"Star Wars: Kanan: The Last Padawan"

 

                The following is a review of the graphic novel “Star Wars: Kanan: The Last Padawan” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

                Caleb Dume was a young boy when he was taken by the Jedi Order to prepare for his Initiate Trials on Coruscant. Jedi Master General Depa Billaba was injured in a fight with the Separatist Droid General Grievous and spent six months in a coma. She also lost ninety percent of the squad she was leading during that fight. She had just awoken and was welcomed back on the Jedi High Council. Caleb passed his Initiate Trials. He was eager to be chosen as a Padawan and fight in the Clone Wars, despite being extremely young. He was often called “kid,” a word that angered him. Gossip spread among the Jedi younglings about Billaba’s capabilities as a Jedi General. Caleb went to Billaba to discuss this with her. While they were talking, Rackham Sear, under the orders of Grievous, attacked the Jedi Temple of Coruscant. Caleb confronted Sear, and though Caleb survived the battle, Sear did not. After seeing Caleb in action, Billaba asked Caleb to be her Padawan. Caleb accepted Billaba’s offer. Caleb and Billaba, along with the Clones Commander Grey, Captain Styles, Sergeant Soot, Corporal Big-Mouth, Lieutenant Remo, Corporal Mixx, Corporal Kaylon, and several green Clone Troopers were shipped out to the planet Kardoa to fight in the Clone Wars. During Caleb’s first fight, he was shot by Droids and was rescued by a Clone Trooper who earned the name Stance. After his recovery, Caleb, Billaba and their unit were sent to the planet Mygeeto. They were attacked by Droids and were assisted by a Mandalorian named Fenn Rau. Stance was killed by Coburn Sear, Rackham Sear’s brother, and Caleb fought to avenge his friend. Billaba also had another showdown with General Grievous, but the Droid General managed to escape. Caleb, Billaba and their unit received their next orders to head to the planet Kaller.

                The planet Kaller was being disputed over by the Republic and the Separatists. After a battle between Billaba’s Unit and a unit of Droids, Separatist General Kleeve had his forces withdraw from Kaller. Caleb with displeased with the disrespect that Kaller’s Governor Gamut Key showed towards Billaba. The night after the battle, Commander Grey and the rest of the Clone Troopers received Order Sixty-Six from Emperor Palpatine, instructing the Clone Troopers to eliminate the Jedi. Billaba was able to help Caleb escape, but she herself was unable to. Caleb went into hiding in Plateau City and struggled to survive. He was discovered by a Kalleran named Janus Kasmir who provided him with food, clothes, and shelter for a night on his ship the Kasmiri. Caleb received a ping on the Jedi Emergency Signal. Believing it to be a summons to Coruscant, Caleb asked Kasmir to fly him there, but Kasmir refused. As Clone Troopers were about to search the Kasmiri for Caleb, Caleb stole the ship to fly to Coruscant himself. Along the way, he received a message from Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi warning any surviving Jedi to avoid Coruscant and avoid detection. Caleb returned in the Kasmiri to Kaller and went back to Kasmir, who turned Caleb away. Caleb remained in hiding on Kaller until one night he saw Kasmir being on the bad side of a negotiation with a thug named Tapusk and jumped in to help. Though initially angered, Kasmir recruited Caleb to help Kasmir steal a valuable shipment of IG-RM Droids. During their heist, they were caught by Gamut Key. Kasmir then turned on Caleb and sold Caleb out as a Jedi and allowed Caleb to be arrested so Kasmir could avoid arrest. Gamut Key contacted Commander Grey, who then planned to return to Kaller to execute Caleb. Before the Clones could arrive, Kasmir busted Caleb out of jail. Caleb and Kasmir then formed a partnership and Caleb became a smuggler. Caleb and Kasmir ran heists from planet to planet with the Clones always just a step behind. Kasmir arranged a trade for a ship. The contact was supposedly named “Jondo,” but it turned out to be a cover for General Kleeve. Kasmir was caught by Commander Grey. Caleb talked Kleeve into giving Caleb the ship, but before Caleb could escape, Caleb was caught by the Clones. Caleb managed to escape with the help of Kasmir and Kleeve, but Caleb ended their partnership, took the ship which he named the Escape, flew off on his own, and renamed himself Kanan Jarrus.

                Fourteen years later, Kanan and the crew of the Ghost, Hera Syndulla, Sabine Wren, Zeb Orrelios, Ezra Bridger, and Chopper went on a supply run to Kaller. Kanan claimed to have never been to Kaller. When the crew arrived, the contents of the crates they were supposed to be picking up were empty. They were caught by Gamut Key, who did not recognize Kanan. Gamut Key’s droids inspected the Ghost, then allowed them to go. The Ghost Crew split up to try to find the supplies, and Kanan went out on his own, hoping to avoid recognition. Kanan interrogated the locals and expected the theft of the supplies to be Janus Kasmir. Kanan found the thief, but to his surprise, it was not Kasmir. Though Kanan was able to take down the thief and his crew, Kanan was stabbed in the back.

                Kanan was put in a Bacta Tank in a Medcenter on Kaller to recover from his wound. The thief was able to lead the Imperial Stormtroopers to the Rebels’ location in the Medcenter. Though they fought, they were captured. All looked hopeless until Kanan woke up, busted out of the tank, and took down the Stormtroopers. Upon recovery, Kanan received a message from his old friend Morfizo of Moraga. Kanan, Ezra, and Gamut Key flew to Moraga to answer it, only to find from his wife Morfizia that Morfizo had been taken by the Empire to Lahn after joining a Rebel Cell. Kanan told Morfizia he would rescue Morfizo and that Gamut Key could set up Morfizo and his family on Kaller under new identities. Kanan and Ezra flew to Moraga in the Escape to rescue Morfizo. Kanan and Ezra separated, and Kanan was confronted by Vice Admiral Sloane, an old enemy of Kanan’s who was obsessed with learning Kanan’s history and could find nothing past Kanan arriving on Moraga. The two had a showdown, and Kanan escaped. Ezra returned to Kanan after being assisted by a random guy off the street.

                Okay, we’ve got the synopsis out of the way, now it’s time for my own personal input about this graphic novel. We’re going to start with my own personal feelings about this book. First off, I’m going to say that “Star Wars: Rebels” is actually my favorite “Star Wars” animated series, and Kanan Jarrus was my favorite character in this series, so when I first read the announcement that Marvel was releasing the “Kanan” series in a Modern Era Epic Collection, I was super excited. Reading the origin story of my favorite character from the show was something I was really looking forward to. And I will tell you, I was not disappointed. I thought this book was fantastic. I thought the stories were brilliantly written. The depiction of Caleb going from a child who romanticized the Clone Wars to actually fighting in them and realizing exactly what war was firsthand was written spot on. His cockiness getting himself shot on his first mission showed how immature he was, but over the course of the book, watching him struggling to survive on Kaller after Order Sixty-Six and falling in with Janus Kasmir, the reader can see his maturation from an idealistic child into someone practical. Viewing his partnership becoming a friendship with Kasmir was fascinating, just watching the rollercoaster ride they took together, and the payoff at the end of the book was perfect. I was also a huge fan of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” so this felt like I was kind of consuming a little bit of that while I was perusing through this book. General Grievous was one of my favorite adversaries from “The Clone Wars,” so I enjoyed reading a story with him. I enjoyed viewing all the bonds Caleb Dume made on his journey. I loved his hatred of being called “kid,” I actually know what that’s like, I hate when people call me “Timmy,” a nickname that comes up way too often in my life, so I identified with that. I enjoyed watching Caleb becoming Kanan Jarrus, I found his evolution to be interesting. And I loved the “Rebels” segments, they were enjoyable bits thrown in that made the story a little more entertaining. I will say that “Star Wars: The Bad Batch” deviated from Caleb’s escape scene slightly when they released the show on Disney+ several years later, so there was a little bit of a contradiction there, having already seen one version of this, but I actually found this version to be the superior one. I liked the structure of the book. I wrote this review chronologically, but in actuality, this book was written with the story of Caleb’s survival story after Order Sixty-Six being first and the story of Caleb’s first mission being second, with the “Rebels” stories being interspersed throughout the graphic novel. I thought this arrangement was actually perfect storytelling and worked better than if they had published it the way I narrated it, as it made the revelations more surprising. And since we’re talking about a graphic novel, of course we have to address the art. I found the artwork in this book to be excellent. It was consistently pleasing to me, and this book had three artists. Often a graphic novel having multiple artists runs a risk of displeasing me, there’s a chance one or more of the artists just might not appeal to me, sometimes even having just one artist can be a visual nightmare to me, but the three artists in this book had amazing art styles and I loved all of their work throughout the entire graphic novel. And as for the title, I absolutely loved it. I thought it was a prefect representation of the character and the book as a whole and completely adequate. All-in-all, I thought this book was spectacular and I enjoyed every second of reading it.

                Next up we’re going to talk about accessibility. To my regular readers who have been to this blog before, I know, I know, I’ve been over this at least six dozen times at this point, but I’m afraid that some people just went on X and searched for #StarWars or one of my other hashtags and found this review and my blog for the first time and have no idea what I mean when I say the word “accessibility,” so once again, I am compelled to explain myself. So my usage of the word “accessibility” is to explain if someone who knows nothing about “Star Wars” can pick up this book off the shelf of their local bookstore or library or friend or family member’s house and read this book and understand everything in this book despite having no prior knowledge on the subject. So, to answer the question on if this book is accessible, my answer is yes. I feel like a person who knows nothing about “Star Wars” can read this book without any problems understanding it. This felt perfectly standalone to me, and it didn’t feel like it required outside knowledge to understand this book. Of course, if you know “The Clone Wars” and “Rebels,” then you’ll have no problem understanding this book at all as this is a story inspired by both series, but I don’t feel like this is essential to reading this book. It felt completely self-explanatory in my opinion.

                Okay, now that I’ve been going on for a while, I feel like it’s finally time to get to the reason we’re extremely interested in: my numeric score. I’d say it’s the main reason we’re here, but some of you may just be here to know about the story itself rather than hear my opinion, but my opinion is very essential to this post as well, and I’m sure you’re interested in knowing exactly how good I thought this book was. So, when I do reviews, I score on a scale of one to ten, on exact integers. One is my lowest score, and that means that this is one of the worst things I have ever read in my entire life and that every copy of this book should be taken off the shelves and destroyed, then never reprinted. If, however, I give the book a ten, that’s obviously my best score, and that means that this is one of the best things I have ever read in my entire life and every copy should be bought off the shelves and be in the possession of anyone with an interest in “Star Wars.” Now a ten is reserved for a book that is perfection, and that is a score I very rarely give out since I have a very strict definition of perfection. So, at this point, you’re probably now very piqued in knowing if I considered this particular book to be perfection. So, let’s take a quick tally of what this book has going for it: I loved the stories; I thought the artwork was spectacular; I thought the structure was brilliant; I thought the title was spot on. So yes, these are all very promising factors. And yet, somehow, I don’t think this book is perfection. I can’t quite put my finger exactly on what it is, but for some reason, I just can’t bring myself to give this book a ten. However, I do feel that this book was still excellent, and it was very close to perfection, so I think that scoring this book at a nine is appropriate. I really would love to give this book a ten, but there’s just something holding me back from doing that, and as much as I hate that, when I score a book, I have to go with what my heart says, and my heart says that this book isn’t perfect, so therefore I am compelled to give this book a score of a ten.

                Next up on our to-do list is my recommendation. Now this comes in two parts. The first part is if I give this book the Tim Cubbin seal of approval and would tell you, my readers, or anyone I feel like talking to about this book, if it’s worth reading. The second part is, regardless of if it gets my personal recommendation or not, to whom do I think this book should be read by? Now, I’m sure the first part is pretty obvious, but I still have to say it anyway. Yes, I do personally recommend this book. If you are reading this review and are interested in reading this book based solely on what I’ve been typing for the past four hours and you’ve been reading for the past however many minutes it’s taking you to read this, I say you should go to your local bookstore, library, favorite retailer, online store, or find a friend or family member with this book and get your hands on it and read it as soon as you possibly can. I thought this book was incredible and I feel like you should be reading it. To be more precise on who should be reading this, I think that anyone who is a fan of “Star Wars: Rebels” should make every effort to obtain a copy of this book, this is the perfect companion to the series. If you’re just a “Star Wars” fan in general, this is still an excellent read for you and would be a great way to interest you in “Rebels.” If you’ve never seen “Rebels” but have seen “The Clone Wars,” this is a great addition to the storyline. And, of course, if you like the character Kanan Jarrus, you have no reason not to read this, this is an intriguing origin story and should be totally welcome to your collection.

                Okay, I think we’re getting close to being done. I do have a few things to say before I go. First of all, I’ve been doing this blog for almost five years now and have now done 170 posts. There is plenty of content on this blog, including short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials, as well as over six dozen other reviews like this one, so keep checking timcubbin.blogspot.com for more posts, I’m sure you’ll find something else you’ll like. If you want more “Star Wars” reviews, you can search for “Star Wars: Skywalker Strikes,” “Star Wars: Darth Vader: Shadows and Secrets,” and “Star Wars: Yoda’s Secret War,” I think you might find those interesting if you have the time. My next “Star Wars” post will be “Star Wars: Darth Vader: Vader Down,” that should be uploaded by December 2025, so keep an eye out for that if you are reading this review before that date, and if that date has already passed, feel free to search for that one as well. I can tell you that I post on a very frequent basis. I am a die-hard Marvel fan and every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection that is published finds its way into my possession shortly after its release, and I try to post a review of it as soon as I possibly can after reading it. I have written a review of almost every Modern Era Epic Collection with the exception of four volumes, three of which I obtained when I was settling into my new life and didn’t have a laptop and one that I read but didn’t get the chance to review right away and by the time I could sit down and write a review, my knowledge of the book was too inadequate to write a proper review, so I skipped it at the time, but there’s a good chance that one will come up again, but the first three are discontinued series and the chance of me rereading them is not as likely as that, but never say never. I will keep doing this blog for as long as I can, so there’s a good prospect of that being a long time from today’s date. I have another Modern Era Epic Collection already in my possession, “Miles Morales: Spider-Man: Spider-Man No More,” you can expect a review of that coming up in the next eight days, so if you’re interested in that, keep checking for it. I guess that’s really all that needs to be said for now, so I’m going to log off with just a few more words: Tim Cubbin… out!