Warning: Minor SPOILERS for Journey To Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker – Allegiance #1
Leia’s Resistance managed to survive the Battle of Crait, thanks to Luke Skywalker’s sacrifice. But now Star Wars has revealed the First Order’s brutal revenge for their escape–wiping an entire alien race from the universe.
The film itself cast serious doubt on the strength of the Resistance beyond Leia, Poe, and Rey, when the group holed up on the planet Crait and put out galaxy-wide calls for aid… with no response. Since then the task has fallen to Marvel’s Star Wars comics to show what happened after Last Jedi, and how the Resistance rebounded from the First Order’s attacks. But as the official Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is now under way, it’s hard to imagine more people and planets will be extending aid to the Resistance. Not now that the First Order has shown the price of defiance… is total annihilation.
The story comes courtesy of Marvel’s official preview of Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – Allegiance #1 from Ethan Sacks, Luke Ross, and Lee Loughridge. to this point most of the extended universe storytelling has focused on the heroes, like the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge novel that revealed Leia’s new Resistance sleeper cells scattered across the galaxy. But Allegiance #1 throws readers into a far more violent scene, showing how the First Order responds to being embarrassed…
While many fans felt that the death of the New Republic and the Hosnian System was given too small a role in The Force Awakens, the issue arrives on the ice planet of Tah’Nuhna before any tragedy befalls it. Readers are given their first looks at the sapient, worm-like beings that have created beautiful cities of volcanic glass for centuries, maintaining neutrality in almost every galactic dispute (apparently even Palpatine’s growing Empire never invaded the world). But no sooner is the world of philosophers, astronomers, and poets introduced… than the shadow of the First Order darkens their skies. Briefly.
Orbital bombardments from the First Order ships soon obliterate the Tah’Nuhnan surface and the people along with it, on the orders of General Hux. In an easy to predict raising of the stakes, it seems the First Order is now intent to not only kill those who side with the Resistance, but anyone who does not openly refuse to offer aid of any kind. Sadly, the message for aid launched by the Tah’Nuhna leader is received by the Resistance far too late. Not only have their cities been destroyed, but the entire planet–and quite possibly the entire alien race. The first to pay the price for the Resistance escaping the First Order’s clutches, driving their enemy to even more brutal methods.
The actual distress signal is received by the Resistance, as Lieutenant Kaydel Ko Connix (played in the new Star Wars trilogy by actress Billie Lourd, teal-life daughter of Carrie Fisher), Proving that the job of a communications officer isn’t always the least exciting assignment, Connix witnesses the annihilation of Tah’Nuhna. It is then revealed that Leia’s Resistance command has secretly set up operations on ‘The Garbage Planet of Anoat’ (unclear if that is explaining the planet’s use, or a criticism of what it offers to the larger galaxy).
When Connix informs Leia of what she has witnessed, it is C-3PO who helps to explain why a peaceful people have been effectively exterminated by the First Order. While they are famed for their neutrality, their fate was sealed when, in Threepio’s words, “they welcomed us when we needed supplies after our escape from Crait.” Communicating that the First Order is not only on a mission to turn the entire galaxy against the Resistance–no matter how many millions, or billions must die to make it happen–but have truly adopted the legacy of Palpatine’s planet-killing empire. Not just for political purposes, but as a “demonstration” of the price to be paid for anything but total submission.
Despite including the First Order’s new Supreme Leader in its cover art, this official preview for the Allegiance comic series doesn’t add a new chapter to Kylo Ren’s story, only that of his second in command. But given how much is expected to change between Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker, it’s possible that Kylo Ren’s new First Order mission occupies most of his attention. That is sure to be an ideal arrangement for General Hux, who is left free to exact brutal revenge on the First Order’s enemies. Or as the Tah’Nuhna show, anyone who could be seen as an even impartial ally to the Resistance. In just the first pages of the first issue, Allegiance has offered an unexpected set-up for the coming conclusion to the series. Fans can find the full solicitations details and credits for the issue below.
- JOURNEY TO STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER – ALLEGIANCE #1 (OF 4)
- Written by: Ethan Sacks
- Art by: Luke Ross
- Colors by: Lee Loughridge
- Cover Art by: Marco Checchetto
- BEFORE THE EXCITING EVENTS OF STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER! Hounded by the FIRST ORDER across the galaxy, the RESISTANCE is in dire need of ships, weapons and recruits to make a final stand against KYLO REN’S forces. Desperation drives a delegation led by GENERAL LEIA ORGANA and REY to entreat the Rebel veteran’s one-time allies, THE MON CALAMARI, to join the fight — but decades after Imperial occupation enslaved their planet, there are those willing to stop at nothing to prevent another war from bloodying the waters of Mon Cala. A system away, POE DAMERON and FINN have their own mission: to hunt down a weapons cache on the remote moon of Avedot, unaware that they are being hunted by the most notorious criminal gang in the galaxy.
Journey To Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker – Allegiance #1 will be available from your local comic book shop on October 9th, or direct from Marvel Comics.
