Canon Comic Review: Thrawn (#1-6) Miniseries

– Spoiler Review –

It’s par for the course the films get comic adaptations, but it was downright surprising when this adaptation of the first Thrawn novel from Timothy Zahn was announced. Jody Houser was given the unenviable task of squeezing a novel into six comic issues, and while the shortcomings are what you’d imagine, her barebones version of the plot still hits the right beats, though it’s hard to argue for picking this adaptation up unless you’re a true Grand Admiral Thrawn completionist/fan.

In my review of the novel Thrawn, I felt like Star Wars Rebels‘ Arihnda Pryce stole the show from the titular character, as her rise through the Empire’s ranks was much harder and more surprising (as you can tell, I’m a bit of a fan), Eli Vanto, Thrawn’s reluctant aide, became far more interesting as the novel went on and his ending left me wanting more, but Thrawn’s own rise through the Empire was full of predictability and no real thrills, even if his overall goals were intriguing. Since then, my feelings for the novel lean even more heavily towards the Pryce sections, Thrawn’s uncertain fate after the end of Star Wars Rebels leaves way more exciting questions, while Zahn has released a superior novel in the sequel, Thrawn: Alliances, so it makes it feel even stranger to be reading the adaptation of the original, decent novel when there’s been so many new, interesting things happening with the character.

Over the course of 6 issues, Houser manages to expertly convey the story of Thrawn in its broadest of strokes, retaining its overall tone and feel. This was a tough job, and I certainly couldn’t do any better, but Houser really makes it work it in the end, though due to the medium she’s working with and the original source material’s medium, a lot of the nuance and build-up to events are completely lost. The cliff notes version of Thrawn still makes for an entertaining tale, but the aspects of the novel I felt were good are put on fast-forward, which has the unfortunate habit of highlight the story’s weaknesses, with Thrawn coming off as even more perfect than he did in the novel. Arihnda Pryce’s excellent rise through Coruscant, and selling her world in the process for her own advancement, gets a full issue (#3) to itself, but it’s too broad to make her ascension any better than Thrawn’s near-flawless one through the military, robbing the scene-stealer of her scene-stealing. The whole mystery surrounding who Thrawn’s nemesis, a freedom fighter named Nightswan, really is get resolved and forgotten in seconds with the reveal given no real importance, though not like it was too exciting in the novel in the first place. Eli Vanto’s training under Thrawn might be the only storyline that retains its original feel and once again I’m left dying to know what he’s up to in the Chiss Ascendancy.

The art team consists of Luke Ross on artist duties with Nolan Woodard as colorist, and they stuck closer to their work in the Maul miniseries so I quite liked the overall work. They didn’t default Eli Vanto to white, helping to display, beyond being from the edge of Wild Space, his sense of otherness to the rest of the Imperials; Thrawn looked chilling, with his sense of calm apparent in all panels, with plenty of fans were understandably drooling over messy hair Thrawn from issue #1; Pryce’s wardrobe was stellar, as was how close to the Rebels animation they got her; ditto goes to all the characters who’ve been seen before in animation or film, as the team kept the style but gave it a minor twist of there own, and it worked really well here; getting to see certain parts not just in my imagination was great, including Thrawn with Buzz Droids and the Chiss ship that picks up Eli at the end.

I really do commend Houser for her work on the Thrawn adaptation, but I’d chalk up this miniseries’ failures more on the original work, and moving it to the comic medium, than anything on her part. Already not the most exciting novel, Thrawn as a comic retains that lack of excitement, and the titular character’s inability to be wrong is even harder to deal with. If you’ve read the book, I could understand checking out the adaptation just to see some of its story brought to life through the artist’s work, but I don’t think that’s a good enough reason to bother with this. If you didn’t want to read the first Thrawn novel to get ready for Thrawn: Alliances, because you’re excited for more Padmé content and had to read it, well, the sequel stands on its own so you could skip this, but it’s a much faster way of getting caught up in case you still felt like you needed too. For those fans who eat up Thrawn content like the Great Sarlacc Pit of Carkoon, then you probably already have all the issues and are waiting to buy the trade edition so nothing I say here will change your mind.

For letterers, Clayton Cowles covered the entire series, with Travis Lanham assisting for issue #4. Heather Antos was the lead Editor through the first 4 issues, with Jordan D. White in a Supervising role, but since those two left Marvel Star Wars this year (with Antos leaving Marvel overall), the new editors starting joining in issue #4, with Tom Groneman and Emily Newcomen as Assistant Editors and Mark Paniccia taking over as Editor. I’m glad Antos got to lead this one for a while, not her first either, and I hope we’ll see her again one day, somehow, someway.

Here are a few other things:

Jody Houser’s recent original work in Poe Dameron Annual #2 has me even more excited for her role with the upcoming Age of Republic miniseries, and I can’t wait to see what else she gets to do with Star Wars comics, but lets give her a break from adaptations (she also wrote Rogue One‘s).
The cover for issue #4, which features Thrawn standing behind Tarkin, the blueprints of the Death Star as their background, is being used for the cover the trade and it seems like a terrible choice, as it almost implies Tarkin is more important to the Thrawn miniseries than Thrawn himself. To the average fan or GFFA newcomer, maybe they’ll buy it because it has a more recognizable character on it, but it’s misleading and just feels like a terrible choice in my book.

I was never terribly sure how well adapting a novel to comic form would go, but making it a 6-issue miniseries probably wasn’t enough to make the project really work, as Thrawn as a comic makes a solid book far less so.

+ Pryce’s rise gets a whole issue to itself (even if it’s not enough)
+ Vanto story feels the same at least/art decision with his character

– Shortened, cliff notes version of story highlights its problems
– Thrawn is too perfect
– What little nuance was there is lost
– Pryce steals less scenes

Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.

RELATED REVIEWS:
Thrawn (Novel) | Thrawn: Alliances (Novel) | Star Wars Rebels: Season Three | Season Four

Canon Comic Review: Thrawn (#1-6) Miniseries

+ Pryce’s rise gets a whole issue to itself (even if it’s not enough)

+ Vanto story feels the same at least/art decision with his character

– Shortened, cliff notes version of story highlights its problems

– Thrawn is too perfect

– What little nuance was there is lost

– Pryce steals less scenes

Check out the rest of our Canon Comic Reviews here!

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