential for some great character work from this era of Star Wars. While it’s annoying to have another tie-in piece to present to people who complain about the lack of character work in a Star Wars trilogy, at least this one is off to a strong start. ‘Star Wars: The Fall of Kylo Ren’ #1 continues to connect the dotsStar Wars: The Fall of Kylo Ren #1While it contains the same great character work Soule has been known for in his work with the character, Fall of Kylo Ren #1 struggles to make a dramatic impact when we know the fates of the characters involved.Reader Rating0 Votes0Charles Soule continues to be able to mine a lot of interesting characters and dynamics from moments between films Serves as an excellent follow up to the Rise of Kylo Ren and Legacy of Vader series of recent years and as a jumping on point for new readers Soule's depictions of the various members of the First Order higher ranks and Ben Solo are all spot onWill Sliney is one of the few comic artists who can draw the various Star Wars vehicles with ease Since this takes place between The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker, a lot of the dramatic tension is already gone in this issue Sliney's art for our leads, especially Kylo, can look a little awkward as he tries to match the real life actor likenesses The big action battle takes place off panel Will probably make you even more annoyed at the numerous dropped narratives from Rise of Skywalker. 7.5GoodBuy NowAmazon