We all love Grand Admiral Thrawn and to celebrate this love Marvel is releasing ‘Star Wars: Thrawn’ #1 tomorrow as a Valentine’s Day gift to us all! The six-issue limited series is being written by Jody Houser with art handled by Luke Ross and is an adaptation of Timothy Zahn’s ‘Thrawn’ novel that tells the origin story of the most tactical alien in the “Star Wars” franchise. Any alien who can climb the ranks of the Empire is impressive in itself and to rise to the esteemed position of Grand Admiral shows precisely how brilliant the character is.
While initially introduced in “Legends,” Thrawn was recently brought back into canon through ‘Star Wars Rebels‘ and has been a thorn in the side of the alliance. However, until Zahn’s most recent novel, which is also canon, we’ve never known much about this brilliant tactician’s past. Fans who wanted to see more from the books or who haven’t had time to read them are going to love picking these comics up for a quick summary.
Houser previously worked on adapting ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story‘ and her editor Heather Antos got in touch about tackling this once she’d finished it.
Adapting a movie into a comic is a bit different than tackling a book though:
“The main difference is really the medium that I’m pulling from. Film tends to hew a little closer to comics than prose, as the two are very visual-focused. I also have more experience adapting from the screen (I did work on MAX RIDE, also for Marvel, but that was a much looser adaptation). Working from prose is a unique challenge.”
While the Thrawn we know from “Legends” and ‘Star Wars Rebels’ has Thrawn as an outright villain, this book takes place before much of that occurs. We’ll see him in a different environment than we’re used to but still with the same calculating intellect which makes him so fascinating:
“The interesting thing is that Thrawn is much less of a villain in this novel than in any of his previous appearances. He’s a brilliant and collected tactician who is faced with bigotry and ego that makes little logical sense to him. Probably the most thrilling part is getting to work with a character I’ve been a fan of since I was a kid.”
As to what Houser feels is the most significant selling point of the Grand Admiral with fans?
“Thrawn stands apart from the other Star Wars villains (and most other villains in general) because he doesn’t act for his own benefit. He’s smart, and his plans are always fascinating and satisfying to follow. I’ve described him as what happens when a Ravenclaw goes bad. And it’s refreshing to read about an incredibly competent character, even when they’re on the wrong side.”
While we tend to see his plans failing or falling just short in ‘Star Wars Rebels’ it is clear that Thrawn is playing a long game and I’m dying to see how it plays out in the final season of the series. I suspect that if not all of the Jedi end up making it, he’ll have some part to play in that happening.
Honestly, ‘Star Wars: Thrawn’ #1 is the first issue I’m reading from my pull list tomorrow. I’m behind on the “Star Wars” novels and haven’t had a chance to read this one, and while I still will, this will help satisfy my need to know more about one of my favorite characters!
Is ‘Star Wars: Thrawn’ #1 on your pull list? Did you have a chance to read the novel and are excited to see the comic form take shape? Share your thoughts below!
Source: Marvel