Marvel's Star Wars comics reveal the secret first meeting between Anakin Skywalker and Thrawn
Jan. 24, 2024Star Wars: Thrawn - Alliances #1 shows how the two villains first worked together
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The Star Wars galaxy is vast and the cast of supporting characters that has emerged in the spinoff books and comics is surely in the thousands by now. But one stands out more than almost any other:Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Before he made his on-screen live action debut, as played byLars Mikkelsenin last year’sAhsokaseries, the character was best known for a series of novels written by Timothy Zahn. Those books have since been retconned as “Legends”, but Thrawn was such a memorable character that he was eventually made a part of the modern canon in theStar Wars: Rebelsanimated series.
Spoilers ahead for Star Wars: Thrawn - Alliances #1
The first issue takes place across two distinct time periods. In the present - actually two years before the first Star Wars film,A New Hope- Thrawn is summoned to a meeting with the Emperor and Vader. Palpatine has sensed a disturbance in the Force on the planet Batuu and he wants Thrawn and Vader to work together in solving this potential problem.
Thrawn has been there before - as, it turns out, has Vader. In fact, the pair crossed paths at the time and even worked together, though Thrawn doesn’t yet know it. You see, at the time, Vader was still the Jedi known as Anakin Skywalker…
Their first encounter came about because of Padme Amidala. She’s been drawn to Batuu by a message from one of her allies, Duja. Alas, by the time she arrives on the planet Duja has been killed, but Padme discovers a hidden message on her body. It’s a recording that tells her of a Separatist factory on the planet Mokivj, which Padme immediately sets out to find.
This sends Anakin into a worried spin. He comes to Batuu searching for Padme, but instead encounters an alien spaceship piloted by one Commander Thrawn, officer of the Chiss Ascendancy. After some debate, the two join forces and head to Batuu - where they immediately run into trouble.
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Back in the present, Thrawn - now a Grand Admiral in the Imperial Navy - and Darth Vader return to Batuu and are forced to work together once more, this time taking on some violent aliens known as Darshi. That part of the issue ends on a cliffhanger with Thrawn and Vader engaging the aliens in a cantina-fight - though we can’t imagine the Darshi stand much of a chance against the combined might of the Dark Lord of the Sith and the Empire’s greatest strategist!
Star Wars: Thrawn #1 is published January 24 byMarvel Comics.
Like we said, there are loads of Star Wars comics created specifically for the comics. Here are10 of the best.
Will Salmon is the Comics Editor for GamesRadar/Newsarama. He has been writing about comics, film, TV, and music for more than 15 years, which is quite a long time if you stop and think about it. At Future he has previously launched scary movie magazine Horrorville, relaunched Comic Heroes, and has written for every issue of SFX magazine for over a decade. He sometimes feels very old, like Guy Pearce in Prometheus. His music writing has appeared in The Quietus, MOJO, Electronic Sound, Clash, and loads of other places and he runs the micro-label Modern Aviation, which puts out experimental music on cassette tape.
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