Comics With Kenobi #14

It’s been awhile, but not as long as the wait for Episode VIII is going to be.

Still, it was worth it, given co-hosts Matt Moore and Jeff McGee dive into the comics released since our last issue back in January. (Has it really been almost a month?) and also examine the final sales estimates for comics in 2015, as compiled by John Jackson Miller at his Comichron website.

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The big winner? Star Wars. Every single Star Wars comic released in 2015 charted. Nearly all of the first issues were in the top 25, led by Star Wars #1, which reported orders of 1,073,027, or nearly twice that of the second best-selling comic, Secret Wars #1.

The remaining Star Wars comics in the Top 25 included:

6) Vader Down #1
7) Darth Vader #1
10) Princess Leia #1
16) Star Wars #2
17) Star Wars #4
18) Shattered Empire #1
21) Star Wars: Lando #1

Other Star Wars comics number ones included Chewbacca at 56 and Kanan at 70.

Speaking of Kanan, issue #10 (just two more issues to go until it comes to an end) sees Caleb Dume, the Clone Troopers and Master Billaba draw inexorably closer to the showdown with General Grevious and, of course, a resolution on Kaller with the Rebels team that Kanan is leading. The issue, written by Greg Weisman and illustrated by Pepe Larraz also stands out for its introduction of a new character in its pages who also appeared in the current season of the Rebels TV show.

Star Wars #15 is a luxurious tapestry, with Jason Aaron scripting another tale of Ben Kenobi on Tatooine, as he watches over the young Luke Skywalker.

From here on out, any such story focused on Ben during his time on the desert world will now be referred worldwide as “an #ObiOneShot.” So as it is written, so let it be done.

But what truly makes this issue shine is the compelling and richly textured illustrations by Mike Mayhew, he who brought Dark Horse Comics‘ oft-mentioned and still flat-out amazing The Star Wars to life back in 2013. His work here captures the thrill of Luke as a boy, the earnestness of Obi-Wan and the stubbornness of Owen Lars.

Finally, we examine, in detail, the first two issues of Obi-Wan & Anakin, the Charles Soule-written and Marco Checchetto-illustrated five-issue mini-series that’s set between the events of The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones (Psst! Wanna know a secret? It’s a slow burn, but totally worth it, given it’s very precise look at what we think are Anakin’s first, tentative steps to the Dark Side.