Details
- Writer: Charles Soule
- Artist: Willie Sliney
- Publisher: Marvel Comics
- No. Of issues: 4
- Publication year: 2019
The narrative
Ben Solo is the son of Leia and Han Solo and is being trained by Luke Skywalker, but something happens to him that shifts his destiny from light to dark…
So, I’ve started reading Star Wars books already a while ago and subsequently also began reading some of their comic books, but then only their legends comics. Now I decided to give a spin on the wheel and decided to give ‘The Rise of Kylo Ren‘ a try – the first canon comic book of Star Wars I will read. So sit back and enjoy some emo vibes, because we’re going to discuss the legendary Kylo Ren.
Starting off, this comic has only four issues, which makes it relatively short, but the pacing was good – not too fast nor too slow. It starts after the Jedi Temple is destroyed and we see Ben Solo being really devastated from what he has done – he certainly has regret and this comes to me of as a person who is really misunderstood and doesn’t want to be bad, but due to Skywalker’s actions he is driven to pursue that side.
This gives of certainly INFP vibes, but a disturbed one at that. He is in a Fi-Si loop, meaning that he is hyper-focused on his own identity and that he is haunted by his family’s legacy – he wants to be the person he wants to be, not what his legacy expects him to be. Besides this he clearly has an inability to look forward, to see how he could be that someone else, he remains fixated on his history, making him very melancholic. He masks his Ben by becoming Kylo and turning to the dark side, but essentially he is just changing one cage for the other. However I expected more information about why he is haunted by his legacy, in the end. I know why, because what his legacy entails is a set of impossible archetypes, but I would have loved it to be explored a bit more.
The rest of the characters where good and a bit developed, but I understand this was Kylo Ren’s time to shine and it was clearly from his point of view. My favorite moment however was the construction of his lightsaber and the way he did it (I am saying this without spoiling it.). Lastly, the absence of the titular name made the whole process more symbolic, especially in the last panel.
The Visuals
The art was really well done. Sliney used a bit of a realistic touch on the characters, highlighting every minute detail of for example Ben’s face. His linework is very sharp, the coloring is done very nicely (digitally) and there are some nice splash pages, like the one underneath. There were some nicely made places, like the artificial planet where Snoke resides.
Final verdict
All in all, The Rise of Kylo Ren is a good comic book. It’s isn’t anything over the top, world-changing and/or action-heavy what you would find in the older Dark Horse comics. No, instead of that it’s more character-driven (while still relying on action for most of the time) and that’s totally fine. I recommend this comic to Star Wars fans, especially ones who want a bit of deeper insight into Ben Solo as a character. I give this comic: 3.5/5 ⭐️.
What did you think of this comic? Please let me know below:
Thanks for reading and see you in the next one!
Yours,
Rein
TAZÍ 
Leave a comment