2022 will rain “Hello there” from the sky, as yet another Obi-Wan Kenobi related piece of content has been announced: Obi-Wan, a 5-issue miniseries starting in May, which will cover different periods of his life, written by Christopher Cantwell with art by Ario Anindito (The High Republic). Also announced today was a tie-in novel to the upcoming mobile/Switch arena game Star Wars: Hunters, starring the game’s mysterious Rieve and written by Mark Oshiro. Both sound rather stellar so head below for more details and full covers!
Obi-Wan fans are being served on kyber platters in 2022! There’s the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi TV show with Ewan McGregor reprising the role, then two novels with Mike Chen’s Brotherhood, which focuses on a key moment for Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker, and Kierston White’s Padawan, diving into Obi-Wan’s time as a somewhat reckless student under Qui-Gon Jinn, and now Christopher Cantwell (Halt and Catch Fire co-creator, Doctor Doom, Iron Man) and Ario Anindito’s Obi-Wan for Marvel in May! If you’ve not been a fan of the character, sorry, it looks like 2022 isn’t the year for you. Maybe next year? Anyways, Obi-Wan takes place a few weeks before the start of A New Hope, with each issue featuring a story throughout his lifetime and we should expect to see characters like Yoda, Anakin, and Qui-Gon, as well as new ones. So why all the glimpses at his past? Cantwell said in the interview it’s basically Obi-Wan readying himself for a destiny he knows is coming:
“The frame story of the entire series takes place just weeks before A New Hope begins. So here’s Obi-Wan, waiting and sensing that things are about to drastically change. There is going to be some culmination of his destiny. And — just like what happens for us all when we face some of our greatest challenges — he is really wrestling with it internally. It’s this wrestling that is in fact causing him to reflect on his past. He’s searching for strength and wisdom he’s gained over his lifetime, wanting it to reinforce his readiness to face his fate.”
The framing story sounds like an excellent exploration of the character alone so it’ll be neat to see what Cantwell can do with these flashbacks that will inform on the character weeks away from his fateful encounter with his old student. According to Cantwell, Kenobi is, “…the Buddhist concept of kshanti — patience — personified. He is able to hold onto the glimmers of light amidst the cloak of darkness. Every issue thematically deals with his ability to do that as a person,” which I feel like is a rather fitting statement and it’ll be cool to see how each story deals with that theme. I’m really looking forward to Ario Anindito’s art however, as he’s become pretty legendary with his time on The High Republic comic, building and fleshing out the new era and bringing tons of emotions (frights, chills, and tears, to name a few) to the characters and their conflicts. I can’t wait to see what he’ll do with Obi-Wan of all eras, though with so little time spent with an older Obi-Wan, I’m most excited about seeing an Alec Guinness-esque Obi-Wan have some time in the sun(s) again. This one drops in May!
{This is the second new Marvel series announced with basically an all-male creative team and I shouldn’t be surprised anymore with Marvel, but it still hurts how far behind on diversity they can be when bringing new content}
The next bit of news was surprising, but sounds absolutely delightful in Mark Oshiro’s hands: Star Wars: Hunters: Battle for the Arena, a tie-in novel to the upcoming arena battle game on Switch, mobile platforms. Oshiro wrote a stellar short story about Wampas in From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back so I trust them to tell the story of another outcast, Rieve, one of the game’s playable characters. Battle for the Arena will, “…transport us to the world of Vespaara where newcomer Rieve, a Force-sensitive orphan from Corellia, is finding her footing as a Hunter in the Arena. But it’s not long before her past comes back to haunt her…” It already sounds intriguing on that alone, but what Oshiro says during the interview makes me even more excited:
“I love antagonistic people who have a reason for their antagonism. So I wanted her to be someone who, from another character’s point of view, might almost seem like a villain. As an orphan, she’s used to having to watch her own back, so one of her biggest flaws is her flat-out refusal to trust most people. It’s all part of her drive for self-preservation, but as you’ll see, it also does her a disservice.”
Rieve already sounds fascinating, and it feels like Oshiro is aiming to elevate the latest video game tie-in into something more, like Alexander Freed did with Battlefront: Twilight Company, especially when they reveal, “…it was so easy to slip into this character who has had to deal with feeling alone and abandoned. In particular, though, thanks to the suggestion and support of Lucasfilm, I got to write a character dealing with PTSD.” Not only are they bringing some personal stuff into Rieve from their queer, non-binary background, but they are focusing on telling a story about dealing with PTSD. Don’t judge this book by it’s colorful, game approved cover, there’s going to be so much more in the pages, even as a middle-grade novel! This one is out November 7.
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Twitter @MynockManor and Instagram @mynockmanor.