The Rise of Kylo Ren: Chapter Three
What is it ? : Ben arrives at the meeting point with the Knights of Ren, and Ren complains he took his time, to which Ben tells him he killed a Jedi which should prove he is good enough to join, but Ren wants to know the quality of the kill so demands that Ben tell him about the Jedi, which Ben reluctantly agrees to do.
He tells them of Voe, a female Jedi Student who found things didn't come to her as easily as they did to Ben, so was jealous, a not very Jedi feeling.
He tells them of Hennix who instead thought of the force as a puzzle.
And finally he tells them of Tai, who know Ben was locking something away and tried to convince him that he wasn't as bad a person as he believed.
He tells Ren how the students caught up with him at the temple and he fought them, knocking Voe off a cliff and catching her with the force to stop her falling to her death, but Hennix saw her fall and threw his lightsaber at Ben, who instinctively threw it back with the Force killing Hennix. He then forced the other two into the temple and collapsed the entrance trapping them inside.
Ren agrees he killed a Jedi, but doesn't like it because he didn't want to do it, but takes him on because he's been recommended by Snoke, and Ben changes into a new darker outfit to uphold the reputation of the Knights of Ren.
Meanwhile at the temple, Voe and Tai use the force to escape from the temple, and they bury Hennix before deciding to find Ben as Tai thinks he's lost. . . .
High Points : It's pretty interesting to see that Ben really isn't falling to the Dark Side so much as sliding slowly into it. During his fight he causes Voe to fall, but catches her with the Force holding her from falling to her death, and it is only because he is concentrating on this, and Hennis throws his lightsaber that Ben pushes it away accidentally killing Hennix. He's killed a fellow student, but not because he wanted to kill one, in fact he was actively trying to protect one of them.
The comic really is trying to make us empathise with Ben far more, he's a troubled child who has had Snoke whispering into his mind throughout his life, and he reacts badly to the other Jedi students, but he isn't actively trying to kill them, or at least isn't yet.
Low Points : So, the Knights of Ren not only know who Snoke is, but also are actively taking recruitment information from him, and tell Ben this, who still doesn't wonder anything about the connection between Snoke and the Knights of Ren? And later Snoke tries to kill the Knights of Ren to get Ben/Kylo to join him? The timeline is very confused.
So what do you really think ? : The issue is fine, the framing element of Ben telling Ren about his fellow students and how he came to kill one is well done, forming a connection to these students and Ben so we can see that Voe is Bens competitor constantly trying to outdo him, and failing. Hennix is analytical and dispassionate with little emotional connection to Ben. And Tai really is emotionally connected to Ben, analysing him and reaching out to him, but intruding into his feelings in a way that Ben (probably under the guidance of Snoke) rejects and doesn't want. We then get a fight which is a bit of a comedy of errors, leading to the death of Hennix which Ben tries to sell to Ren as an act worthy of joining the Knights of Ren, but he only gets in because of Snokes recommendation, so even fails in this task on his own.
Final Words : After the interesting ideas introduced last issue they're almost all forgotten, although we still get Ben not totally acting Dark Side yet. He's still grudgingly following Snoke's instructions, he doesn't want to kill his old friends, he is only doing this under guidance. Star Wars comics often don't have faith in the interesting storylines they introduce and back away to far more conventional ones, but I've never seen one throw away one which has the potential to totally reframe and enhance the Sequel trilogy for something far less interesting, like the current, Ben is acting evil but isn't really evil . . . yet.
Score : 7/10
Comments made about this Article!
There are currently no comments for this article, be the first to post in the form below
