Star Wars: Kanan - The Last Padawan #6

Star Wars: Kanan (Single Issues)

by Greg Weisman, Pepe Larraz (Cover Art), Jacopo Camagni (Artist)

A tale from the time of Rebels! No longer a Padawan, the adult Kanan finds himself back on the planet Kaller. Will his past as Caleb Dume return to haunt him?

Genres: Star Wars, Comics, Science Fiction, Comic Book, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Graphic Novels Comics

22 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 23, 2015

About the author

Greg Weisman (BA Stanford, MPW U.S.C.) has been a storyteller all his life. His first professional work was as an Editor for DC Comics, where he also wrote Captain Atom.

Greg worked at Walt Disney Television Animation from 1989 through 1996. In 1991, Greg created and developed a new series for Disney: GARGOYLES, becoming Supervising Producer and Supervising Story Editor of that series.

In 1998, Greg became a full-time Freelancer. He wrote the new Gargoyles and Gargoyles: Bad Guys comic books for SLG Publishing, while producing, writing, story editing and voice acting for Sony’s The Spectacular Spider-Man. He then moved over to Warner Bros., where he produced, story edited, wrote and voice acted on the new series, Young Justice, as well as writing the companion Young Justice monthly comic book for DC.

Greg was a writer and Executive Producer on the first season of Star Wars Rebels for Lucasfilm and Disney, and he’s also writing the spin-off comic Star Wars Kanan: The Last Padawan. His first novel, Rain of the Ghosts, was published in 2013; its sequel, Spirits of Ash and Foam, arrived in bookstores in 2014.

Reviews

[Dimitris Papastergiou · Rating 3 out of 5]

New chapter with an adult Kanan.

And we're off to a good start, great issue, summarizing what happened, Kanan remembering the good and mostly bad ol'days. His Master Jedi, his enemies, his friends and all that, regretting/and not, that he came back to this planet with his team, not telling anyone what happened there back then and how he was running from everyone. It was good. I liked it, a refreshing issue with some progress happening and promising new problems for Kanan and his buddies in the end.

Artwork is still solid and the coloring is great!

I think it's safe to say that after the main Star Wars series, I enjoy this title more than any other Star Wars title, Darth Vader or Princess Leia are not even close to Kanan's Volume 1 story.

[Nicholas Dehler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bringing Kanan back to Kaller after a significant timeskip is cool, and once again there are solid twists and turns here

[Steven Shinder · Rating 3 out of 5]

This issue acts as an epilogue for The Last Padawan arc. Greg Weisman also describes it as a bridge between The Last Padawan and First Blood. Both of these seem fairly accurate. The Ghost crew arrives on Kaller for a supply run for the refugees of Tarkintown. From this, it sounds as though the supply run takes place after the summer special "The Siege of Lothal." Fulcrom even gets a mention. This would place the story fifteen years after Order 66. A couple of mentions of it having been fourteen years since Jarrus was on Kaller makes it sound as though the story in The Last Padawan flashback lasted a year, which I found odd because I assumed that it had only been several weeks. When the Ghost crew arrives on Kaller, the crates are empty and their ship is inspected by Imperial Gamut Key, whom Kanan met in the flashback arc. The crew splits up to search for the supplies, which Kanan finds in Kasmir's old base, now run by Tapusk. It is rather dumb for him to blurt out names. He gets in a fight and wins despite getting a blade in the back of his left shoulder. Key arrives and reveals that he wants to oppose the Empire, so he becomes an ally. A bit later, Kanan passes out, but I am confused as to whether it is due to the blade being poisoned or due to the sight of his own blood, which clearly sets the stage for the First Blood arc. It seems like a weird way to end the issue seeing as how we will see Rebels season two real soon and we will not be wondering whether or not Kanan awakens from this. I also felt that the eyes of a couple of characters seemed too cartoon-ish. A bit of a confusing issue, but not bad.

[Solace Winter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was missing something, or else I'm having trouble with the art itself. I think some of the aliens all look too much alike in this one that I have no clue who he is talking to most of the time. I know the NAMES but the faces are too similar.

[Shainna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really liked how Master Billaba's presence is still felt in this installment since I was disappointed Order 66 came so early in this series.

[Chris Conley · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's entertaining but felt a little jumbled.

[Charisma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let me preface this by saying that I am 10 books behind my reading plan and I got this graphic novel collection from a show that I love that contains multiple "books" within it so am I cheating by counting each of those as a book? Probably. Will I count the entire collection as a book as well? Yup! Do I care? Nope. I loved these graphic novels and you want to know how else I will be "cheating"? I am going to be copy pasting this book into each of the review sections of the books and I will do it proudly and loudly.

I loved the show Star Wars Rebels and I wanted to read these comics since I found out that they existed which was when I was in ninth grade...I am going into senior year now so when I finally got this I was, needless to say, excited. And they did not disappoint and not that many people will read this review but that doesn't matter, not that many people watched Star Wars Rebels so it fits. I know that just like that show popularity didn't matter to them, quality did and I can appreciate that.

It had so many nods to the show but didn't rely on it, it made its own lore (which I love about the Star Wars universe). The art style wasn't AMAZING but it had a handful of panels that were stunning and I was impressed by this aspect of the comics. I liked it, and it brought me back to when this show first came out in 2014 and how I was always so interested in finding out about the WONDERFUL character Kanan Jarrus. I'm getting teary-eyed now and anyone who watched the show knows why...I am about to cry. I'm ending this review here, I need time to collect myself...like a loser.

[Elwin Kline · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I liked it." - 3 out of 5 star rating.

Very strong 3 star comic here, with the ones to the left of this being 2.5'ish level, with generous round ups. This one on the other hand was really on the cusp of being a 4.

I really like the full circle the author has done here, connecting the dots between Kanan's juvenile days to the present moment within the comic in his later years.

The biggest reason why I didn't give this a 4 is the cliff hanger at the end of the comic was too much of an abrupt drop. Just needed a little bit more there to really have the reader on the edge by their fingertips. What we got instead, was more like an unexpected Spartan kick to the back and you suddenly realize you were falling before understanding what's happening.

I'm sure it'll all make sense and come together in #7. Can't wait to find out one way or another.

[Norrin Shearer · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was cool to see Weisman take a crack at the ghost crew as we know them in Rebels. This issue felt like a nice bridge between the previous arc and the one to come. The Ghost crew felt pretty true to themselves, I enjoyed this quite a bit.

[Jay Gabler · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s just hard to get over that terrible haircut.

[M Pereira · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sense of post traumatic stress is tangible, uncomfortable to read, even. Very powerfully conveyed.

[Liv · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great visit to the past. Also good to show how Kanan has grown as a character.

[Sophie Terrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was more filler like last episode but I enjoyed the look into how this affects the adult kanan. Looking forward to reading more

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kanan returns to the planet Kaller as an adult with his team of rebels. Its supposed to be a milk run to pick up some supplies, but when the goods are missing, Kanan is forced to confront his past to reclaim the missing crates,

Kudos to Weisman for using the story to call back to the previous issues, but still making it feel like an episode of Rebels. Sure, the other characters are kind of sidelined in favor of Kanan, but it IS his book. Nice to see the adult Kanan facing some of the same people he did as a kid and having to handle the situations differently.

I also enjoyed the artwork in the issue, Somewhat cartoony in places, but it kept the feel of the series well and made some improvements on a few of the characters.

Honestly, this was a pleasant surprise. I was expecting a much more bland story.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series has interesting moments, but it hasn't kept my attention. But I'm determined to catch up on my Star Wars comic book backlog. The last issue wrapped up the arc well enough. And left a nice cliffhanger to start the next. Very pulp-fiction-y.