– Spoiler Review –
Before Jedi Knights heads into the big two-parter set to explore and resolve its connected storyline, issue #8 deviates for an interesting first-person point of view story that, while beautiful and makes you feel like you’re part of the story, has some unfortunate choices which hinder the enjoyment.
VR, aka Virtual Reality, gaming has only gotten better over time, with improvements in fidelity and more refined settings helping close the gap of immersion and overcome its penchant to give players motion sickness, but the technology hasn’t become the be-all-end-all promised land envisioned by its backers. A lot of it has to do with the barrier to entry being rather high, as the prices can range from the low thousands to $300-$500, depending if it’s hooked up to a PC, gaming system, or standalone, and that’s not even accounting for games and accessories to make the experience more comfortable (those VR treadmills look cool and would really help a lot of people, but that’s even more expensive!). And I’m not even accounting for who you have to pay for it, as the easiest and most accessible system, the Quest, means giving money to Meta, a company which supports and defends fascists. As much as readers might want to experience Star Wars in VR, so they really feel like they are part of the Galaxy Far, Far Away, it’s not always that attainable, but thankfully you can drive to your local comic shop and get the next best thing, which feels like VR to some extent without actually being it, and it’s all for less than $5 bucks! Jedi Knights #8’s conceit of showing its story with the young Jedi recruited by the Order from her point-of-view, first-person style, comes as close as you can get to experiencing what some of those VR experiences are like thanks to the always stunning work by artist Madibek Musabekov. This isn’t hyperbole, as while there are plenty of Star Wars games done in the FPS (First-Person Shooter) style, Musabekov’s work and Marc Guggenheim’s writing make this feel more like a VR experience. I’ve enjoyed a bunch of VR over the years (from Half-Life: Alyx, Resident Evil 4, to Superhot), and specifically Star Wars VR, from Trials on Tatooine first shown at Celebration Europe 2016 (and is available on Steam, last I checked), then playing games like Vader Immortal and the Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge series, and even stepping into the story in the most direct way possible with the Secrets of the Empire experience, so while I’m no expert, the staging of many of the panels and how the story unfolds is more similar to VR than a FPS game.
For the story, readers see it all unfold from young Soona’s point-of-view, a young Force sensitive given the option to join the Order since she’s a little older than normal. Of course, she decides to join, leaving some very supportive parents, but her journey back to Coruscant to start her training isn’t like most younglings. Intercepting a distress signal, Seera Longa and Berem Khana decide to help, as that’s what Jedi do, but things quickly get out of hand from there. It’s a neat idea, seeing a slightly older, though not quite Anakin-aged, as far as I could tell, join the Order, and how it might not always go as planned. Soona manages to escape the pirates that capture her thanks to the arrival of Kelleran Beq,* the same Jedi who saved Grogu from Order 66 as seen in The Mandalorian, and her own latent Force abilities, and the issue ends with her accepting a lightsaber as she begins her training, her future unknown and wide-open, hopefully something we’ll return to in a future storyline (as long as this series gets to continue, see below). However, the death of Seera and Berem sets a precedent this series won’t be able to do anything notable with Soona, as they both had little to no character development before being unceremoniously killed off. As fun as Jedi Knights has been, its lack of character development has grown increasingly apparent and this is such a stark reminder there’s been zero attempt to give these new characters any story, yet the ones we already know get the spotlight and continuing story and just so happen to be white male individuals (like Guggenheim is himself), while both Seera and Berem are people-of-color, one a marginalized gender to boot, and this just fends into the disappointing trend of dwindling diversity numbers and questions over the strength of the representation when there are less marginalized creatives behind the wheel of these stories, as I dissected two years ago. I’m sure the death of Seera and Berem was meant for shock, but it wasn’t shock because it’s so sudden and killing off characters is a edgy, big choice, it was shocking because it was so disappointing to see them cut down before anything meaningful was really done with them. Sure, Kelleran Beq shows up to save Soona, and she helps save herself, but given Kelleran’s already established and he doesn’t do much beyond help with the escape (he sure is nifty when kids need saving!), it doesn’t even come close to making up for what happened to Seera and Berem. As I said before, as much as I look forward to more of Soona Taj’s story, Jedi Knights hasn’t proven it’ll care that much about original characters besides Qui-Gon Jinn’s would-be assassin, a storyline which will preoccupy the next two issues of the series.
Much like how Madibek Musabekov’s ability to depict scale was vital for the splash-page kaiju bonanza of issue #3, scale is an important factor in getting this POV not only done right, but to make it feel immerse despite it being panels on a page before readers. It honestly all works because of the opening few pages, as they help establish a baseline for how this is all going to look and work. Consider the opening splash page, using a little lens trickery, the sort of warped telescopic view of Seera and Berem before Soona, with some of her city behind them, plus the rolling hills, clouds in the sky, and even a unique looking airship, it already makes your mind understand the shortness of the perspective we’re taking. Two pages later, the consistency of the background, a few of the buildings from earlier plus the hills, between two panels strengthens the sense of scale, and then we get our first look at Soona, as she glances down into a serene looking patch of water next to her, the reflection revealing her visage yet the way her hand hangs and we see her feet tells readers how short she is. Luis Guerrero’s colors are really tranquil, light purples and pinks for the grass and bushes, while the mostly gold and gleaming white buildings stand out in contrast to what’s around them, though they seem humble as the world around them. These bright and peaceful colors dissipate as Soona joins the Jedi on their ship, as while the view of hyperspace in the viewport is one to behold, there’s a darkness around them which doesn’t leave until much later in the story, when Soona calls Seera’s lightsaber to her and ignites it, the blue light shining a glow into the shadows on the pirate ship, and such brightness doesn’t leave the issue in its final few pages. The first close-up of the Togruta pirate who grabs Soona and knocks her out is a doozy of a panel, as Musabekov gets into the Halloween season spirit with the being’s scared and dirty headtails, Guerrero giving them faded coloring, while the big scar on the pirate’s face, leading to a wicked looking red eye, is a chilling sight, even if the dead bodies of Seera and Berem lay on the floor below. When Soona is freed by Kelleran and has to face the pirate again, the first time we see him stumble back into view, part of his head is doused in shadow but his red eye is still visible, sending a chill down the spine as he seems still so big and scary compared to poor little Soona, which is why her using the Force to throw him on the next page, as he shrinks again as her hands take up the majority of the panel, he’s not so scary afterall. Clayton Cowles’ lettering never feels too intrusive to the immersion, as not only do Soona’s pinkish narration boxes move us around well without compromising a scene, the sound FX do their best to sort of make it seem like something Soona’s hearing, not for show and tell like SFX would normally be for the reader. In lightsaber swings, the SFX is more in the blade’s swing or arc, rather than next to it as it is in most issues, though when Soona ignites the blade that’s a big moment that deserves a larger-than-life, so to speak, SFX for the sound. When Soona calls Seera’s blade to herself, Cowles aids the sense of it coming to her hand, as his narration boxes first point out she’s about to do something again with the Force, then highlights the blade in mid-air, followed by an SFX of the blade smacking into Soona’s hand, and then he pushes readers, hard, to flip to the next page, throwing the final narration of the page way on the bottom right corner, as if saying, ‘wait until you see what happens next,’ and Musabekov pays it off with the big splash of Soona igniting Seera’s blade.
Here are a few other things:
- I had my hopes up the NYCC 2025 Lucasfilm Publishing Panel would unveil the future of several current Marvel comics, like Jedi Knights and Doctor Aphra: Chaos Agent, but they weren’t able to share anything. This uncertainty makes it harder to get into these stories, especially for casual readers, and I wish they’d be more open about their plans. So at this point, Jedi Knights has its final issue out in December and we don’t know if it’ll continue, though our first hint could arrive this week when the January 2026 comic solicitations arrive, but even then, if a series doesn’t appear, it doesn’t mean it’s not coming back, so we still might not know.
- *While the NYCC publishing panel was disappointing in that aspect, we did learn about some new content on its way, including a pretty awesome one-shot comic that sees Guggenheim teaming up with…Ahmed Best?! Together, they are writing a one-shot comic titled Jar Jar #1, which will feature Jar Jar and Kelleran Beq (how meta is that?!) as they team up and become important to the start of the Rebellion, somehow, someway! Sounds like a wild good time and it’s out February 2026.
Jedi Knights #8 pulls off its central conceit thanks to Madibek Musabekov’s wonderful art, but the sudden deaths of Seera and Berem pry open well-worn wounds for the comics in general.
+ POV concept works so well, might as well be screenshots from a VR game!
+ The promise of Soona, if the series can (or gets to) live up to it
– Seera and Berem’s deaths expose lack of character development…
– …and is a stark reminder of systemic problems
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him and the website on Bluesky.
JEDI KNIGHTS REVIEWS
Vol. 1 “Guardians of the Republic”: #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 — Vol. 2: #6 | #7