To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Rogue One, Marvel and Lucasfilm have been launching a series of one-shots focused on the movie’s core characters. It’s an approach I genuinely love, since I consider Rogue One the best Star Wars prequel and one of the best Star Wars movies. It also means that you can get some great character-focused stories, like Star Wars: Rogue One – Jyn Erso #1. Picking up sometime before the events of Rogue One, Jyn Erso #1 finds herself serving out a life sentence in an Imperial prison camp on the planet Wobani. The “life sentence” part is a bit ironic, given that Wobani is a toxic wasteland, but salvation may lie in a group of prisoners who need Jyn’s slicing skills to break free.
The only problem is…Jyn doesn’t want to break free. Having become disillusioned with her father after he started working with the Empire to construct the Death Star, and feeling abandoned by Saw Gerrera’s Partisans, she’s more than willing to spend the rest of her days by herself. It’s this conflict that drives the main story, as Ethan Sacks peels away the layers of Jyn’s cynicism to reveal someone who’s been hurt by the world and sees closing herself off as the only way to save herself. While Rogue One featured Jyn going through a similar journey, Sacks plants the embers that will eventually blossom into the fire of rebellion that fuels her.
I also like that Sacks manages to consider past Star Wars projects while crafting Jyn Erso #1. Elements from Catalyst, the novel by James Luceno that delved into Galen Erso’s construction of the Death Star, and Rebel Rising, the novel by Beth Revis that covered Jyn’s teenage years, are displayed in the opening pages. It’s no easy feat to thread a needle through established canon, but Sacks more than succeeds. It’s no surprise if you’ve read his previous Star Wars comics, though. Sacks is arguably the only other writer apart from Charles Soule who can build on established canon and deliver a truly engaging story.
Marvel
Equally well crafted is Ramon Rosanas’ art. Rosanas has a gift for drawing imagery that visually resembles the actors who play certain characters, to the point where I wouldn’t be surprised if he had stills from Rogue One as references. Yet he can also depict actual movement, as shown in the sequence in which Jyn and her fellow prisoners make a break for it. The speeder they steal turns sharp corners with ease, as Stormtroopers’ blaster fire chews up the ground behind them. Blaster bolts tear through bodies like a knife through butter, sending them spasming and dropping to the ground. And the menacing Imperial security droids tower over everyone, reminding fans that fan-favorite K-2SO was lucky to be reprogrammed.
Finally, Guru-eFX shrouds the entire series in a dark hue that highlights how much of a crapsack world Wobani is. It’s perpetually cloudy; Jyn and her fellow inmates are chained up in pure darkness, and the only light comes from blaster bolts and the fiery furnace near where Jyn attempts to escape. If the goal was to be as depressing as possible, then mission accomplished!
Star Wars: Rogue One – Jyn Erso #1 offers a glimpse into what shaped Rogue One‘s title character and fits perfectly into canon. It also makes me look forward to the rest of the Rogue One comics, especially next month’s tale that focuses on Saw Gerrera.
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