Star Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren

Obi-Wan Kenobi: For over a thousand generations the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic.

Me: And in all that time they apparently learned nothing of psychology or psychotherapy.

This relatively brief comic series manages to pack quite a bit into its story arc, filling in the blanks from the night of the confrontation between Luke and Ben at the Jedi temple, to Ben becoming the leader of the Knights of Ren. And it explains what the heck a "Knight of Ren" is, something the movies never did.

Definitely worth reading if you care about the final Star Wars trilogy and the character of Ben Solo.

I don't like the "Disney is ruining Star Wars" arguments, but they could've done so much better than this. Luke Skywalker's Jedi Academy and Ben Solo's fall should've been something big, not just crammed away into a comic most people won't read. They could've made this into a new animated show, have Mark Hamill and Adam Driver come do voice over work for it, and turn it into a big thing. Instead, it's a let down that doesn't show much. It's only 4 issues. Ben Solo deserved better than this.

The fact that Disney and the Lucasfilm Story Group threw away a potential gold mine by discarding a show for a comic is highly disappointing, and doesn't bode well for future stories told during the sequel era.

Exploring the origins of one of the newer and arguably more fascinating characters in the Star Wars Saga, The Rise of Kylo Ren is on par with some of the better Darth Vader comics but falls hard at some points. The character of Ben Solo himself is very compelling, and you truly get to understand his feelings as he turned from the Jedi and into the arms of Supreme Leader Snoke. What happens after that however, is where the plot begins to fall apart until the final issue. We finally get the origins of the Knights of Ren, and part of me wishes that would have just been left a mystery, its a complete let down along with the characterization of the knights themselves. The action in the series however is quite impressive, and Will Sliney show more truly pulls out all the stops in the artwork for the final issue. I wouldn't say it started with a bang and ended on a whimper, more like a series of bangs and whimpers varying in tone and pitch. For the curious fan, this will at least give answers, but for new fans, I wouldn't recommend unless Kylo Ren was truly their favorite character, show less

This isn't Charles Soule's fault. There's just not a lot from the final trilogy that he's really able to flesh out, leaving Snoke and the Knights of Ren as shallow as much of Abrams' movies.

I would very much like this to be adapted cause WOW.

My review of this book can be found on my YouTube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/HIG2e2ccgcI

Enjoy!