Obi-Wan #5 continues with his early memories filling in the time when he was a Jedi Master to his days as a hermit on Tatooine! The cover by Phil Noto has a desert stormtrooper on his Dewback looking down at Obi-Wan with his lightsaber. “Ben” is written by Christopher Cantwell with pencils by new artist for the series, Adriana Melo. The artist had actually worked on the Star Wars: Empire title by Dark Horse. It is night at Obi-Wan’s hut as the sandstorm that swept through the earlier issues passes in the distance. Close-up of Obi-Wan contemplating in the night sky. Great likeness of Alec Guinness by Melo. This shifts to an Imperial outpost where stormtroopers have found a wall breached by what one trooper thinks is Tusken Raiders. JM-909 reports to his commander who orders a squad to find the stolen rations and kill the clan.
He wonders if the action will bring other Tusken Raiders to attack them. The commander wants the order followed and he also has contempt for Dewbacks. A trio of Dewbacks lead the squad out in the morning. Obi-Wan, at night, readies his Eopie, Akkani for a trip to get power cells and supplies from the Jawas. He travels into the Jundland Wastes and in closeup we see his lightsaber, he hasn’t buried it yet like in the Kenobi show. The following pages are laid out in landscape panels that spread across two pages, very cinematic. We see the stormtrooper squad traveling the desert, three on Dewbacks, and twelve troopers on foot. This moves from distant dark shapes, to medium shot and then a closeup. They talk rumors of the Sand People as they march. JM-909 with the orange pauldron says the Tusken Raiders survive just they would out in the desert which makes them dangerous. A wise stormtrooper!
They are on a canyon above the Sand People, JM-909 calls out what he sees; six raiders, a sentry, and two Massifs, a reptillian, dog-like creature. He also sees four of the containers and he lays out the attack strategy. All this for four ration barrels? The stormtroopers get into position, JM-909 blasts the Massifs, and then a sentry. Three accurate blasts at the neck and torso. Obi-Wan said to Luke that Imperial Stormtrooprs are “precise.” Still, the Tusken Raider sentry is only a scarecrow. The squad realizes that they are decoys and several troopers are blasted by several Tusken Raiders in the canyon above! Um, Tusken Raiders use Tusken Cycler rifles, projectile weapons called slug throwers, not blasters. I don’t know if this is mistake, Sand People favor their own weapons even if they may have taken blaster rifles from the stormtrooper depot. An unfortunate stormtrooper gets a blast to the top of his helmet! Again, Obi-Wan in Star Wars (1977) said the blast points were “too accurate for Sand People.” Are they even Tusken Raiders? Others are taken down by gaderffii.
JM-909 holds out his arm to a Tusken Raider who brings down his gaderffii. Obi-Wan has heard the battle and sees the Sand People walk with their banthas and carrying blaster rifles. He takes a power cell from a dead Stormtrooper. I think Obi-Wan would honor the dead and pay expensive fees from Jawas. He says that the containers are empty and that the Tusken Raiders were only trying to draw in Stormtroopers to take their weapons! This is not Sand People behavior, are they Super Tusken Raiders? Their bodies makes him think of the clone troopers under his command. Then, he hears the groans of JM-909. He takes off his helmet and puts him on the back of his Eopie. Obi-Wan thinks to himself that saving lives is a Jedi’s purpose. JM-909 revives, falls off of the Eopie, and tries to run, but falls. He revives again, sees the lightsaber hilt, then hysterically says, “Sorcerer devil!”
Then, he drops unconscious again. Obi-Wan manages to drag him to Akkani. Morning, we see Obi-Wan’s hut and the trooper is sleeping. When he wakes, Obi-Wan gives him the classic greeting, you can almost hear Ewan McGregor’s voice. Obi-Wan informs JM-909 that he was out for three days. The scenario is like the Lone Ranger, John Reid was the only survivor hence the name Lone Ranger, there are other rangers. He is found and tended to by Tonto. The trooper eyes his lightsaber which is in a stand right in the open because that’s a way to hide that he is a Jedi. He snatches the lightsaber and activates it, the problem here is one, how does he know how to do so? JM-909 has not seen a lightsaber and then he holds it out. Why non-Jedi can’t use lightsabers is that there is no weight, the beam is just energy, so a non-Jedi would be startled and most likely slice off an arm. This issue of Obi-Wan reveals how he came across his new name, it has a good story with some minor flaws, but also some impressive comic book artwork.
Four Lightsabers out of Five!
#StarWarsObiWan, #Ben, #ChristopherCantwell, #AdrianaMelo, #PhilNoto, #JM909
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