Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Marc Guggenheim
Artist: Madibek Musabekov
Color Artist: Luis Guerrero
Release Date: 5th March 2025

Initially announced at the 2024 New York Comic Con, Marc Guggenheim’s narrative for issue one of Star Wars: Jedi Knights certainly does a decent job of showing its audience just how “the guardians of peace and justice” went about their work prior to George Lucas’ 1999 movie The Phantom Menace. Indeed, during a month when rivals DC Comics published the top six best-selling titles (at least according to “icv2.com”), the fact that this ongoing series managed to rank twenty-seventh is arguably a testament to just how excited collectors possibly were for the Emmy Award-winning screenwriter’s vision of “a galaxy far, far away…”

Delightfully, these hopes certainly appear to be met with ‘The Invasion Of Syrinx Prime’, which quite cleverly manages to depict both the sheer scope of Supreme Chancellor Valorum’s democratic rule across the Republic, as well as simultaneously spotlight a fair few fan-favourite Jedi Knights too. This combination of Galactic Senate politics and light-sabre battles is quite beautifully intertwined within the American author’s narrative – especially once an assassination attempt is made upon Qui-Gon Jinn whilst he’s negotiating with General Lafco on the planet Vekura.

In addition, this twenty-four page periodical lives up to its pre-publication promise of introducing some brand-new Jedi into the era. Whether or not the overconfident Berem Khana will prove as popular as the likes of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda and Mace Windu is rather doubtful. But the recently-knighted character certainly seems to show potential with his mix of youthful arrogance and apparent willingness to learn from his more experienced mentors. In fact, the somewhat cynical young man rather surprisingly brings some much-needed humour to the narrative when he appears to ‘win’ favour with the Jedi Order’s legendary leader by simply quoting something Jinn had actually said to him in admonishment; “Suspicion is not knowledge. Theories are not truth.”

Also helping to make this book a success is rising star artist Madibek Musabekov, who appears absolutely determined to cram as many recognisable Jedi Knights onto the page as they can. Furthermore, the Kazakhstan-born penciller appears particularly adept at drawing the fast-paced action needed to depict a fully mature member of the Order who is at the height of their powers, with Qui-Gon’s aforementioned fight demonstrating just what the impressive Master of the Force can do with both his light-sabre and other special abilities.

The writer of this piece was: Simon Moore
Simon Tweets from @Blaxkleric ‏
You can read more of his reviews at The Brown Bag