– Spoiler Review –
The adventure of the month format allows for Marc Guggenhiem and Madibek Musabekov’s Jedi Knight series to go in unique directions and issue #3 is a delightful big swing of only splash pages and kaiju!
The story is rather light in Jedi Knights #3 and all readers need to know is spelt out in the opening crawl, yet it’s to the issue’s benefit as it doesn’t need much when there’s such a talented team bringing the story to visual life. Regardless, Marc Guggenhiem’s script still hits on characters like Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, as Qui-Gon’s actions and Obi-Wan’s report of it fit their dynamic well, while it was fun seeing a younger Bail Organa interacting with these two before their fates become so much more intertwined. I did miss a little movement on the overarching story, unless there’s something hidden here which won’t make sense until later, but it’s nice to have a series which can take its time, do something different and fun, and give us more time with favorite characters.
I’ve been singing the praises of Madibek Musabekov, with Luis Guerreri on colors and Clayton Cowles on lettering in the first two issues of Jedi Knights, but these fine folks become absolute madmen with this stellar showing of splash-only pages aka one panel per page! We’ve had kaiju in Star Wars before, from previous comics to the Zillo Beast in The Clone Wars/The Bad Batch, but what this art team achieves with the sense of scale makes those all look small in comparison. The way pages are adjusted and reframe what we’ve seen before is my favorite part of all of this, like how there’s a little Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon approaching Bail’s downed ship, which looks appropriately large crashed in the strange jungles of WG4587 yet only two pages later the ship looks as small as the two Jedi from an ariel perspective as a horde of the local kaiju (cleverly nicknamed Kaijura) stomp towards them it. And then only a few pages later, Qui-Gon overtakes the focus of a page, meditating with a hand outstretched which looks like it’s reaching through the page (no janky 3D glasses needed!), while Bail and Obi-Wan regard him in awe, as if it say Qui-Gon and his connection to the Force are as large a presence as the Kaijura as he helps lift the ship and get it going. Going only splash pages would’ve been fun regardless, but this aspect brings extra depth to the concept. I think these are all lovely pages, but I do a have a current favorite, the ninth. In it, our point-of-view basically puts us in the grass behind Qui-Gon, who does take up a considerable amount on the right side of the page, his back to us in the foreground, but the Kaijura looms large over him and the trees, which tower over him as well. The forest itself is both familiar yet strange, like the trees are knotty and twisted, likely to steel themselves from the passage of the Kaijura, while large mushroom-like fungus grows in hidden places, to avoid being crushed. The coloring of the Kaijura, vibrant yellow with a blue-ish mouth and stripes, shows how they are the top of the food chain on the planet if they don’t mind standing out like sore thumbs is more ways than just their size. Cowles’ lettering really makes this panel sing and bring it the scary feeling of a kaiju-heavy movie, as his word bubble for the Kaijura’s screech is what your eyes pull towards first, while the crackly sound FX for the trees cracking against the Kaijura’s movement are where we go next, their pattern leading us over to Qui-Gon’s word bubble, completing the journey down the scale of the page, making him seem small and powerless like the films this issue’s been inspired by. Every page is worth the time staring at and I could probably go on forever, but make sure and pick up a copy to enjoy it yourself!
Here are a few other things:
- The first issue of the new Star Wars (2025) series, which is set in the New Republic era, came out in early May. It didn’t prove my theory about Jedi Knights #2 baddie Atha Prime, BUT it also DIDN’T disprove it. Time will tell!
- And don’t forget, there was a Jedi Knights short story in May 3’s Free Comic Book Day 2025: Star Wars 1, which is available online now for free if you didn’t pick it up. The story features Qui-Gon Jinn, Tensu Run from Inquisitors, and a glimpse of why Corlis Rath has it out for Qui-Gon!!!
Jedi Knights #3 goes big in the best of ways thanks to a stellar showing from Musabekov and team!
+ Gorgeous splash pages which capture scale and the imagination
+ Almost didn’t even need any dialogue or narration
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him and the website on Bluesky.