Star Wars Book Club: Kanan and Duel of the Fates

In the time since the last proper Star Wars book club feature the franchise has changed dramatically. The Mandalorian proved to be much different than many people were expecting but still lots of fun, Resistance has come and gone, The Clone Wars has returned for a final season, and Rise of Skywalker got a lot of peoples panties in a bunch. While I've managed to watch and enjoy the majority of this content, I've largely neglected the written word wing of the series. That is until discounted reading material fell into my lap and a certain alternative script for Episode IX leaked online. Suddenly I've been thrust back into that galaxy far far away. With all this content at my fingertips why not revive the old book club feature with a double review of Star Wars: Kanan from Marvel Comics and the script for Duel of the Fates from those guys that brought us the dreadful Jurassic World films.

Kanan

Back when I made a point of keeping up with SW novels I still had a general rule of not getting sucked into the stuff coming from Marvel Comics. Not for any deep reason mind you, I adore Marvel, but simply because I could barely keep up with the traditional books. Adding comics to the mix would have been impossible at the time which means this complete hardcover collection of Kanan marks my first venture into this wing of modern continuity.

As you might expect given the title, this comic centers on Kanan Jarrus of Rebels and New Dawn fame with the focus on flashbacks to his time as a Padawan and his survival of Order 66. Fans of the show will get to see his Rebels crewmates in the framing scenes just don't expect much from them save for the final issue. This is about a budding Jedi and his strange master. Even at that this is very smooth and breezy entertainment, not dense emotional reading which is largely why it succeeds.

If I recall correctly this series was originally meant to be only 5 or 6 issues before receiving an extension. This shows in rough transition from the first story into the second with the flashbacks from the second arc being earlier in continuity than the first. Essentially it’s an ouroboros of a story but maybe that will make for a stronger reread later on.

While the framing device concerns a basic Rebels mission that returns to a planet from Kanan’s past the main action is in his past. For the first arc we see a little of his time in during the clone wars learning under master Depa Billaba. He’s got some clonetrooper buddies and a good relationship with his master due to their shared questioning nature. Depa is one of those characters you can see in the margins of the films and she even had some appearances back in the Dark Horse Comics. As for her personality here I wish she’d gotten more attention overall as she seems like one of the few Jedi with half a brain.

As I’m trying to avoid spoilers I won’t mention the particulars of how Kanan is seperated from his teacher but the remainder of that first arc concerns his introduction to the world of smugglers and criminals that shapes his identity moving forward. It’s well-balenced tale concerning his personal struggles alongside some fun interaction with different underhanded types.

The second arc moves back to how Kanan originally met his master to be and became her Padawan. While it benefits from more Depa it isn’t as memorable a story to the point that I’m blanking on a few details.

The writing from Greg Weisman is very snappy with some excellent interplay between characters and speedy pacing. As someone with a fairly passing familiarity with the title character I found myself caring more about him during these adventures than I have in the past. Seeing as Weisman has a background with animated shows it makes sense that he knows how to keep things straightforward without becoming boring. What helps immensely is the killer artwork Pepe Larraz. This guy knows how to make a killer pretty comic book. Every page is gorgeous and cinematic with just the right touch of cartoon aesthetic. Thankfully he’s the artist for nearly the entire run with only two issues featuring fill-in artists. One of them does a decent job of keeping the look consistent, the other is sadly too rough, kinda like a rough sketch with less interesting panel work.

So yeah this was the most fun I’ve had reading anything Star Wars in quite some time. There’s nothing all that surprising or vital about the story but it’s just solid, attractive comic goodness. In a way it’s much like The Mandalorian in how it exists as a fun adventure that doesn’t overreach or outstay its welcome. It’s a very short read as well but if you come across an inexpensive copy I’d definitely advise picking it up. Thing was good enough to get me considering more of the Marvel material. God, just when I think I’m out they pull me back in.

So let's chat about this Duel of the Fates thing. When this original script for episode IX by Colin Trevorrow and Drek Connoly first leaked to the net everybody started talking about how much better it would have been than what we got. Before even getting into a review let me firmly establish that is not true. Rise of Skywalker may have a wealth of issues but this thing is a goddamn dumpster fire of the first order… see what I did there?

Reading this script makes it very clear why these original writers still got some credit for the finished film as the two projects share a lot of the same beats only to achieve far different results. Take for example how in each story Kylo Ren obtains a device on Mustafar that leads him to an elderly Sith master on another planet. In the films case it is Palpatine on Exegol who marks the main conflict of the story. In this script is is some asshole we’ve never met before on a planet called Remnicore in a sub-plot that lasts like two scenes. There are countless other similarities such as rebelling stormtroopers, force-sucking powers, a fake-out character death, the wasted potential of the Knights of Ren. Yet the script manages to make even worse twists and turns as events unfold. When retelling the plot to my brother I initially forgot the revelation of Rey’s name simply because it was such a none moment.

Character placement and development make little to no sense. General Hux really wants to wield the force, a practice that leads to him commiting suicide with Mace Windau’s lightsaber. Poe and Rey have an awful romantic sub-plot that goes nowhere. Maz Kinata isn’t even mentioned. Everyone is seperated more often than they were during Last Jedi. And then there’s our force users. Kylo Ren barely interacts with anyone and isn’t a threat. Sure he has an evil scheme but it amounts to nothing as if the whole universe would have been better off ignoring him. As for Rey, yikes… these guys can’t write a woman. The developments they’re most interested in for Rey are her new tighter costume, fancy new lightsaber, and her assuredly more mature body, it’s a little creepy honestly. They even take the Falcon away from her, and people say Abrams was feeding negative fanboys. The final duel has no actiual reason to happen and resolves with decision from Kylo that had no build-up.

Even worse than the bonkers characterization and atrocious dialog (no one is no one) is the simple fact that this doesn’t even feel like an ending to this trilogy, let alone the primary saga. The key conflict pretty much amounts to restoring cell phone service while Rey tries to stop Kylo from reaching a fan-service planet. There’s less happening than in the film and yet there’s somehow less action and character development too. Lea is reduced to being kind of cowardly and apparently nothing changed for Lando who I believe is in two scenes total.

While doing my best to avoid major spoilers about the film I can probably sum up the scripts lackluster nature with one vehicle. Much like the movie there are super-powered Star Destroyers in this script. While the ones in the movie are convenient to say the least the audience is given enough information to make up their own origin. In this script there is only one such ship. It’s title is the Finalizer, actual spelling. Hux has it, it suddenly appears, has no point of origin, and despite being capable blowing up planets it finds ships much harder to deal with. Rather than have this thing appear as a sign of how desperate the conflict is they simply use it as a set piece where our heroes fly through chunks of exploded planet and shout quips at each-other. Probably not the best way to showcase a deadly tragedy but that's just how these gents operate.

For as awful as this script may be I honestly encourage anyone who can track it down to give it a read. Being entertainingly bad in a text format is a tough feat to pull off. With all the rubbish descriptions, putrid dialogue, and silly ideas there’s bound to be something that will give you the giggles. God, did I even mention when R2 plays a clip montage from the old movies? That shit totally happens. Lucasfilm made a smart move in canning this project and thankfully this script will linger as a relic of the weaker ending we could have been stuck with.

Thus marks my slight return to the realm of Star Wars written material. Actually I've got another post of two's worth of content to cover in this field but for now this will have to do. It's nice to find something like Kanan that provides solid entertainment alongside the likes of this dreadful script as it showcases all the folds and permutations of a franchise in flux. An announcement for a new wave of High Republic content focusing on the era 200 years before Phantom Menace come out recently. I'm curious to see what can be done once the pool of writers are allowed more freedom to craft stories without dancing around current movies. That's a topic for another night however. Right now it's Saturday night and I need me some horror movies. Ta.