Thoughts: Rise of Kylo Ren by Charles Stoule, etc

Right, so just to get this out of the way, I am not a Kylo fangirl. He’s interesting in that way any villain is but I am not someone who loves him or tags him as my favorite character.

But this comic arc – wow guys. I recommend this if you’re a fan of canon or a fan of Kylo. It’s pretty great. For some more thoughts keep reading.

Rise of Kylo Ren (Comic Arc 2020) by Charles Stoule

TL;DR: Best Star Wars Comic story I’ve read yet – art and story were fantastic
Source: Purchased

The Thoughts:

• Initially my reaction to the artwork of this comic was ‘Ew’. It is a very stylized representation of the characters that matches the actors of the movie. You can clearly see the actor in the character, but they’re also not realistic. Yet, by the end of the first comic I was actually enjoying the artwork. The artist isn’t leaning on the actor’s appearances to make their job easier (my first thought), instead they are bringing that appearance in but only to augment and enhance an already fantastic style. The artist’s skill at fight scenes and movement is evident by the end of that first issue.
  

• The story itself was well structured, a few flash backs kept us up with who was who and why they were important. The story wasn’t weighed down by them and I felt the pacing was perfect for the four arc structure. I enjoyed the characters we were given, though I do wish we’d had more on just WHO were the Knights of Ren. This focuses almost entirely upon Kylo – the Knights were a step on his path.
• Naturally, being a Star Wars story, there were also profound moments of good writing. Things that had a message and at the same time were relevant to the character’s arcs here and moving forward. We saw a lot of foreshadowing of what would happen to Kylo. In how he lost people through the series and ultimately was lost.

• The moments of ‘Oh cool, what is that? Where is this?’ that you expect with a good Star Wars story were also there.

All in all I loved this little arc. I highly recommend this, and I don’t have much to criticize besides wishing for more of the Knights. If you are a Star Wars fan this is by far one of the better comics in the franchise I’ve read. Go pick this up.