Thrawn the Graphic Novel

So I recently did a thing. I didn’t realize the thing I was doing at the time cause I thought it was something else but then I found out it was actually the thing and I did it. Or something…

Let’s back up a minute. So a while back I ran across some comics on ComiXology for Thrawn. Essentially, I was able to read the first two comics of the series and that was about it at the time. And then recently, I found that the full series had become available. Of course, I had to read them all. Mind you, this is a short run of only 5 comics or so.

And I realize, if you don’t know anything about the larger Star Wars Universe, you probably have no idea who Grand Admiral Thrawn is. So I will back up some more again.

See, where it all began was in the follow up trilogy that has never actually happened. This is the series where the Empire is in tatters because of the death of the Emperor and the destruction of the second Death Star. And we have a new villain that is trying to rebuild the Empire. Hence Grand Admiral Thrawn. He is a blue skinned alien with red eyes. And he rose to the highest rank in the Empire’s military, something an alien like him should never have been able to do.

Now I am not going to go into the details of those books (that have now officially never happened). It isn’t where my focus is right now and the bad blood that will surface is not something I am willing to jump into right now.

So anyway…

Those stories never happened. But the creator of Thrawn (Timothy Zane) was given an opportunity to bring him into the histories of the current universe. And he began it with the story of Thrawn’s rise to power. I count it as a win because of who we are talking about. This is probably one of my favorite military leaders in all of the books.

Which brings us back to the original point. I didn’t realize when I first started reading the Thrawn comics that these were actually the comic adaptation of the origin story of the Grand Admiral. And I say right now, the comics are a fantastic read. They add a new dimension to a character I personally already thought was great.

But you see, I hadn’t read the book yet. I have started it now though. I may do some thoughts on the book once I finish it but for now I am focused mostly on the comic.

Probably one of my favorite parts of this storyline is how it all ties in with other parts of the story. There are moments in here where we see how he got to be in certain parts of the universe. Or in this case, how his ship ended up in the Lothal sector.

At first I couldn’t figure out why Lothal sounded familiar or why it might be important. I soon remembered that this sector is pretty much all the area where the animated series Rebels plays out.

And for me, Rebels was the one thing that Disney had done right when they took over the franchise. Why couldn’t they have kept going in that vein or maybe more like Rogue One. Instead we were given this abomination of movies that I remain disappointed in.

Yeah, I said I wasn’t going to go there…

But that is one of the more difficult things to deal with when it comes to something as polarizing as the new Star Wars. How do we reconcile the bits we fall in love with, against the stuff that does little more than make us miserable? I don’t really have an answer for that.

Anyway, this is a series I enjoy and find a welcome edition to the greater world that I grew up with. It is worth your time to check it out.

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