Marvel has published some great Star Wars comics over the past few years, but their track record hasn’t been so swell when it comes to adaptations of existing stories. Both The Force Awakens and Rogue One were rendered lifeless and inert in comic book form. The twist with Marvel’s latest Star Wars adaptation, however, is that it draws from a novel rather than a film. That gives writer Jody Houser and artist Luke Ross far more material to work with and immediately yields stronger results.
Star Wars: Thrawn is an adaptation of Timothy Zahn’s 2017 novel, which provided the definitive, Lucasfilm Story Group-approved version of Grand Admiral Thrawn’s origin story. Either the novel or this comic are ideal for fan of Star Wars Rebels who want to learn a little more about the strategic mastermind who’s become such a thorn in the side of the growing Rebel Alliance. Houser and Ross don’t stray far from the source material in this first issue, covering the novel’s opening chapters in truncated form and often directly reusing pieces of Zahn’s text.